China, July 3: A recent study shows that earth’s cryosphere (frozen water-areas on earth) shrinking by about 87,000 sq km (roughly the size of Lake Superior) per year on average, between 1979 and 2016. The cryosphere retains almost three-quarters of the earth’s fresh water. It plays an important role in cooling our planet as its white surface reflects the sunlight. So it is a sensitive climate indicator. This is for the first time the entire frozen water area in our earth was studied over a period of time. The shrinking mostly occurred in the Northern Hemisphere, with a loss of about 1,02,000 sq km each year. This loss was compensated by growth in the Southern Hemisphere, where the cryosphere expansion was about14,000 sq km. This growth happened in the sea ice of the Ross Sea around Antarctica due to wind and ocean currents and the addition of cold meltwater from the Antarctic ice sheets. So this study will be useful to probe the impact of climate change.
News inputs from Gurmehar.
Credits: Xiaoqing Peng / Lanzhou University