Cryosphere glossary
the advance of a freezing front upwards from the permafrost table during annual freezing of the active layer.
pack ice in which the floes are tightly packed but not frozen together, with very little, if any, sea water visible; ice cover practically 10/10th.
a measure of a fluids resistance to flow; can be thought of as a measure of fluid friction.
the greatest distance that prominent objects can be seen and identified by unaided, normal eyes.
the ratio of the volume of the water and ice in a sample to the volume of the whole sample, expressed as a fraction (or, less commonly, as a percentage).
the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit volume of a substance by one degree.
the amount of heat required to melt all the ice (or freeze all the pore water) in a unit volume of soil or rock.
at a given level in the atmosphere, any low that is generally characterized by warmer air near its center than around its periphery; the opposite of a cold low.
the dark appearance of the underside of a cloud layer when it is over a surface of open water; it is darker than land sky.
water substance in vapor (gaseous) form; one of the most important of all constituents of the atmosphere.