Cryosphere
The cryosphere is the part of the Earth’s surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets, and frozen ground (which includes permafrost). It often overlaps with the hydrosphere, the water on, under and over the surface of the Earth. The cryosphere is an important part of the global climate system. It influences surface energy, clouds, precipitation, hydrology, and the way both air and water move about in the atmosphere and oceans. The cryosphere is important to understanding how the climate of Earth works and how it affects global climate. The word cyrosphere comes from the Greek word cryo meaning "cold" or "to cold".
Cryosphere Media
Overview of the cryosphere and its larger components
The cryosphere (bottom left) is one of five components of the climate system. The others are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere.: Script error: The function "hyphen2dash" does not exist. 
Representation of glaciers on a topographic map
The Taschachferner glacier in the Ötztal Alps in Austria. The mountain to the left is the Wildspitze (3.768 m), second highest in Austria. To the right is an area with open crevasses where the glacier flows over a kind of large cliff.
Broken pieces of Arctic sea ice with a snow cover
Satellite image of sea ice forming near St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea
Snow drifts forming around downwind obstructions
2023 projections of how much the Greenland ice sheet may shrink from its present extent by the year 2300 under the worst possible climate change scenario (upper half) and of how much faster its remaining ice will be flowing in that case (lower half)
