Editing Cryosphere (section)

=== Snow cover decrease ===
[[File:Duration of the yearly snow cover ring-width reconstruction together with modelled record for the Alps.webp|thumb|upright=1.35|Shrinkage of snow cover duration in the [[Alps]], starting ca. end of the 19th century, highlighting [[climate change adaptation]] needs<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carrer |first1=Marco |last2=Dibona |first2=Raffaella |last3=Prendin |first3=Angela Luisa |last4=Brunetti |first4=Michele |title=Recent waning snowpack in the Alps is unprecedented in the last six centuries |journal=Nature Climate Change |date=February 2023 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=155–160 |doi=10.1038/s41558-022-01575-3 |bibcode=2023NatCC..13..155C |language=en |issn=1758-6798|doi-access=free|hdl=11577/3477269 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>]]
Studies in 2021 found that Northern Hemisphere snow cover has been decreasing since 1978, along with snow depth.<ref name=":AR6">{{Cite journal |last1=Fox-Kemper |first1=B. |last2=Hewitt |first2=H.T. |author2-link=Helene Hewitt |last3=Xiao |first3=C. |last4=Aðalgeirsdóttir |first4=G. |last5=Drijfhout |first5=S.S. |last6=Edwards |first6=T.L. |last7=Golledge |first7=N.R. |last8=Hemer |first8=M. |last9=Kopp |first9=R.E. |last10=Krinner |first10=G. |last11=Mix |first11=A. |date=2021 |editor-last=Masson-Delmotte |editor-first=V. |editor2-last=Zhai |editor2-first=P. |editor3-last=Pirani |editor3-first=A. |editor4-last=Connors |editor4-first=S.L. |editor5-last=Péan |editor5-first=C. |editor6-last=Berger |editor6-first=S. |editor7-last=Caud |editor7-first=N. |editor8-last=Chen |editor8-first=Y. |editor9-last=Goldfarb |editor9-first=L. |title=Ocean, Cryosphere and Sea Level Change |url=https://www.vliz.be/imisdocs/publications/84/371584.pdf |journal=Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change |publisher=Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA |volume=2021 |pages=1283–1285 |bibcode=<!-- not 2021AGUFM.U13B..09F --> |doi=10.1017/9781009157896.011 |isbn=9781009157896}}</ref> [[Paleoclimatology|Paleoclimate]] observations show that such changes are unprecedented over the last millennia in Western North America.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pederson |first1=Gregory T. |last2=Gray |first2=Stephen T. |last3=Woodhouse |first3=Connie A. |author-link3=Connie Woodhouse |last4=Betancourt |first4=Julio L. |last5=Fagre |first5=Daniel B. |last6=Littell |first6=Jeremy S. |last7=Watson |first7=Emma |last8=Luckman |first8=Brian H. |last9=Graumlich |first9=Lisa J. |date=2011-07-15 |title=The Unusual Nature of Recent Snowpack Declines in the North American Cordillera |url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1201570 |journal=Science |language=en |volume=333 |issue=6040 |pages=332–335 |bibcode=2011Sci...333..332P |doi=10.1126/science.1201570 |issn=0036-8075 |pmid=21659569 |s2cid=29486298}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Belmecheri |first1=Soumaya |last2=Babst |first2=Flurin |last3=Wahl |first3=Eugene R. |last4=Stahle |first4=David W. |last5=Trouet |first5=Valerie |date=2016 |title=Multi-century evaluation of Sierra Nevada snowpack |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2809 |journal=Nature Climate Change |language=en |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=2–3 |bibcode=2016NatCC...6....2B |doi=10.1038/nclimate2809 |issn=1758-6798}}</ref><ref name=":AR6" />

[[North America]]n winter snow cover increased during the 20th century,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Ross D. |last2=Goodison |first2=Barry E. |last3=Brown |first3=Ross D. |last4=Goodison |first4=Barry E. |date=1996-06-01 |title=Interannual Variability in Reconstructed Canadian Snow Cover, 1915–1992 |journal=Journal of Climate |language=EN |volume=9 |issue=6 |pages=1299–1318 |bibcode=1996JCli....9.1299B |doi=10.1175/1520-0442(1996)009<1299:ivircs>2.0.co;2 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hughes |first1=M. G. |title=Proceedings of the Annual Meeting - Eastern Snow Conference |last2=Frei |first2=A. |last3=Robinson |first3=D.A. |date=1996 |publisher=Eastern Snow Conference |isbn=9780920081181 |location=Williamsburg, Virginia |pages=21–31 |language=en |chapter=Historical analysis of North American snow cover extent: merging satellite and station-derived snow cover observations |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PassAQAAMAAJ}}</ref> largely in response to an increase in precipitation.<ref name="groisman94">Groisman, P. Ya, and D. R. Easterling, 1994: Variability and trends of total precipitation and snowfall over the United States and Canada. J. Climate, 7, 184–205.</ref>

Because of its close relationship with hemispheric air temperature, snow cover is an important indicator of climate change.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}

Global warming is expected to result in major changes to the partitioning of snow and rainfall, and to the timing of snowmelt, which will have important implications for water use and management.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} These changes also involve potentially important decadal and longer time-scale [[feedback]]s to the climate system through temporal and spatial changes in [[soil moisture]] and runoff to the [[ocean]]s.(Walsh 1995). Freshwater fluxes from the snow cover into the marine environment may be important, as the total flux is probably of the same magnitude as desalinated ridging and rubble areas of sea ice.<ref name="prinsenberg">Prinsenberg, S. J. 1988: Ice-cover and ice-ridge contributions to the freshwater contents of Hudson Bay and Foxe Basin. Arctic, 41, 6–11.</ref> In addition, there is an associated pulse of precipitated pollutants which accumulate over the Arctic winter in snowfall and are released into the ocean upon [[ablation]] of the [[sea ice]].{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}