Editing Cryosphere (section)

=== Thermal properties of cryospheric elements ===
The [[Heat|thermal]] properties of cryospheric elements also have important climatic consequences.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} Snow and ice have much lower thermal diffusivities than [[air]]. [[Thermal diffusivity]] is a measure of the speed at which temperature waves can penetrate a substance. Snow and ice are many [[orders of magnitude]] less efficient at diffusing heat than air. Snow cover insulates the ground surface, and sea ice insulates the underlying ocean, decoupling the surface-atmosphere interface with respect to both heat and moisture fluxes. The flux of moisture from a water surface is eliminated by even a thin skin of ice, whereas the flux of heat through thin ice continues to be substantial until it attains a thickness in excess of 30 to 40&nbsp;cm. However, even a small amount of snow on top of the ice will dramatically reduce the heat flux and slow down the rate of ice growth. The insulating effect of snow also has major implications for the [[hydrological cycle]]. In non-permafrost regions, the insulating effect of snow is such that only near-surface ground freezes and deep-water drainage is uninterrupted.<ref name="lynch">Lynch-Stieglitz, M., 1994: The development and validation of a simple snow model for the GISS GCM. J. Climate, 7, 1842–1855.</ref>

While snow and ice act to insulate the surface from large energy losses in winter, they also act to retard warming in the spring and summer because of the large amount of energy required to melt ice (the [[latent heat]] of fusion, 3.34 x 10<sup>5</sup> J/kg at 0&nbsp;°C). However, the strong static stability of the atmosphere over areas of extensive snow or ice tends to confine the immediate cooling effect to a relatively shallow layer, so that associated atmospheric anomalies are usually short-lived and local to regional in scale.<ref name="cohen">Cohen, J., and D. Rind, 1991: The effect of snow cover on the climate. J. Climate, 4, 689–706.</ref> In some areas of the world such as [[Eurasia]], however, the cooling associated with a heavy snowpack and moist spring soils is known to play a role in modulating the summer [[monsoon]] circulation.<ref name="vernekar">Vernekar, A. D., J. Zhou, and J. Shukla, 1995: The effect of Eurasian snow cover on the Indian monsoon. J. Climate, 8, 248–266.</ref>