Cryosphere glossary
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, and much darker than ice blink or snow blink.
water substance in vapor (gaseous) form; one of the most important of all constituents of the atmosphere.
ogives that show some vertical relief on a glacier; usually the dark bands are in the hollows and the light bands are in the ridges; form at the base of steep, narrow ice falls.