The Cryosphere refers to any place on Earth where water is in its solid form, where low temperatures freeze water and turn it into ice. The frozen water can be in the form of solid ice or snow and occurs in many places around the Earth. People often think of the polar regions of our planet as the main home of the Cyrosphere; the North Pole in the Arctic, as well as the South Pole in the Antarctic. The cryosphere exists in the polar regions, but is also found wherever snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, ice sheets, and icebergs exists. In these places, surface temperatures remain below freezing for a portion of each year. 

Discover how GLOBE supports hands-on science for locally relevant learning which is also put into a global perspective.

Find GLOBE resources which are connected to My NASA Data cryosphere phenomena. These include campaigns, eTraining and how to find related student projects.

Students watch the video Frozen Earth and answer the following questions that discuss how ice helps moderate the planet's temperature using NASA satellites.

Explore and connect to protocols in GLOBE related to the cryosphere. Each protocol has related Earth System Data Explorer datasets identified as well.

Students analyze two North Pole orthographic data visualizations produced from soil moisture data. After describing trends in the seasonal thaw of land surfaces, students demonstrate their understanding of Earth’s energy budget by explaining relationships and make predictions about the dataset.

Teachers, are you looking for resources to help you engage students in data analysis related to changes in the cryosphere using albedo values? Check out these images. 

Students explore the spatial patterns observed in meteorological data and learn how this information is used to predict weather and understand climate behavior.

How much do you know about the frozen poles of our home planet?