Glossary

Melting and evaporation on glaciers and in snow fields.

An organism’s short- or long-term adaptation to changing climatic conditions.

Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

Initiatives and measures intended to reduce the vulnerability of natural and human systems to actual or expected impacts of climate change.

The term “absorption” generally refers to the absorption of light.

In oceanography and meteorology, the term “advection” refers to the horizontal transport of properties via currents in the water or air.

Solid or liquid particles in the air.

Albedo is used to measure a given body’s reflectivity. The lighter it is, the higher its albedo.

A term used in geology and ecology to describe materials, geological objects or organisms from outside a given system or region.

Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme.

Submerged ice that is attached or anchored to the bottom of a body of water, regardless of how it was formed.

Negatively charged ions produced when an atom or molecule takes on additional electrons , so that it has more electrons than protons and therefore a negative overall charge. Examples include chloride (Cl-), sulphate (SO₄²-), bicarbonate (HCO₃^-) and bromide (Br^-).

Directional dependence of a substance’s property

Predominant atmospheric circulation pattern that reflects changes in the mean zonal westerly wind in the middle latitudes.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is a ring-shaped, cold ocean current flowing about the Antarctic.

The Antarctic Convergence is a roughly 40-km-wide water zone in the Southern Ocean in which cold, northward-flowing currents sink below warmer, southward-flowing surface water.

Region of divergent ocean currents that encircle Antarctica and produce upwelling.

The wind system in the Southern Ocean describing the north-south shifting of the westerly winds, which drives the wind field from west to east in a circular motion and dominates large-scale atmospheric circulation in the middle and high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere.

Represents the basis for preserving the Antarctic. The System reflects the shared desire to exclusively use the Antarctic for peaceful purposes for all time.

Direct and indirect influences on the environment, either caused or produced by human beings.

Emissions of greenhouse gases, their precursors, and aerosols in connection with human activities.

Archaeans are tiny, single-celled bacteria, and can be round, rod- or ribbon-shaped. Capable of surviving under harsh conditions, they are extremely frugal. Archaeans can be found in a variety of settings and there are numerous subspecies. They are one of the three major groups of organisms (the others being eukaryotes and bacteria) formed in the course of evolution.

polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth

“Arctic Oscillation (AO)” refers to the changes in atmospheric pressure differences near the surface between the Arctic and middle latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere.

The conversion of nutrients into bodily substances, chiefly in connection with the energy-consuming chemical reactions in metabolism.

The gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth.

Refers to the deposition of atmospheric substances.

The Southern and Northern Lights.

When something is still where it originated and was not transported (e.g. by a river).

How green plants and many microorganisms that only require inorganic substances to grow feed themselves.

Horizontal direction in a three-dimensional coordinate system