Glossary

The most commonly used distribution in statistics.

Geoengineering refers to intentional and focused – and most often implemented on a large scale – interventions in the climate system, which are intended to mitigate climate warming due to human activities (anthropogenic climate warming).

Greenhouse gas.

A lake formed by the meltwater from a glacier.

Glaciers are huge masses of ice that gradually flow from mountains down into valleys.

Refers to the science of ice, which was initially limited to the study of glaciers.

The average surface temperature (land / water) in a certain timeframe.

The GWP quantifies the effects of all greenhouse gases on the basis of the effects of CO₂, the most relevant greenhouse gas for human beings, which is accordingly assigned a GWP of 1.

A supercontinent that encompassed today’s South America, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, Australia and the Antarctic.

Ice needles / ice wafers that clump together, forming a thin, soup-like layer on the water’s surface.

Refers to the effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere on temperatures at a planet’s surface, e.g. the surface of the Earth, where temperatures rise.

Greenhouse gases are gaseous components of the atmosphere – both naturally occurring and anthropogenic – that absorb the radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and clouds and reflect or radiate it back at specific wavelengths of the thermal infrared radiation spectrum.

Young ice, 10 – 15 cm thick.

Young ice, 15 – 30 cm thick.

Gigatonne (1 billion metric tons).