Glossary

Salinity of water or soil. Represents the amount of dissolved salt in water.

The IPCC’s Second Assessment Report.

Sastrugi are rippling grooves or ridges in the snow.

The Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research is a non-governmental organisation and was founded in 1958.

Scenarios are based on a range of assumptions concerning global developments like population growth, economic and social trends, technological advances, resource consumption and environmental management.

The totality of ice found on and in the ocean.

The sea surface temperature is the mean temperature in the near-surface metres of the ocean.

The sea-ice avifauna are the birds of the sea ice.

The sea-ice cover has been determined on the basis of satellite data for over 30 years. As a rule, presented as the “sea-ice extent”, as the “sea-ice area” in square kilometres, or as the “sea-ice concentration”.

The height of the ocean’s surface. It approximates an equipotential surface of the Earth’s gravitational field. When it changes, it is referred to as sea-level change.

Organisms in a given ecosystem that, at the 3^rd level of the food pyramid, heterotrophically live off of primary consumers, e.g. fish that feed on zooplankton.

In ecology, the production of biomass or energy at the level of consumers and decomposers.

A sample that is collected by vertical drilling into sea sediment or sediment from inland water bodies.

CO₂ sequestration refers to the storage of carbon dioxide (CO₂) deep underground.

Shallow waters on the edge of a continent and extending from a coast to a shelf edge, which can lie up to 200 metres below the surface. Shelf seas are typically several tens of kilometres to a few hundred kilometres wide and offer vital habitat for marine organisms. They are also important resources for the fishing industry and oil and gas exploration.

A lead between drifting ice and the shore or between drifting ice and an ice front. 

A collection of spongy white ice clumps measuring a few centimetres wide.

A single-ping reading refers to the practice of gathering data with scientific instruments and using just one signal or “ping”. Single-ping readings are typically used in order to capture short-term impulses, whereas continuous readings are taken over extended timeframes. In hydrology and oceanography, Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) are often used to take single-ping readings of the flow speed, direction and turbulence in a river or ocean.

Any process, mechanism or activity that absorbs a greenhouse gas, aerosol, or a precursor of a greenhouse gas or aerosol, thus removing it from the atmosphere.

Snow that is saturated with water and lies on the land or ice; or a soupy clump of floating ice formed in the cooled water after heavy snowfall.

Since 2012, snow buoys have been used to measure snow thickness, atmospheric temperature and pressure over the sea ice.

Scientific investigation and description of layer formation in snow cover. In this regard, properties like snow depth, snow crystal forms, grain size, and density are assessed and recorded in order to draw conclusions regarding the temporal progression and spatial distribution of changes in the snow cover. Snow stratigraphy is especially important for climate research and for gauging the risk of avalanches.

Ice with a uniform grain size, which is created when grease ice / slush freezes completely.

Changes in the sun’s properties, which are connected to turbulence in its extremely hot gas and constant changes in its magnetic field, are referred to as solar activity. The changes can be cyclical or irregular.

The solar cycle or sunspot cycle refers to periodicity in the frequency of sunspots. It describes a period of eleven years on average, which is also referred to as the Schwabe cycle in honour of Samuel Heinrich Schwabe.

Electromagnetic radiation emitted by the sun.

Soot particles are chiefly formed during the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass.

Any process, mechanism or activity that releases a greenhouse gas, aerosol, or a precursor of a greenhouse gas or aerosol into the atmosphere.

The Southern Oscillation is a periodic variation (every three to five years) in air surface pressure between the tropical western Pacific and southeast Pacific, which produces effects on wind systems and ocean surface currents.

The climate can vary over a broad spectrum of spatial and temporal scales. Spatial scales range from local (less than 100,000 km²) to regional (100,000 to 10 million km²) to continental (10 to 100 million km²). Temporal scales can range from seasonal to geological (hundreds of millions of years).

(IPCC) Summary for Policymakers.

(IPCC) Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage. (Special Report on Carbon Capture and Storage)

(IPCC) Special Report on Emission Scenarios. (Special Report on Emission Scenarios) 

An emissions scenario for the IPCC’s Third and Fourth Assessment Reports (2001 and 2007).

(IPCC) Special Report on Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019). (Special Report on Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate)

Maintaining a constant atmospheric concentration of one or more greenhouse gases.

Main tracks of extratropical disruptions, which manifest as sequences of high- and low-pressure cells.

Refers to algal chains that grow downward from the ice in long strands.

Highly stratified atmospheric layer located above the troposphere at between ca. 10 and 50 km above the Earth’s surface.

A device or system installed in a coastal location (and in some cases, in the deep sea) that constantly measures the water level surface elevation in relation to the surrounding land. The mean value over time for these surface elevation readings is the observed relative sea-level change.

The direct transition of a solid into a gas.

Ring-shaped system of wind-driven ocean currents. Rotates clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.

One of the six greenhouse gases that the Kyoto Protocol calls for combating.

Stems from the concept of a sustainable society and the management of renewable resources. Combines political, societal, economic and environmental aspects.

“Sympagic” is an adjective used to describe an ecosystem found in regions with ice and snow. It refers to the communities of organisms whose lives are closely connected to sea ice or glacier ice.