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A polar ice cap or polar cap is a high-latitude region of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite that is covered in ice. [ 1 ] There are no requirements with respect to size or composition for a body of ice to be termed a polar ice cap, nor any geological requirement for it to be over land, but only that it must be a body of solid phase ...
1995 photo of Mars showing approximate size of the polar caps. The planet Mars has two permanent polar ice caps of water ice and some dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide, CO 2).Above kilometer-thick layers of water ice permafrost, slabs of dry ice are deposited during a pole's winter, [1] [2] lying in continuous darkness, causing 25–30% of the atmosphere being deposited annually at either of the ...
The sea ice at the North Pole is typically around 2 to 3 m (6 ft 7 in to 9 ft 10 in) thick, [65] although ice thickness, its spatial extent, and the fraction of open water within the ice pack can vary rapidly and profoundly in response to weather and climate. [66] Studies have shown that the average ice thickness has decreased in recent years. [67]
Ice caps accumulate snow on their upper surfaces, and ablate snow on their lower surfaces. [6] An ice cap in equilibrium accumulates and ablates snow at the same rate. The AAR is the ratio between the accumulation area and the total area of the ice cap, which is used to indicate the health of the glacier. [6]
Visualization of the ice and snow covering Earth's northern and southern polar regions Northern Hemisphere permafrost (permanently frozen ground) in purple. The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps, the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles.
The loss of this ice sheet would take between 2,000 and 13,000 years, [65] [66] although several centuries of high greenhouse emissions could shorten this time to 500 years. [67] A sea-level rise of 3.3 m (10 ft 10 in) would occur if the ice sheet collapses, leaving ice caps on the mountains, and 4.3 m (14 ft 1 in) if those ice caps also melt. [68]
There are two types of polar climate: ET, or tundra climate; and EF, or ice cap climate.A tundra climate is characterized by having at least one month whose average temperature is above 0 °C (32 °F), while an ice cap climate has no months averaging above 0 °C (32 °F). [2]
An ice cap climate is a polar climate where no mean monthly temperature exceeds 0 °C (32 °F). The climate generally covers areas at high altitudes and polar regions (60–90° north and south latitude), such as Antarctica and some of the northernmost islands of Canada and Russia .