Ice Cap Retention (main)
From The Encyclopedia of Earth
Ice Cap Retention
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Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic Last Updated on 2011-05-05 00:00:00 The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme’s (AMAP) new assessment of the impacts of climate change on Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) brings together the latest scientific knowledge about the changing state of each component of the Arctic ‘cryosphere’. It examines how these changes will impact both the Arctic as a whole and people living within the Arctic—and elsewhere in the world. The SWIPA Assessment follows on from the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (ACIA), published in 2005. It aims to update the findings from ACIA and to provide more in-depth coverage of issues related to the Arctic cryosphere. The observed changes in sea ice on the Arctic Ocean and in the mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet and Arctic ice caps and glaciers over the past ten years are dramatic and represent an obvious departure from the long-term patterns. The... More » 
