Air, Snow, and Glacier

Air, Snow, and Glacier
The mountains of the Hindu Kush Himalayas hold
more of the earth’s snow and ice than anywhere
beyond the poles. Sometimes called The Third Pole,
the region stores 10 percent of all freshwater non-
polar ice and snow, including 60,000 square
kilometers of glaciers and .76 square kilometers of
snow cover. It’s a key part of the cryosphere, the
scientific term for regions where water is found in
solid form as snow, ice, glaciers or within frozen
ground called permafrost.
The cryosphere influences the world’s climate and
is influenced by it in turn, responding to the
dynamics of the lower atmosphere, such as
precipitation patterns and the presence in the air of
black carbon and other pollutants.