IPCC AR5 Ch. 4 - Observations: Cryosphere
Observations: Cryosphere
Chapter 4 of the IPCC
Fifth Assessment Report, Working Group I
This website was created as part of a graduate student seminar class (ATOC 7500: Reading the IPCC Report) at the University of Colorado Boulder. I am a graduate student, not an expert, though I do conduct research in the cryospheric sciences (I study the stability of ice shelves in Antarctica).
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was an international effort to provide a comprehensive review of the state of scientific knowledge regarding climate change. The report provides policymakers around the world with the information they need to make informed decisions on climate-related policies. However, the result is a dense, long and often hard-to-understand document. The goal of this site - along with sites developed by other members of the class (links here) - is to be a relatively quick guide to the content and relevance of an IPCC chapter. It also covers some things the Working Group I report of the IPCC doesn't cover, like the societal importance of the scientific topics discussed. Unless otherwise noted, the facts and figures on this site come directly from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).
You can view a lecture on Chapter 4 given by contributing author Dr. Tad Pfeffer here.
Author contact info:
Karen Alley (email)
University of Colorado Boulder
Department of Geological Sciences
Full report citation:
IPCC, 2013: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis.
Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D.
Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y.
Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp,
doi:10.1017/CBO9781107415324
Chapter 4 citation:
Vaughan, D.G., J.C. Comiso, I. Allison, J. Carrasco, G. Kaser, R. Kwok,
P. Mote, T. Murray, F. Paul, J. Ren, E. Rignot, O. Solomina, K. Steffen
and T. Zhang, 2013: Observations: Cryosphere. In: Climate Change
2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to
the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K.
Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley
(eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and
New York, NY, USA, pp. 317–382, doi:10.1017/CBO9781107415324.
012.