Beneath the Cryosphere
2019
Frozen water manifests on Earth's surface primarily in various forms, including snow cover, freshwater ice in lakes and rivers, sea ice, glaciers, ice sheets, and frozen ground like permafrost. The duration of water's residence in these cryospheric sub-systems varies significantly. Snow cover and freshwater ice are predominantly seasonal, while most sea ice, except in the central Arctic, lasts only a few years unless it is seasonal. In contrast, water particles in glaciers, ice sheets, or ground ice can remain frozen for 10-100,000 years or even longer, with deep ice in parts of East Antarctica potentially reaching an age of approximately 1 million years. The majority of the world's ice volume is located in Antarctica, particularly within the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Despite Antarctica holding the most ice volume, Northern Hemisphere winter snow and ice extent exhibit the largest areal coverage, constituting an average of 23% of the hemisphere's surface area in January. The expansive coverage and significant climatic influence of snow and ice, attributed to their distinctive physical properties, underscore the crucial importance of observing and modeling their extent, thickness, and physical properties (including radiative and thermal properties) in climate research.
This narrative extends the exploration initiated in the earlier work, Piqaluyak (2019), focusing on the transformation of ice sheets and the absence of glaciers. Through the utilisation of image-editing software, multiple layers of digitally generated impressions overlay sampled images, which are subsequently printed on aluminium, mirror Dibond, or canvas. The process is further enriched by hand-drawn motifs in wax pastels and/or aquarelle, enhancing the depiction of an atmospheric realm. A surface layer of structured Plexiglas is then positioned atop select pieces, creating visual distortion that encourages viewers to interpret the visualisations within the artwork while prompting contemplation of dimensional potentiality and perception concepts.
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As a side note: The cryosphere (from the Greek κρύος kryos, "cold", "frost" or "ice" and σφαῖρα sphaira, "globe, ball") relates to the portions of Earth's surface where water is in solid form, including sea ice, lake ice, river ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps, ice sheets, and frozen ground (which includes permafrost). The cryosphere is an integral part of the global climate system with important linkages and feedbacks generated through its influence on surface energy and moisture fluxes, clouds, precipitation, hydrology, atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Through these feedback processes, the cryosphere plays a significant role in the global climate and in climate model response to global changes. The term deglaciation describes the retreat of cryospheric features.