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The cryosphere comprises the frozen-water components of the Earth system: snow, glaciers, ice sheets, sea ice, frozen ground and other persistent or seasonal ice. These components differ physically. Floating sea ice directly exchanges heat and salt with the ocean, whereas grounded ice can store water above sea level.

Melting consumes latent heat, while snow and ice can strongly affect the reflected fraction of incoming sunlight through albedo. Measurements therefore combine area, thickness, mass and temperature rather than using ice-covered area as a complete measure of stored ice. A change in one component need not imply an identical response in every other component.

A physicist who developed stochastic climate models and founded the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in 1975.^[ref]