TC cover
Co-editors-in-chief: Caroline Clason, Chris Derksen, Christian Haas, Christian Hauck, Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson, Hanna Lee & Thomas Mölg
eISSN: TC 1994-0424, TCD 1994-0440

The Cryosphere (TC) is a not-for-profit international scientific journal dedicated to the publication and discussion of research articles, short communications, and review papers on all aspects of frozen water and frozen ground on Earth and on other planetary bodies.

The main subject areas are ice sheets and glaciers, permafrost, river and lake ice, seasonal snow cover, and sea ice, including remote sensing, numerical modeling, in situ, and laboratory approaches, and studies of the interaction of the cryosphere with the Earth system. Manuscripts with a focus on cryospheric research that include perspectives from social science, humanities, and other disciplines outside the natural sciences are also welcome.

Journal metrics

TC is indexed in the Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, etc. We refrain from displaying the journal metrics prominently on the landing page since citation metrics used in isolation do not describe importance, impact, or quality of a journal. However, these metrics can be found on the journal metrics page.

News

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

13 Feb 2026 University of Western Ontario partners with Copernicus Publications to support open-access publishing

Copernicus Publications has signed a new agreement with Western Libraries at the University of Western Ontario, providing a 50% APC reduction for eligible corresponding authors submitting from 1 January 2026. Please read more.

13 Feb 2026 Exploring the conditions conducive to convection within the Greenland Ice Sheet

Convection has been previously, yet contentiously, suggested for ice sheets, but never before comprehensively explored using numerical models. The authors use mantle dynamics code to test the hypothesis that convection gives rise to enigmatic plume-like features observed in radio-stratigraphy observations of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Please read more.

13 Feb 2026 Exploring the conditions conducive to convection within the Greenland Ice Sheet

Convection has been previously, yet contentiously, suggested for ice sheets, but never before comprehensively explored using numerical models. The authors use mantle dynamics code to test the hypothesis that convection gives rise to enigmatic plume-like features observed in radio-stratigraphy observations of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Please read more.

Recent papers

18 Mar 2026
Light-absorbing snow impurities: nine years (2016–2024) of snowpack sampling close to Sonnblick Observatory, Austrian Alps
Daniela Kau, Marion Greilinger, Andjela Vukićević, Jakub Bielecki, Laura Kronlachner, and Anne Kasper-Giebl
The Cryosphere, 20, 1619–1633, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1619-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1619-2026, 2026
Short summary
18 Mar 2026
The new kids on the block of Arctic coasts – Formation and Morphodynamics of Paraglacial Moraine Lagoons in Svalbard
Zofia Alicja Owczarek, Oskar Kostrzewa, Wojciech Piskorski, and Mateusz C. Strzelecki
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1226,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1226, 2026
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
17 Mar 2026
A framework for evaluating ice sheet altimetry uncertainty estimates
Karla Boxall, Malcolm McMillan, Alan Muir, Sarah Appleby, Sophie Dubber, Noel Gourmelen, Clare Willis, and Joe Phillips
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-556,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-556, 2026
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
17 Mar 2026
Observational data provide valuable insights for glacier thickness reconstruction in High Mountain Asia
Gillian M. A. Smith, Daniel N. Goldberg, Guillaume Jouvet, James R. Maddison, and Hamish D. Pritchard
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-788,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-788, 2026
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
17 Mar 2026
From Snow Depth to Streamflow: Reducing Snowfall Uncertainty in Alpine Headwaters with Sentinel-1 based snow depth retrievals
Shima Azimi, Manuela Girotto, Riccardo Rigon, Gaia Roati, Silvia Barbetta, and Christian Massari
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-793,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-793, 2026
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary

Highlight articles

13 Feb 2026
Exploring the conditions conducive to convection within the Greenland Ice Sheet
Robert Law, Andreas Born, Philipp Voigt, Joseph A. MacGregor, and Claire Marie Guimond
The Cryosphere, 20, 1071–1086, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1071-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1071-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
11 Feb 2026
Water vapour isotope anomalies during an atmospheric river event at Dome C, East Antarctica
Niels Dutrievoz, Cécile Agosta, Cécile Davrinche, Amaëlle Landais, Sebastien Nguyen, Étienne Vignon, Inès Ollivier, Christophe Leroy-Dos Santos, Elise Fourré, Mathieu Casado, Jonathan Wille, Vincent Favier, Bénédicte Minster, and Frédéric Prié
The Cryosphere, 20, 1025–1046, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1025-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1025-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
21 Jan 2026
Inferring the ice sheet sliding law from seismic observations: A Pine Island Glacier case study
Kevin Hank, Robert J. Arthern, C. Rosie Williams, Alex M. Brisbourne, Andrew M. Smith, James A. Smith, Anna Wåhlin, and Sridhar Anandakrishnan
The Cryosphere, 20, 495–510, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-495-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-495-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
16 Jan 2026
Positive feedbacks drive the Greenland ice sheet evolution in millennial-length MAR–GISM simulations under a high-end warming scenario
Chloë Marie Paice, Xavier Fettweis, and Philippe Huybrechts
The Cryosphere, 20, 309–332, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-309-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-309-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
18 Nov 2025
Recent history and future demise of Jostedalsbreen, the largest ice cap in mainland Europe
Henning Åkesson, Kamilla Hauknes Sjursen, Thomas Vikhamar Schuler, Thorben Dunse, Liss Marie Andreassen, Mette Kusk Gillespie, Benjamin Aubrey Robson, Thomas Schellenberger, and Jacob Clement Yde
The Cryosphere, 19, 5871–5902, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5871-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-5871-2025, 2025
Short summary Editorial statement

Notice on APC invoices

In accordance with current European restrictions, Copernicus Publications does not step into business relations with and issue APC invoices (articles processing charges) to Russian and Belarusian institutions. The peer-review process and scientific exchange of our journals including preprint posting is not affected. However, these restrictions require that the first contact (contractual partner of Copernicus) has an affiliation and invoice address outside Russia or Belarus.