Co-editors-in-chief: Caroline Clason, Chris Derksen, Christian Haas, Christian Hauck, Nanna Bjørnholt Karlsson & Hanna Lee
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
07 May 2026
Temporary unavailability of article and preprint PDFs due to technical issues
Since Tuesday, 5 May, 06:30 CET, we have been experiencing technical issues caused by high demand on our systems, which have significantly affected our journal libraries. To maintain platform stability and ensure continued access to critical services, all preprint and journal article PDFs were temporarily restricted, while HTML full-text content and XML files remained available. Since Thursday, 7 May, 08:30 CET, we have made the preprint PDFs available again; however, journal article PDFs remain restricted until the technical issues have been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to restore full PDF access as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
07 May 2026
Temporary unavailability of article and preprint PDFs due to technical issues
Since Tuesday, 5 May, 06:30 CET, we have been experiencing technical issues caused by high demand on our systems, which have significantly affected our journal libraries. To maintain platform stability and ensure continued access to critical services, all preprint and journal article PDFs were temporarily restricted, while HTML full-text content and XML files remained available. Since Thursday, 7 May, 08:30 CET, we have made the preprint PDFs available again; however, journal article PDFs remain restricted until the technical issues have been resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work to restore full PDF access as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
30 Apr 2026
Greek mountain snow cover halved in past four decades due to regional warming
The authors' research shows that Greece's highest mountains have lost half of their winter snow over the past four decades. Using a new model that reconstructs daily snow cover from satellite and climate data, they found a rapid and widespread decline driven mainly by rising temperatures. Please read more. 
30 Apr 2026
Greek mountain snow cover halved in past four decades due to regional warming
The authors' research shows that Greece's highest mountains have lost half of their winter snow over the past four decades. Using a new model that reconstructs daily snow cover from satellite and climate data, they found a rapid and widespread decline driven mainly by rising temperatures. Please read more.
31 Aug 2026
Wet snow avalanche preconditions from Sentinel-1 multi-track composites
Gwendolyn Dasser, Valentin T. Bickel, Marius Rüetschi, Mylène Jacquemart, Mathias Bavay, Elisabeth Hafner-Aeschbacher, Alec van Herwijnen, David Small, and Andrea Manconi
The Cryosphere, 20, 4811–4837, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4811-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4811-2026, 2026
Short summary
31 Aug 2026
Year-Round High-Resolution Sea Ice Freeboard Retrieval Using ICESat-2 ATL03 Photon Data
Wenxuan Liu, Ruibo Lei, Taoyong Jin, Heyang Sun, Michel Tsamados, Isolde A. Glissenaar, Jack Christopher Landy, and Yi Zhou
The Cryosphere, 20, 4839–4876, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4839-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-4839-2026, 2026
Short summary
Highlight articles
13 Jul 2026
Contrasting dynamics of lake- and marine-terminating glaciers under same climatic conditions
Florian Vacek, Faezeh M. Nick, Douglas Benn, Maarten P. A. Zwarts, Walter Immerzeel, and Roderik S. W. van de Wal
The Cryosphere, 20, 3827–3845, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3827-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3827-2026, 2026
Short summary
01 Jul 2026
Review article: The Foundation-Patuxent-Academy ice stream system, Antarctica
Neil Ross, Rebecca J. Sanderson, Bernd Kulessa, Martin Siegert, Guy J. G. Paxman, Keir A. Nichols, Matthew R. Siegfried, Stewart S. R. Jamieson, Michael J. Bentley, Tom A. Jordan, Christine L. Batchelor, David Small, Olaf Eisen, Kate Winter, Robert G. Bingham, S. Louise Callard, Rachel Carr, Christine F. Dow, Helen A. Fricker, Emily Hill, Benjamin H. Hills, Coen Hofstede, Hafeez Jeofry, Felipe Napoleoni, and Wilson Sauthoff
The Cryosphere, 20, 3705–3737, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3705-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3705-2026, 2026
Short summary
29 Jun 2026
Detection and attribution of the role of anthropogenic climate change in industrial-era retreat of Pine Island Glacier
Alexander T. Bradley, David T. Bett, C. Rosie Williams, Robert J. Arthern, Paul R. Holland, James Byrne, Tamsin L. Edwards, and Mira Adhikari
The Cryosphere, 20, 3443–3465, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3443-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-3443-2026, 2026
Short summary
More highlight articles
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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.
