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

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.

28 Apr 2026 Bringing so-called 'negative' results into interactive open access publications

EGU has today introduced a new manuscript type: LESSONS – Limitations, Errors, Surprises, Shortcomings and Opportunities for New Science. Please read more.

28 Apr 2026 Bringing so-called 'negative' results into interactive open access publications

EGU has today introduced a new manuscript type: LESSONS – Limitations, Errors, Surprises, Shortcomings and Opportunities for New Science. Please read more.

Recent papers

08 May 2026
Ensemble numerical simulation of permafrost thermal regimes over the Tibetan Plateau using the Flexible Permafrost Model: 1950–2023
Wen Sun and Bin Cao
The Cryosphere, 20, 2681–2702, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2681-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2681-2026, 2026
Short summary
08 May 2026
A model of water extraction from the subglacial hydrologic system under idealized conditions
Colin R. Meyer, Katarzyna L. P. Warburton, Aleah N. Sommers, and Brent M. Minchew
The Cryosphere, 20, 2659–2680, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2659-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2659-2026, 2026
Short summary
08 May 2026
Modeling the refractive index profile n(z) of polar ice for ultra-high energy neutrino experiments
Kenneth Couberly, Dave Besson, and the ARA Collaboration
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1678,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1678, 2026
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
08 May 2026
The missing drifts: Widespread and systematic underestimation of heterogeneity in mountain snow density and SWE across scales
Elijah N. Boardman, Karen L. Boardman, Christopher A. Jones, Sean D. Shipman, John A. Whiting, Joseph W. Boardman, and Adrian A. Harpold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1933,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1933, 2026
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary
08 May 2026
Dual frequency airborne SAR experiment on snow water equivalent retrieval in Alpine terrain
Helmut Rott, Thomas Nagler, Markus Hetzenecker, Ralf Horn, Jens Fischer, and Julia Kubanek
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2104,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2104, 2026
Preprint under review for TC (discussion: open, 0 comments)
Short summary

Highlight articles

27 Apr 2026
Review article: 30 years of airborne radar surveys on the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets by the Alfred Wegener Institute
Steven Franke, Daniel Steinhage, Veit Helm, Tobias Binder, Uwe Nixdorf, Heinrich Miller, Angelika Humbert, Daniela Jansen, Graeme Eagles, Hannes Eisermann, Wilfried Jokat, Antonia Ruppel, Reinhard Drews, Alexandra Zuhr, Amelie Driemel, Andreas Walter, Peter Konopatzky, Robin Heß, Antonie Haas, Roland Koppe, Pascal H. Andreas, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 20, 2485–2530, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2485-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2485-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
13 Apr 2026
Results of the second Ice Shelf–Ocean Model Intercomparison Project (ISOMIP+)
Claire K. Yung, Xylar S. Asay-Davis, Alistair Adcroft, Christopher Y. S. Bull, Jan De Rydt, Michael S. Dinniman, Benjamin K. Galton-Fenzi, Daniel Goldberg, David E. Gwyther, Robert Hallberg, Matthew Harrison, Tore Hattermann, David M. Holland, Denise Holland, Paul R. Holland, James R. Jordan, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Kazuya Kusahara, Gustavo Marques, Pierre Mathiot, Dimitris Menemenlis, Adele K. Morrison, Yoshihiro Nakayama, Olga Sergienko, Robin S. Smith, Alon Stern, Ralph Timmermann, and Qin Zhou
The Cryosphere, 20, 2053–2088, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2053-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-2053-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
25 Mar 2026
The terrestrial ice margin morphology in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland)
Jakob Steiner, Jakob Abermann, and Rainer Prinz
The Cryosphere, 20, 1797–1814, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1797-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1797-2026, 2026
Short summary Editorial statement
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

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.