Describe the northern and southern hemisphere in terms of the distribution of the cryosphere

The cryosphere is the portion of the Earth's surface where water is in solid form. It thus includes sea ice, lake ice and river-ice, snow cover, glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets, and frozen ground. The snow cover has the largest extent, with a maximum area of more than 45 106 km2 (Table 1.1). Because of the present distribution of continents, land surfaces at high latitudes are much larger in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. As a consequence, the large majority of the snow cover is located in the Northern Hemisphere (Figs. 1.15 and 1.16). The same is true for the freshwater ice that forms on rivers and lakes in winter. Both the snow cover and freshwater ice have a very strong seasonal cycle, as they nearly disappear in summer in both hemispheres (Table 1.1).

Explanation: