Ice cap

(hydrology) A perennial cover of ice and snow in the shape of a dome or plate on the summit area of a mountain through which the mountain peaks emerge. A perennial cover of ice and snow on a flat land mass such as an Arctic island.

Type: Private
On the web: http://www.ice-air.com
Employees: 20

Ice Air can keep its cool, but it also knows when it's time to turn up the heat. The company (formerly Ice Cap) manufactures, installs, and services heating, ventilating and air conditioning products such as packaged thermal air conditioners, water source heat pumps, ductless split units, and fan coil units for both new construction and renovations. Its products can be found in government offices, hospitals, hotels, office buildings, schools, and residential construction. Ice Air serves the New York high-rise market, but also counts Illinois Masonic Home, the University of Tennessee, and the Pennsylvania National Guard as customers. The company was founded in 1972.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2008:
Sales: $15.0M

Officers:
Chairman and Co-CEO: Ric Nadel
President and Co-CEO: Mo Siegel
VP Operations: Dominick Marino

Competitors:
Johnson Controls
Trane Inc.
United Technologies

A flattened, dome-shaped mass of ice, similar to an ice sheet, but under 50 000 km² in area, such as the Barnes Ice Cap of Baffin Island, Canada. An ice cap does not necessarily obliterate relief. An ice-cap climate is a climatic regime where the average yearly temperature is below 0 °C. Ice and snow are permanent and precipitation is very light.

Vatnajökull, Iceland

An ice cap is an ice mass that covers less than 50 000 km² of land area (usually covering a highland area). Masses of ice covering more than 50 000 km² are termed an ice sheet.^[1][2][3]

Ice caps are not constrained by topographical features (i.e., they will lie over the top of mountains) but their dome is usually centred on the highest point of a massif. Ice flows away from this high point (the ice divide) towards the ice cap's periphery.^[1][3]

Ice caps have significant effects on the geomorphology of the area they occupy. Plastic moulding, gouging and other glacial erosional features become present upon the glacier's retreat. Many lakes, such as the Great Lakes in North America, as well as numerous valleys have been formed by glacial action over hundreds of thousands of years.

On Earth, there are about 30 million km³ of total ice mass. The average temperature of an ice mass ranges between -20°C and -30°C. The core of an ice cap exhibits a constant temperature that ranges between -15°C and -20°C.

A high-latitude region covered in ice, though strictly not an ice cap (since they exceed the maximum area specified in the definition above), are called polar ice caps; the usage of this designation is widespread in the mass media (e.g.,^[4]) and arguably recognized by experts^[5], though it may be claimed to be incorrect.^{[citation needed]}

Vatnajökull is an example of an ice cap in Iceland.^[6]

^[7]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Benn, Douglk; David Evans (1998). Glaciers and Glaciation. London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-58431-9. 
2. ^ Bennett, Matthew; Neil Glasser (1996). Glacial Geology: Ice Sheets and Landforms. Chichester, England: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.. ISBN 0-471-96345-3. 
3. ^ ^{a b} Greve, R.; Blatter, H. (2009). Dynamics of Ice Sheets and Glaciers. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-03415-2. ISBN 978-3-642-03414-5. 
4. ^ "TIME Magazine Online: Arctic Ice Explorers". http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/03/11/arctic.ice.explorers/index.html. 
5. ^ The National Snow and Ice Data Center Glossary
6. ^ Flowers, Gwenn E.; Shawn J. Marshall, Helgi Bjŏrnsson and Garry K. C. Clarke (2005). "Sensitivity of Vatnajŏkull ice cap hydrology and dynamics to climate warming over the next 2 centuries". Journal of Geophysical Research 110: F02011. doi:10.1029/2004JF000200. http://www.eos.ubc.ca/research/glaciology/research/Publications/FlowersMarshallBjornssonClarke(JGR-2005).pdf. Retrieved 2007-05-31. 
7. ^ . 5. http://navigator-sru.passhe.edu/login?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/sru/Doc?id=10103983. 

See also

• Polar ice cap
• Ice shelf
• Glacier
• Icefield

v • d • e Greenhouse and Icehouse Earth Greenhouse Earth (global climate where tropical temperatures may reach the poles) Icehouse Earth (global climate where ice ages are possible) Snowball Earth (ice covers whole planet in global ice age) Climate similar to Interstadials Interglacial (longer warm period during ice age, such as today) Interstadial (brief warm period during ice age, weaker than interglacial) stadial (brief cooler period during interglacial, such as Older Dryas, Younger Dryas, Little Ice Age) Ice Age/Glacial (expansion of ice caps) global ice age

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