Cryospheric studies and observations

Cryospheric studies and observations is a research topic within Atmospheric Science. Science Explorer counts 50k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the impacts of climate change on glaciers, ice sheets, and water availability in regions such as the Himalayas and Antarctica. It explores topics such as glacier mass balance, sea level rise, snow cover monitoring, and hydrological responses to glacier melt.

Glacier
Climate Change
Water Availability
Ice Sheet
Sea Level Rise
Himalayas
Antarctica
Snow Cover
Hydrology
Remote Sensing

Research works: 50k
In the world top 10%: 5k
Top-10% rate: 10.0%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25: -2%
Largest producer: China

Cryospheric studies and observations

Which countries lead Cryospheric studies and observations research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (3.6k and 1.7k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

1 China 3.6k works
2 United States 1.7k works
3 India 537 works
4 United Kingdom 468 works
5 Germany 446 works
6 Canada 445 works
7 France 397 works
8 Italy 339 works
9 Russia 318 works
10 Switzerland 253 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China3,604 · 42.5%United States1,667 · 19.7%India537 · 6.3%United Kingdom468 · 5.5%6 others listed2,197 · 25.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Cryospheric studies and observations research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Cryospheric studies and observations research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 670 works
2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 161 works
3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 160 works
4 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 139 works
5 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 131 works
6 China Meteorological AdministrationChina 86 works
7 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 81 works
8 Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 76 works
9 University of Colorado BoulderUnited States 70 works
10 Lanzhou UniversityChina 66 works

Who are the leading researchers in Cryospheric studies and observations?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Cryospheric studies and observations include Yoshua Bengio, George Davey Smith and Jun Wang.

1 Yoshua Bengio Canada 476k citations
2 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
3 Jun Wang China 340k citations
4 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
5 Peter B. Reich United States 189k citations
6 F. Stuart Chapin United States 185k citations
7 Noah Fierer United States 175k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Cryospheric studies and observations?

The most cited paper in Cryospheric studies and observations is "Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas" (Robert J. Hijmans, Susan E. Cameron, Juan L. Parra et al., 2005), with 20,328 citations. Next come "The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission" (8,992) and "Decadal Trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation: Regional Temperatures and Precipitation" (8,079).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas Robert J. Hijmans, Susan E. Cameron, Juan L. Parra et al. · International Journal of Climatology	2005	20,328
2	The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission T. G. Farr, P. A. Rosen, E.R. Caro et al. · Reviews of Geophysics Open access	19 May 2007	8,992
3	Decadal Trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation: Regional Temperatures and Precipitation James Wilson Hurrell · Science	4 Aug 1995	8,079
4	Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica Jean‐Robert Petit, Jean Jouzel, Dominique Raynaud et al. · Nature Open access	Jun 1999	6,729
5	The Global Land Data Assimilation System Matthew Rodell, Paul R. Houser, U. Jambor et al. · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Open access	Mar 2004	5,841

All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Cryospheric studies and observations research done?

The largest centres of Cryospheric studies and observations research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Lanzhou (China), Nanjing (China) and Chengdu (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Bremerhaven, Fairbanks and Birmensdorf.

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 BeijingChina 1.2k works
2 LanzhouChina 251 works
3 NanjingChina 235 works
4 ChengduChina 195 works
5 WuhanChina 165 works
6 ShanghaiChina 155 works
7 MoscowRussia 136 works
8 Xi'anChina 122 works
9 ParisFrance 119 works
10 BoulderUnited States 112 works

Where it is the local speciality

BremerhavenDE · 58.7 works85×
FairbanksUS · 42.2 works69×
BirmensdorfCH · 23.8 works69×
GreenbeltUS · 29.0 works30×
HanoverUS · 42.7 works21×

← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Cryospheric studies and observations than the world average.

See Cryospheric studies and observations on the map

Where is the best place to study Cryospheric studies and observations?

Among universities, judged by research, China University of Geosciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Northwest University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged

40%

Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share

10%

Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale

30%

Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%

10%

Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad

10%

Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.

#	University	Score	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	China University of GeosciencesChina	82.5	24.0%	13.2×	54	+97.3%
2	University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina	74.9	14.0%	9.3×	139	+26.3%
3	Northwest UniversityChina	71.9	23.6%	8.0×	21	+66.1%
4	Chengdu University of TechnologyChina	70.7	16.8%	14.5×	50	+100.1%
5	Beijing Normal UniversityChina	67.1	12.9%	11.2×	81	+15.8%
6	Lanzhou UniversityChina	66.7	13.7%	10.5×	66	+63.6%
7	University of KashmirIndia	66.0	18.7%	10.7×	18	+39.0%
8	Tsinghua UniversityChina	64.2	18.3%	1.6×	35	+16.1%
9	Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina	64.1	8.9%	20.6×	76	+69.2%
10	Chang'an UniversityChina	63.1	16.3%	9.9×	33	+25.9%
11	University of Colorado BoulderUnited States	62.7	12.3%	16.8×	70	-32.4%
12	Hohai UniversityChina	61.3	13.3%	9.0×	48	+46.0%
13	ETH ZurichSwitzerland	61.2	11.8%	7.8×	49	-47.8%
14	UNSW SydneyAustralia	60.8	17.8%	1.9×	16	+20.7%
15	California Institute of TechnologyUnited States	60.4	14.8%	11.3×	37	-47.5%
16	University of ZurichSwitzerland	59.5	15.0%	3.7×	23	-57.1%
17	Peking UniversityChina	59.3	18.2%	1.8×	33	+84.2%
18	Wuhan UniversityChina	59.0	13.6%	3.9×	50	+19.4%
19	Nanjing Normal UniversityChina	58.4	17.6%	5.8×	19	+22.3%
20	Southwest Jiaotong UniversityChina	57.9	15.9%	4.9×	34	+62.3%
21	Chongqing UniversityChina	57.9	26.2%	1.2×	12	+48.0%
22	Northumbria UniversityUnited Kingdom	57.6	9.9%	12.4×	25	+15.4%
23	University of TwenteNetherlands	56.9	24.3%	3.7×	10	-6.3%
24	University of PaduaItaly	56.0	22.1%	2.0×	15	+8.3%
25	Xi'an University of Science and TechnologyChina	55.8	18.3%	5.3×	11	+47.5%
26	University of FribourgSwitzerland	55.7	13.3%	11.1×	15	-21.6%
27	Université Grenoble AlpesFrance	55.3	10.2%	10.6×	46	-23.3%
28	Sun Yat-sen UniversityChina	55.1	11.4%	2.3×	43	+121.7%
29	Utrecht UniversityNetherlands	54.4	10.2%	4.7×	31	-46.9%
30	Lanzhou Jiaotong UniversityChina	54.3	15.3%	8.9×	19	+141.0%
31	University of California San DiegoUnited States	54.2	16.9%	2.6×	23	-29.5%
32	Indian Institute of Technology RoorkeeIndia	54.1	12.8%	7.0×	28	+65.8%
33	China University of Geosciences (Beijing)China	53.6	10.4%	11.2×	29	+109.6%
34	Columbia UniversityUnited States	53.5	13.3%	3.1×	32	-46.0%
35	University of WashingtonUnited States	53.4	11.9%	3.4×	35	-31.3%
36	University of PotsdamGermany	53.4	15.9%	7.3×	16	-51.5%
37	University of Alaska FairbanksUnited States	52.8	9.4%	83.8×	42	-30.8%
38	Yunnan UniversityChina	52.4	14.6%	5.3×	19	+39.8%
39	University of TasmaniaAustralia	52.3	11.9%	9.7×	21	+3.2%
40	Nanjing UniversityChina	51.9	11.6%	4.1×	34	+41.0%
41	Tongji UniversityChina	49.6	6.7%	3.7×	51	+58.1%
42	University of California, Los AngelesUnited States	49.6	18.3%	1.6×	16	-22.6%
43	University of BernSwitzerland	47.7	9.3%	4.1×	20	-24.3%
44	University of GenevaSwitzerland	47.7	17.4%	2.2×	8	-17.5%
45	École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland	44.5	9.0%	4.9×	18	-20.1%
46	BOKU UniversityAustria	44.0	12.9%	10.3×	10	-57.7%
47	UiT The Arctic University of NorwayNorway	43.7	6.1%	15.3×	24	-18.5%
48	University of FlorenceItaly	43.6	21.1%	1.6×	8	-53.3%
49	University of California, IrvineUnited States	41.6	14.3%	1.4×	8	-59.4%
50	University of IcelandIceland	37.6	7.6%	9.9×	12	-50.5%
51	University College LondonUnited Kingdom	32.6	6.7%	0.9×	13	-28.5%
52	Aalto UniversityFinland	23.5	5.8%	3.2×	9	-15.1%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Cryospheric studies and observations, country by country

Is Cryospheric studies and observations research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 2% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021.

grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Cryospheric studies and observations as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.043% in 2024.

Fractional works of Cryospheric studies and observations over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

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Which countries lead Cryospheric studies and observations research?

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Cryospheric studies and observations research?

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Cryospheric studies and observations?

What are the most cited papers in Cryospheric studies and observations?

Where is Cryospheric studies and observations research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where it is the local speciality

Where is the best place to study Cryospheric studies and observations?

Is Cryospheric studies and observations research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

Related research

Discussion