Global temperature trend expressed as both the annual and five-year departure (anomaly) from the long-term mean temperatures, measured over 120 years (Hansen et al., 1999).


Time series of Greenland melt extent, which has increased on average by 16% from 1979-2002 (Steffen and Huff, 2003).


Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent anomalies, 1979-1998, derived from passive microwave satellite data, show a 0.4 % decrease per year (Armstrong and Brodzik, 2001).


Average global mass balance of glaciers outside of Antarctica and Greenland for 1961-1998 show a loss of approximately 7 meters in thickness, or the equivalent of more than 4,000 cubic kilometers of water (Dyurgerov and Meier, 1997).