1.2.2.4 Perenial Snow or Ice

Definition: Those ecosystems dominated by a perennial cover of either snow or ice. Adjacent lands are almost always water Systems, Wetland, Barren land, or Tundra.

Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data

Perenial Snow or Ice Categories:

1.2.2.4.1 Glaciers: Those regions in which glacial ice originates from the compaction of snow into firn and finally to ice under the weight of several successive annual accumulations. With sufficient thickness, weight, and bulk, flow begins, and all glaciers exhibit evidence of present or past motion in the form of moraines, crevasses, and so forth. This does not include other regions that have the surface form of glaciers, such as rock glaciers. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)

1.2.2.4.2 Perenial Snowfields: Those ecosystems characterized by accumulations of snow and firn that did not entirely melt during previous summers. Snowfields can be quite extensive and thus representative of a regional climate, or can be quite isolated and localized, when they are known by various terms, such as snowbanks. This does not include glaciers. (Definition Source: A Land Use and Land Cover Classification System for Use with Remote Sensing Data)