Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – See sea ice from 1901!

Emma C. Smith August 18, 2017

Aerial photograph of the German explorer Erich von Drygalski’s ship, making its way through Antarctic sea ice. This picture was obtained from a hot air balloon in 1901. The log books of this ship were used to study sea-ice conditions at the turn of the century in the Antarctic. [Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce]

The EGU Cryosphere blog has reported on several studies of Antarctic sea ice (for example, here and here) made from high-tech satellites, but these records only extend back to the 1970s, when the satellite records began. Is it possible to work out what sea ice conditions were like before this time? The short answer is YES…or this would be a very boring blog post! Read on to find out how hero ...[Read More]

Image of the week – Micro-organisms on Ice!

Tommaso Santagata August 11, 2017

Figure 1: Investigating micro-organisms on Perito Moreno. Left – Sampling on the glacier surface inside a cryoconite hole. Right – Scientists from the University Bicocca of Milan at work performing analysis in the temporary laboratory set up in Buscaini Refugee (shelter) [Credit: Alessio Romeo – La Venta Esplorazioni Geografiche]

The cold icy surface of a glacier doesn’t seem like an environment where life should exist, but if you look closely you may be surprised! Glaciers are not only locations studied by glaciologists and physical scientists, but are also of great interest to microbiologists and ecologists. In fact, understanding the interaction between ice and microbiology is essential to fully understand the gla ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – A new way to compute ice dynamic changes

David Docquier August 4, 2017

Up to now, ice sheet mass changes due to ice dynamics have been computed from satellite observations that suffer from sparse coverage in time and space. A new method allows us to compute these changes on much wider temporal and spatial scales. But how does this method work? Let us discover the different steps by having a look at Enderby Land in East Antarctica, for which ice velocities are shown i ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Drilling into a Himalayan glacier

Katie Miles July 28, 2017

Fig.1: Drilling a borehole on Khumbu Glacier, Nepal Himalaya. In the foreground, the drill stem can be seen hanging off a tripod, attached to a spool of hose. Hot, pressurised water is supplied to these units from a pressure-washer in the background. [Credit: Katie Miles]

How water travels through and beneath the interior of debris-covered glaciers is poorly understood, partly because it can be difficult to access these glaciers at all, never mind explore their interiors. In this Image of the Week, find out how these aspects can be investigated by drilling holes all the way through the ice… Hydrological features of debris-covered glaciers Debris-covered glaciers ca ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Fifty shades of snow

Clara Burgard July 21, 2017

Fig. 1: Green snow [Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory]

When I think of snow, I tend to either think about the bright white ski slopes in the mountains or the large white areas in the Arctic. However, natural phenomena can lead to colorful snow. Our Image of the Week shows snow can be green! Snow can also turn orange, pinkish, grey and even yellow… But where do these different shades of snow come from? White The most common color of snow is white (see ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Summer is fieldwork season at EastGRIP!

Helle A. Kjær July 14, 2017

Fig.1: The sleeping quarters at EastGRIP [Credit: Helle Astrid Kjær].

As the days get very long, summer is a popular season for conducting fieldwork at high latitudes. At the North East Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS), the East Greenland Ice-core Project (EastGRIP) is ongoing. Several scientists are busy drilling an ice core through the ice sheet to the very bottom, in continuation to previous years (see here and here). This year, amongst others, several members from t ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — High altitudes slow down Antarctica’s warming

Sophie Berger July 7, 2017

When it comes to climate change, the Arctic and the Antarctic are poles apart. At the north of the planet, temperatures are increasing twice as fast as in the rest of the globe, while warming in Antarctica has been milder. A recent study published in Earth System Dynamics shows that the high elevation of Antarctica might help explain why the two poles are warming at diﬀerent speeds. The Arctic vs ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – The birth of a sea-ice dragon!

Kevin Bulthuis June 30, 2017

Fig. 1: Dragon-skin ice observation in Terra Nova Bay by the Nathan B Palmer research team in April 2017. [Credit: IMAS ].

Dragon-skin ice may sound like the name of an episode of the Game of Thrones fantasy franchise. However, this fantasy name hides a rare and bizarre type of ice formation that you can see in our Image of the Week. It has been recently observed by the “Polynyas, ice production and seasonal evolution in the Ross Sea” (PIPERS) research team in Antarctica. This bizarre phenomenon caused by ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Heat waves during Polar Night!

François Massonnet June 23, 2017

The winter 2016-2017 has been one of the hottest on record in the Arctic. In our Image of the Week, you can see that air temperatures were positive in the middle of the winter! Let’s talk about the reasons and implications of this warm Arctic winter. But first, let’s take a tour in Svalbard, the gateway to the Arctic… A breach in the one of the world’s largest seed vaults The Global S ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – When the dirty cryosphere destabilizes!

Laura Helene Rasmussen June 16, 2017

Figure 1: Thermokarst development due to melt and drainage of below-ground massive ice, NE Greenland [Credit: Laura Helene Rasmussen]

Ice is usually something you see covering large ocean areas, mountain tops and passes or as huge sheets in polar regions. This type of ice is clearly visible from space or with the naked eye. There is, however, a large volume of ice that is less visible. This ice is distributed over the polar and high alpine permafrost regions; and is the ice hidden below ground. It might be hidden, but that doesn ...[Read More]