Cryospheric Sciences

The more the merrier – Interview with the two new Cryo ECS representatives

EGU Cryoblog Team April 28, 2023

A women on the left in front of a glacier face and a women on the right on front of a city landscape.

Your new EGU Cryo ECS representatives for 2023 - 2025: left: Ann-Sofie Zinck, right: Lu Zhou.

After two years of great work, our current cryosphere division ECS representative TJ Young is passing on the task of representing the needs and wishes of the cryosphere division early career scientists (ECS). As they make up a majority of the EGU members, their representatives make sure to see their needs and voices heard. You might know that the EGU ECS community is represented by two union-level ...[Read More]

Did you know the mystery of the ice-cold rose?

Stefan Thiele April 21, 2023

Figure 1: Frost flowers on a glacial spring in Svalbard. [Credit: Stefan Thiele]

Darkness. Freezing cold. Thin layers of ice cover the wide Arctic Ocean. It is the time of the last dusk. You can almost see Fenris wolf chasing the sun to devour it, almost hear his howling as darkness falls. Fimbulwinter has arrived. But what is this? A flower? Out here on the Arctic Ocean? This is strange, so let us take a closer look at the mystery of the ice-cold rose. Where the Wild Roses Gr ...[Read More]

What not to miss at this year’s EGU General Assembly

EGU Cryoblog Team April 14, 2023

We are already half way through April and that means that this year’s EGU General Assembly (GA) is just around the corner. Whether this will be your first, second or seventh EGU GA, you are probably still overwhelmed by the jungle of opportunities there are – courses, medal lectures, talks, discussions, poster sessions – no? We certainly still are and that’s why we always collect our f ...[Read More]

Did you know that cracks play a large role in the Arctic sea ice production?

Guillaume Boutin April 7, 2023

Figure 1. New sea ice forming in an opening in the Arctic sea ice cover (what we call a lead), as seen during the MOSAIC expedition. This type of newly formed ice is generally called “frost flowers”. Credit: [Alfred-Wegener-Institut/Michael Gutsche (CC-BY 4.0)]

What do you need to form sea ice? Well, you can start with some sea water, an ocean will do, and cold air above it. Once a layer of ice starts forming, break it to make some cracks. You would have not thought of that? Yet, our recent study suggests cracks in the ice contribute significantly to Arctic winter sea ice production. A relationship between sea ice formation and breakup? We have known for ...[Read More]