The first week of the Climate Change summit in Bonn (COP 23 for those in the know) has been marked by Syria’s decision to sign the Paris Accord, the international agreement that aims at tackling climate change. This decision means that the United States would become the only country outside the agreement if it were to complete the withdrawal process vowed by President Trump. In this context ...[Read More]
Image of the Week – The true size of Greenland
Greenland is a critical part of the world, which is regularly covered on this blog, because it hosts the second largest ice body on Earth – the Greenland Ice Sheet. This ice sheet, along with its small peripheral ice caps, contributes by 43% to current sea-level rise. However, despite being the world’s largest island Greenland, appears disproportionately large on the most common world maps (Fig. 2 ...[Read More]
Image of the Week — High altitudes slow down Antarctica’s warming
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 — We’re heading for Vienna
A Viennese tram during EGU 2016. Do you recognise the flag on the left? [Credit: F. Lepoudre]
♫ Tatata taaa tatatatata Tatata taaa tatatatatatatata We’re heading for Vienna (Vienna) And still we stand tall ‘Cause maybe they’ve seen us (seen us) And welcome us all, yeah With so many miles left to go And things to be found (to be found) I’m sure that we’ll all miss that so it’s the … ♫ …congratulations, you’ve recognise the song….. ...[Read More]
Image of the Week — Hidden lakes in East Antarctica !
Underwater picture of englacial lake 4m
below the surface [Credit: S.
Lhermitte].
Who would have guessed that such a beautiful picture could get you interviewed for the national news?! Certainly not me! And yet, the photo of this englacial lake (a lake trapped within the ice in Antarctica), or rather science behind it, managed to capture the media attention and brought me, one of the happy co-author of this study, on the Belgian television… But what do we see on the pic ...[Read More]
Image of the Week — Looking back at 2016
I cannot believe that a full year has passed since this very cute pink unicorn wished you a Happy New Year. Yet, over the past 12 months our blog has attracted more than 16,200 visits. And the blog analytics show that you, our dear readers, are based not only in Europe but literally all over the world! With 67 new posts published in only 52 weeks, it’s more than likely that you missed a few inte ...[Read More]
Image of the Week – Climate Change and the Cryosphere
Schematic summary of the dominant observed variations in the cryosphere. [Credit: fig 4.25 from
IPCC (2013) ].
While the first week of COP22 – the climate talks in Marrakech – is coming to an end, the recent election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States casts doubt over the fate of the Paris Agreement and more generally the global fight against climate change. In this new political context, we must not forget about the scientific evidence of climate change! Our figure of the week, tod ...[Read More]
Image of the Week — ice tsunamis !
A pile-up ice shove at Brighton Beach, Winsconsin, in March 2009. [Credit: bigcityal via Wikimedia ]
“Tsunami“ is a word that became world famous after the so-called Christmas tsunami in 2004, when enormous waves hit the shores around the Indian Ocean with disastrous consequences for countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand, Somalia and many others. But did you know that tsunamis can be icy? An ice tsunami is one of the many names associated with ice shoves (or ivu, shore ice override, i ...[Read More]
Image of the Week — Where do people stay in the “coolest” place on earth?
The 82 research stations in the Antarctic. The world map below shows which countries are operating a station in Antarctica. Source: COMNAP Antarctic Facilities (Updated February 2014) - [Credit: Sophie Berger].
Click here here to enlarge the image.
What word would you use to characterise the Antarctic ? White? Windy? Remote? Empty? Inhospitable? Wild? Preserved? While all of these are true it may surprise you to find out that the Antarctic is occupied by humans all year round with almost half of its 82 research stations operating 365.25 days a year! Just a few hours before the launch of the biennial Antarctic meeting held by the Science Comm ...[Read More]
Image of the Week — Arctic porthole, Arctic portal
Isfjorden, Svalbard, through the porthole of a boat, June 2012 [Credit: Dr Fabien Darrouzet (imaggeo )]
No need to be a superhero to momentarily escape your everyday life! For that you, can just rely on the EGU Cryosphere Blog, which cares for taking you on trips to all sorts of remote and cool places (OK, OK we have to admit that some of these places are indisputably cold 🙂). The picture of this week was taken through the porthole of a boat in the middle of Isfjorden, one of the largest fjord in Sv ...[Read More]