EGU Guest blogger

UndercoverEisAgenten – Permafrost, drones and young explorers investigating Arctic change

Marlin M. Mueller and Josefine Lenz November 24, 2023

Figure 1: Aerial view of Aklavik Northwest Territories Canada: A serene grid-patterned settlement nestled by the Peel channel of the Mackenzie River, surrounded by autumnal wilderness. [Credit: Christian Thiel]

The “UndercoverEisAgenten” project takes us on a drone journey over the ever-changing permafrost landscapes. Initiated by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research, the German Aerospace Center’s (DLR) Institute of Data Science, and the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology (HeiGIT), this venture is about more than just capturing images. It̵ ...[Read More]

An exceptional year: What’s up with Antarctic sea ice?

David Docquier November 17, 2023

Figure 1: Daily cycle of the Antarctic sea-ice extent (in million km²) for each 10-year period between 1979 and 2018 (10-year averages) and for 3 separate years, including 2023 (red curve). Snapshot of 12 November 2023 [Credit: NASA., Comiso et al., “Current State of Sea Ice Cover”, see: https://earth.gsfc.nasa.gov/cryo/data/current-state-sea-ice-cover].

In our blog, we have written a lot about Arctic sea ice (see this post, this post and this post for recent examples). Much less has been written about Antarctic sea ice, i.e. its southern counterpart. That is not surprising as Arctic sea ice has experienced major losses since the late 1970s (beginning of satellite observations), while not much had happened to Antarctic sea ice (despite a small exp ...[Read More]

A ‘Ticking Bomb’: Understanding the 2023 Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) in Sikkim Himalaya

Remya S N & Vishnu Nandan November 2, 2023

Two photos of a glacial lake, on the left in 2022 and on the right in 2013, visually smaller.

Figure 1. (a) South Lhonak lake (Cho) and associated landforms from December 2022. [Image Credit: Google Earth, and (b) A rare field photograph of the glacial lake documented in Raj et al. (2013), used with permission.

In this week’s blog post, Dr. Remya S N and Dr. Vishnu Nandan talk about how optical and radar satellite images were used to characterize the very recent catastrophic Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) from the South Lhonak Lake in the Indian Himalaya before and after the flooding and highlight the importance of timely observations and monitoring for people’s livelihoods. The South Lhonak L ...[Read More]

Recipe to quantify calibration errors in a time-dependent ice sheet model

Beatriz Recinos, Dan Goldberg and James Maddison October 27, 2023

Figure 1: Upper diagram: schematics of baking a pie, representing an idealized 1D Bayesian inverse problem. Lower diagram: schematics of a multi-dimension ice sheet inverse problem solved using FEniCS_ice error propagation framework, created from a compilation of figures from Recinos et al. (2023). FEniCS_ice is designed to solve these problems over a finite element mesh containing (in this study case) more than 100,000 elements. These elements are the vertices, faces, and edges that form our triangular mesh (red map, check out ingredients list below for more information). [Credits: Beatriz Recinos, baking icons from https://www.flaticon.com/].

Ice sheet models are awesome tools that help us learn and predict the fate of ice sheets under human-induced climate change. However, all models have errors. What types of uncertainties exist in an ice sheet model and how can we quantify some of them efficiently? Check out our recipe to quantify one type of uncertainty in sea level rise projections: The model calibration error. Not a numerical mod ...[Read More]

antARcTica

Emma Pearce October 20, 2023

In the frozen expanse of Antarctica, where the remote environment tests the limits of scientists, a unique relationship between science and art can emerge. As the isolation, weather and beauty of the ice-covered continent introduce themselves, some Antarctic individuals find solace in the realm of art. In this blog post, we delve into the interplay between the world of scientific exploration and t ...[Read More]

The search for the Antarctic giants!

José Queirós October 13, 2023

The Southern Ocean, a place of wonders and giants. At the surface we are amazed by giant icebergs, but it is in the deep that the true mystery persists! [Credits: José Queirós]

The deep Southern Ocean is full of giants! Some of them scared the sailors for centuries, like the colossal squid or, as they called it, The Kraken. They thought it was a huge monster capable of sinking ships! Far from it, these giants ran away from us, and we still know very little about them! They live in depths where the light cannot penetrate, the largest ecosystem on Earth, the Deep-Sea! They ...[Read More]

Small step for reindeer – large leap for humankind?

Torben Windirsch September 22, 2023

Photo of a reindeer looking for food on the snow.

Fig 1 – A reindeer digging through snow to find food. [Credit: T. Windirsch]

Since several decades, there’s a lot of discussion in the permafrost ecosystem community on “rewilding” and “return to a natural state” in order to protect ecosystems and to reduce the impacts of climate change. Reindeer and other herbivores influence the insulation regime of the ground and could thereby preserve the frozen state of permafrost ground. Is there a way to utilise this effect to our b ...[Read More]

We are back – with 4 Arctic fieldwork stories!

EGU Guest blogger September 1, 2023

Walking to a glacier in NE Greenland. Photo credit: Maria Scheel

You might have missed our weekly blog posts, but we are back! This week’s post highlights four field work campaigns our cryo community conducted. Join us on a journey to Greenland, Svalbard and Alaska to learn about methane emissions, glacier flows, tundra fires and ice microbes. Chasing methane in Greenland The subglacial environment of the Greenland Ice Sheet is a relatively new discovered ...[Read More]

Hidden Ice of the Greater Caucasus

Levan Tielidze June 30, 2023

Figure 1 . The prominent rock glacier in the headwater of the Juta River valley, Kazbegi region, Georgian Caucasus, visited by thousands of tourists each year. [Credit: Levan Tielidze].

In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about the first inventory of rock glaciers from the Greater Caucasus as an important basis for further research of geomorphology and palaeoglaciology in this region. What are Rock Glaciers? Rock glaciers are distinctive geomorphological landforms of frozen debris that are supersaturated with ice. The low ice velocity or certain speed of movement and per ...[Read More]

An inclusive field team is a great field team: Strategies and resources

TJ Young and Marianne Karplus June 23, 2023

A scheme showing the 6 aspects leading to positive and inclusive fieldwork environment, including physical and mental well-being, team values, recognising and valueing diversity, rest days, dealing with stress, communication and daily checkin.

Key elements of a positive and inclusive field work environment. From Karplus, Young et al. (2023).

Fieldwork is essential to polar sciences, but who are the people that actually do the fieldwork these days? A great field team includes people spanning a diversity of scientific skills, but at the same time, a diversity of cultures, backgrounds, and identities also adds intrinsic value to team dynamics and the overall field work experience. As part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaborati ...[Read More]