CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Cryo Adventures

Icy fieldwork: real or April Fool’s?

April 1, 2022
Icy fieldwork: real or April Fool’s?
Photo credit: Katja Laute (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Those of us fortunate to participate in cryo-fieldwork are well aware of the unique, hilarious, and sometimes bizarre scenarios that we often find ourselves in. For this year’s April Fool’s Day, the EGU Cryosphere Blog team shares crazy anecdotes, with a catch: one of these stories is fake! Are you able to tell fact from fiction? Fill in the (twitter) poll, and time will tell if you are right…!! W ...[Read More]

CryoAdventures – Three months in Nuuk, the world’s northernmost capital!

December 10, 2021
Dark sky with greenish Aurora Borealis.
Northern lights over Nuuk [credit: Jenny Arthur]

I have just returned from nearly three months in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, where I was doing my PhD placement at Asiaq Greenland Survey. Read on to find out what science I got up to… everything from mapping mountain glacier snowline change to avalanches! How do you map glacier snowline evolution? During my PhD research placement, I was working at Asiaq Greenland Survey in their Hydrolo ...[Read More]

Will the ice break out? – a story from the farthest north ice trails

November 26, 2021
Man on snow machine looks bake to the canoe he is towing across ice.
A family traveling up the coast with a traditional Umiaq skin boat on an ice trail only days before the ice broke out in 2014. Photo: Dyre Dammann

"For over two decades, the sea ice group at the University of Alaska has worked with the community of Utqiaġvik, establishing an integrated observing network. This network includes local observations, a coastal radar system to monitor ice conditions, an in-situ mass balance site monitoring environmental change such as ice growth and snow cover, and the mapping of community sea ice trails." In thi ...[Read More]

Cryo-adventures: Ninja goes south – Life and science onboard an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea (Antarctica)

November 19, 2021
Cryo-adventures: Ninja goes south – Life and science onboard an icebreaker in the Weddell Sea (Antarctica)

Hello there! I’m Ninja – a curious little LEGO-figure who doesn’t know much about the cryosphere, but who’s learning! Maybe you read about me in the blogpost by ice sheet modeler Petra Langebroek a few years ago? She brought me to the ice-core drilling camp called EASTgrip, on top of the Greenland icesheet. Together, we wrote a photo-novel to tell her sons and all of you about life and science at ...[Read More]

Of Polar Bears and Sediment Cores: a Scientific Cruise in the Arctic

October 29, 2021
Of Polar Bears and Sediment Cores: a Scientific Cruise in the Arctic
One of the most stunning views of the trip, and one every glaciologist dreams of: a calving front in the sunshine. This is the terminus of Etonbreen, a glacier that is part of the Austfonna ice cap, an ice cap located on the island of Nordaustlandet, northeastern Svalbard. Photo credit: Agust Gustavsson.

Through the scientific excursion part of the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) course ‘Arctic Late Quaternary Glacial and Marine Environmental History’, a few lucky grad students got to visit Nordaustlandet, northeastern Svalbard. This is the story of our research adventure in this beautiful, remote part of the Arctic. On a bright and early morning in late August, a group of 16 students, 4 prof ...[Read More]

Vernagtferner: My First Encounter with an Alpine Glacier

October 15, 2021
Vernagtferner: My First Encounter with an Alpine Glacier
A: The start of our first climb to the Vernagtferner Glacier; B: The Vernagtferner Valley in the Ötztal Alps; C: Late afternoon in the Austrian Alps; D: The ice flows carrying, among other things, rock debris and scratching the surface of other rocks with increasing erosive power. Figure credit: Eduardo Q Alves.

In July 2021, together with a group of MSc students from the University of Bremen, I set off from the flat plains of Northwest Germany and embarked on a journey to the mountainous regions of Austria, with the Vernagtferner Glacier as our final destination. My aim was to learn as much as I could in the glaciology field course offered by the university. During my student days in Brazil, glaciers fil ...[Read More]

Cryo-Adventures – Hunting snow algae in the Alps

October 8, 2021
Cryo-Adventures – Hunting snow algae in the Alps
Figure 1. Researchers and students measuring snow optical properties during a snow algae bloom in the beautiful landscape of the Brenta Dolomites (Rhaetian Alps). [Credit: Cristian Ferrari]

We are used to think of algae as marine or lacustrine organisms, but they are actually able to thrive also on the cryosphere. In a previous post, we learnt how snow algae live and reproduce on snow. Now we will explore how and why scientists study snow algae, and how social media can be used for identifying new study areas. Snow algae in the Alps Snow algae in the Alps have been overlooked or conf ...[Read More]

Cryo-adventures – Undertaking Cryo-Fieldwork in a Global Pandemic!

September 3, 2021
Cryo-adventures – Undertaking Cryo-Fieldwork in a Global Pandemic!
Looking out over Fjallsjökull from the top of the nearby moraine ridge. Photo credit: Nathaniel Baurley

Have you ever wondered what undertaking cryo-fieldwork in a glacial environment typically involves? Well, what about undertaking cryo-fieldwork in a glacial environment during a global pandemic?! Read on to find out all about the challenges I faced on my recent trip to Iceland in July 2021… Fieldwork Preparation As this previous blog post highlights, undertaking cryo-fieldwork requires a significa ...[Read More]

©LEt’sGO to Antarctica !

May 15, 2020
©LEt’sGO to Antarctica !
The camp site deployed to collect radar data with (a) the polar vehicle (in orange in the centre) or (b) snowmobiles (on the right). Other types of measurements are often carried out simultaneously: atmospheric gas composition, snow/ice core drilling, surface photogrammetry, etc. Can you spot them all ? Photo credit: Brice Van Liefferinge

With the current situation, polar fieldwork might be/have been cancelled and we have a suggestion to remedy your field-blues… Why not use ©LEGO to pretend you’re back in the field with the added bonus that you get to be in the warmth and comfort of your home! Here, we’ve re-enacted radar fieldwork that took place a year and a half ago in Antarctica… But first, let’s start with some backgroun ...[Read More]

Cryo Adventures – What’s currently going on in Antarctic science?

December 6, 2019
Cryo Adventures – What’s currently going on in Antarctic science?
Map of the various locations mentioned in the text. Green markers are bases, red markers measurement campaign locations [Credit: Andy Smedley].

As Christmas gets closer, days are getting shorter in the northern hemisphere. A good excuse to get cosy inside on the sofa, drinking tea and eating Christmas biscuits. Meanwhile, a few thousand of scientists are heading “South”, to Antarctica, where the lengthening days provide the perfect conditions to conduct a whole variety of scientific field expeditions… Science in Antarctica Just last ...[Read More]