CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Cryospheric Sciences

Celebrating at UNESCO: the first-ever global day for glaciers

April 18, 2025
Four panalists are sat on a stage for the UNESCO day for glaciers. Larissa is second from the left.
This was a ‘pinch me’ moment for Larissa – being a panelist at UNESCO Headquarters for the first-ever global day for glaciers, part of ‘2025: year of glaciers’ preservation’. [Photo credits: Christoph von Rüdiger]

2025 marks an important year for glaciers, as it’s the official Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, an initiative by UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Part of the initiative is also the official declaration of March 21st as the World Day for Glaciers. UNESCO wants to celebrate this day in the hope that it “urges global action to protect glaciers and their crucial role in sustaini ...[Read More]

Feeling (un)frozen lands: What we can learn from research on ecological grief

and April 4, 2025
Light shines through the edge of melting ice on a rock.
Melting snow. [Credit: Steven Gibbons, distributed by imaggeo.egu.eu]

Retreating glaciers, shrinking sea ice or thawing permafrost – many of you might have witnessed formerly familiar landscapes being transformed by climate change over the last years, maybe even beyond recognition. And perhaps these undeniable changes have left you feeling sad, angry or anxious about the future, fearing what lies ahead. But did you know there is an entire academic field out there re ...[Read More]

Cryosphere Caps: PhD hats and the researchers that wear them – Episode 2

March 21, 2025
A group of people standing around a person holding a decorated hat in their hand.
Figure 1. Tina and her colleagues investigating the PhD Hat, on the day of her PhD defense [Credit: Tommi Odenthal]

This miniseries features the tradition of ‘PhD hat’ making in German research institutes and universities. For those of you unfamiliar with this idea (as I once was), this is one of the final milestones a graduate student has before they are officially a “Dr.”. Upon the successful defense of a thesis, the labmates of the PhD student craft a graduation hat from a mishmash of scrap cardboard and mem ...[Read More]

Navigating the polar frontier: exploring the effects of sea-ice decline on shipping and sea routes in the Arctic

March 7, 2025
Navigating the polar frontier: exploring the effects of sea-ice decline on shipping and sea routes in the Arctic
Figure 1: Icebreaker traversing the Arctic Ocean, navigating the thick blanket of sea ice which obstructs its path [Credit: Christopher Michel/Flickr, CC BY 2.0].

Sea ice is a critical part of the unique Arctic ecosystem, but climate change is becoming a serious threat. Warming in the Arctic has already resulted in the loss of over 4 million km² of sea ice. But is it all bad? Retreat of Arctic sea ice is allowing more ships to navigate the Arctic Ocean, along shorter, faster and cheaper sea routes, providing emission reductions of 24%. But will the growth o ...[Read More]

Cryosphere Caps: PhD hats and the researchers that wear them – Episode 1

February 21, 2025
Cryosphere Caps: PhD hats and the researchers that wear them – Episode 1
Figure 1: Torben at the moment he received his PhD hat from his peers, at his defense in 2024 at the University of Potsdam. [Credit: Mack Baysinger]

This miniseries features the tradition of ‘PhD hat’ making in German research institutes and universities. For those of you unfamiliar with this idea (as I once was), this is one of the final milestones a graduate student has before they are officially a “Dr.”. Upon the successful defense of a thesis, the peers of the PhD student craft a graduation hat from a mishmash of scrap cardboard and memora ...[Read More]

Field notes from the Chhota Shigri Glacier: A journey of science and survival in the Himalaya

January 10, 2025
Weather station on the snow
Figure 1: First-ever automatic weather station installed in the accumulation zone at 5218 m a.s.l. on the Chhota Shigri Glacier (Credit: Himanshu Kaushik).

I’m Himanshu Kaushik, a PhD student working under the guidance of Dr. Mohd Farooq Azam at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore (India). Seven years ago, I took my first steps onto the Chhota Shigri Glacier (CSG) in the Indian (Western) Himalaya, and it felt like stepping into another world. Surrounded by the towering peaks, it seemed otherworldly and humbling. After that first expeditio ...[Read More]

Uncovering Antarctica’s hidden subglacial lake network with satellite altimetry

December 16, 2024
Uncovering Antarctica’s hidden subglacial lake network with satellite altimetry
Figure 1: Current inventory of known subglacial lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Each dot represents an individual lake. Active subglacial lakes from previous lake inventories are shown in orange (Livingstone et al., 2022; Neckel et al, 2021) and red (from our new study). Stable subglacial lakes are shown in purple (Livingstone et al., 2022). Ice flow speed in blue (from Gardner et al., 2018) highlights the fast-flowing ice streams. Figure credit: Jenny Arthur.

    Measuring ice surface elevation changes with satellite laser altimeters flying hundreds of kilometres above Earth tells us where the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are thinning or thickening and how much they contribute to sea level rise. Beyond that though, it can also reveal hidden activity of subglacial lakes filling and draining beneath the ice and meltwater rivers flowing ou ...[Read More]

Happy birthday to the Cryoblog!

December 6, 2024
Collage of four people with the heading
Here are the four interviewed former chief editors from left to right: Giovanni Baccolo, Sophie Berger, Clara Burgard and Nanna Karlsson (Credit: Maria Scheel).

  The EGU Cryosphere Blog is now 10 years old: Happy Birthday! It all started in December 2014 with this blog post from Nanna Karlsson, and now counts 452 blog posts across 25 blog categories, including winning three Best EGU blog posts (2016, 2019 and 2021). 881 different (hash)tags were used in our blog posts, with way more counts on Antarctica and climate than the Arctic. Since the start, ...[Read More]

Crossing borders – Glacier fieldwork at Sulitjelma/Salajekna

November 22, 2024
Crossing borders – Glacier fieldwork at Sulitjelma/Salajekna
Postdoc Sarah Tingey filtering samples from the portal of Sulitjelma all wrapped up to avoid the chilling katabatic winds from the glacier. [Credit: Silje Waaler]

The time I first set foot at the university, I didn’t expect that two weeks later I would be looking at a backpack more than half my size, turning my back to the shelter of our rental car and walking almost 100 km in the Norwegian Arctic. Howling winds, heavy backpacks, daunting bridges, and endless beauty – that’s how I would describe my first experience with glacier fieldwork. I, Silje Waa ...[Read More]

Did you know? Machine learning can help us understand the cryosphere!

, and November 8, 2024
A bar chart showing in which years how many publications included machine learning.
Google Scholar search results show rapid growth of articles applying ML to the study of the cryosphere. Courtesy of Kim Bente and Julia Kaltenborn.

    Recently, Machine Learning (ML) has emerged as a powerful tool within cryospheric sciences, offering innovative and effective solutions for observing, modelling and understanding the frozen regions of the Earth. From learning snowfall patterns and predicting avalanche dynamics to speeding up the process of modelling ice sheets, ML has transformed cryospheric sciences and bears many o ...[Read More]