CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Cryospheric Sciences

Are you ready for EGU 2024?

April 11, 2024
Are you ready for EGU 2024?
Don't miss these Cryo Highlights (and much more) during this year's EGU GA!

Are you planning on attending the EGU General Assembly happening very shortly in Vienna, Austria? – We are! As every year, we are very much looking forward to connecting with you during the various events and are very excited to already share some of our highlights with you today. Keep an eye open on social media for daily cryosphere highlights during EGU! Would you like to meet us? Find us ...[Read More]

The joy of collecting snow meltwater: a problem-solving hunt for meltwater in Northern Finland

April 5, 2024
The joy of collecting snow meltwater: a problem-solving hunt for meltwater in Northern Finland
Figure 1: Pallas Catchment, Finland. [Credits: Charlotte Ditlevsen]

We know that climate change is affecting many aspects of what we have considered “stable” throughout a long period of modern times. One of many impacted and changing factors is snow and thereby also snow meltwater. One way to study meltwater is to trace it by the usage of stable water isotope signals and we plan to use it by asking: Are we underestimating the portions of snow meltwater in differen ...[Read More]

Did you know? We can see what’s going on inside an ice shelf using geophysics!

April 2, 2024
Did you know? We can see what’s going on inside an ice shelf using geophysics!
Figure 1: Halley VI research station, glowing in the late summer sun.

Understanding what is going on inside an ice shelf is important for many reasons. But mostly, it allows us to better understand their contribution to sea level rise, and to understand how they are changing and evolve over time, with our changing climate. Geophysical methods offer a means to be able to see inside an ice shelf, and get an idea of their properties. Read on to find out a bit more abou ...[Read More]

SciComm notes: can Granny understand your science?

March 11, 2024
A conversation between a person and a smiling elder lady.
Did you ever experience frustration when trying to explain your science to friends or family? But why does it matter if your grandma could understand your work? (Photo credit: Brett Sayles from pexels)

As an EGU division blog, we facilitate that the most recent cryoscientific insights reach a wider audience. To do this, we have a team of experienced editors (and former authors), but we also love helping first time authors getting experience with outreach. But if you have ever written an outreach piece, you might know that it can be more difficult than expected to write down your research in simp ...[Read More]

Did you know that a lack of Arctic shipping regulation has detrimental environmental effects?

February 20, 2024
Did you know that a lack of Arctic shipping regulation has detrimental environmental effects?
Figure 1: Ship in polar waters. [Credit: 12019 from Pixabay]

Increased maritime transport in the Arctic, facilitated by the reduction in sea ice cover, is causing tremendous harm to an already vulnerable part of the world. Insufficient regulation of Arctic shipping has detrimental environmental effects on a global scale. These effects include, e.g. underwater noise pollution, oil spill risk and threats to the global climate. But did you know what role regul ...[Read More]

Ice-Hot News – You have a “cool” new Policy Point of Contact in the Cryosphere Division!

February 2, 2024
Ice-Hot News – You have a “cool” new Policy Point of Contact in the Cryosphere Division!

At the 2023 EGU General Assembly, our cryosphere division members all voted “YES!” to have a division policy point of contact! If you’re wondering how to engage in science policy at our division level, what a division policy officer does, who was named and what happened next… This blog post should answer a lot of these questions (or I hope)! First off, a little history about how policy officers ca ...[Read More]

You can’t unsee it – the impact of a good visual for scientific data

January 22, 2024
You can’t unsee it – the impact of a good visual for scientific data
From iconic album cover of Joy Division to depicting relevant updates on annual temperature anomalies. The way we depict our data, impacts how far it will be seen. [Credit: image left from Joy Division album ‘Unknown Pleasures’ from 1979 & right ERA4, C3S/ECMWF; edited by Maria Scheel].

We are visual learners after all and for many of us, creating visual content is far more out of our comfort zone than the already hard earned skills of writing itself. Still, creating an accessible image can be pivotal to not only the success of your paper, but also the reach of your science in general. Today’s post started with a climate figure that went viral because of its similarity to the ico ...[Read More]

Give your ears a holiday treat: our favourite polar podcasts

December 18, 2023
Give your ears a holiday treat: our favourite polar podcasts
Enjoy the holiday season with some really cool polar podcasts [Image credit: David Satterlee from Pixabay].

December is a busy month, and while we are busy preparing gifts and a mindful attitude for the festive season, finishing up projects for the year, at some point, we close the laptop and take our ride of choice home. So as a little treat for your ears, we found some 8 (+1) polar podcasts for those in need of a little inspiration. The podcasts are tackled from points of natural science, policy, hist ...[Read More]

A journey to the Edge of the Ice: Discovering How the Ocean Meets the Polar Sea Ice

December 12, 2023
A journey to the Edge of the Ice: Discovering How the Ocean Meets the Polar Sea Ice
Figure 1: Sentinel-1 image (EW swath mode) of the Marginal Ice Zone case in the Barents Sea on 2015-Feb-17. The CryoSat-2(CS2) track (black) and the retrieved alongtrack Marginal Ice Zone are shown (red). Wave-like structure is observed by Sentinel-1 (3-hr later than CS2). [Adapted from Zhu et al., 2023].

Let’s continue the journey of discovering cool facts about sea ice which started with breaking the ice. This time, we’re diving into a fascinating part of the Arctic and Antarctic: the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ). Imagine a place where the vast, frozen world of sea ice meets the moving waters of the ocean underneath. This is the MIZ, a unique area where air, water, and ice mix and mingle. ItR ...[Read More]

Antarctica Uncovered: Exploring the Exposed Surfaces Around the Melting Continent

December 4, 2023
A photo pf a rocky land with an ice mass in the background. The land has brownish plants.
Figure 1. A depicts the Hurd Glacier forefield over Sally Rocks, covered in various terrestrial organisms like lichen and mosses. B shows Livingston Island in relation to the Antarctic continent. Modified from Garrido-Benavent et al., 2020

In 2020, ocean scientists discovered a new island off the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf, naming it after the Norse goddess, Sif. The island is one of many new regions being exposed in the wake of increased ice shelf melting and glacial retreat. While these newly-revealed lands have been discussed in the Arctic and alpine ecosystems, the uncovered island and coastlines of Antarctica have been less ...[Read More]