CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – Ice Ice Bergy

May 19, 2017
Image of the Week – Ice Ice Bergy
An iceberg travelling by Greenland. [Credit: Credit: Romain Schläppy, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu]

They come in all shapes, sizes and textures. They can be white, deep blue or brownish. Sometimes they even have penguins on them. It is time to (briefly) introduce this element of the cryosphere that has not been given much attention in this blog yet: icebergs! What is an iceberg? Let’s start with the basics. An iceberg, which literally translates as “ice mountain”, is a bit of fresh ice that brok ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Antarctica’s Flowing Ice, Year by Year

May 12, 2017

Today’s Image of the Week shows annual ice flow velocity mosaics at 1km resolution from 2005 to 2016 for the Antarctic ice sheet. These mosaics, along with similar data for Greenland (see Fig.2), were published by Mouginot et al, (2017) last month as part of NASA’s MEaSUREs (Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments) program. How were these images constructed? The mosaics s ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – A rather splendid round-up of CryoEGU!

May 5, 2017
Image of the Week – A rather splendid round-up of CryoEGU!
Symbiosis of fire, ice and water by Michael Grund. The picture was taken at Storforsen, an impressive rapid in the Pite River in northern Sweden [Credit: Michael Grund Imaggeo.egu.eu]

The 2017 edition of the EGU general assembly was a great success overall and for the cryospheric division in particular. We were for instance thrilled to see that two of the three winning photos of the EGU Photo contest featured ice! To mark the occasion we are delighted to use as our image of this week,  one of these pictures, which  shows an impressive rapid in the Pite River in northern Sweden. ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — We’re heading for Vienna

April 21, 2017
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]

A brief guide to navigating EGU 2017!

April 19, 2017
A brief guide to navigating EGU 2017!

Are you going to the EGU General Assembly in Vienna next week? If so, read on for a quick guide to navigating the week: Where to start, what to see and how to meet people and enjoy yourself! After all, the meeting is as much about the opportunities meet scientists from all over the world as it is about the science itself. How on Earth do I know what is going on?! The EGU General Assembly is a mass ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – A high-resolution picture of Greenland’s surface mass balance

April 14, 2017
Image of the Week – A high-resolution picture of Greenland’s surface mass balance
Fig. 1: Surface mass balance (SMB) of the Greenland ice sheet and peripheral ice caps at 1 km resolution averaged for 1958-2015. The interior of the ice sheet (blue) accumulates mass from snowfall whereas the narrow margins (red) lose mass from runoff of meltwater. Yellow dots locate on-site measurements. At this resolution, the small ice caps and marginal glaciers are accurately resolved [Credit: Brice Noël]. Click here here to enlarge the image.

The Greenland ice sheet – the world’s second largest ice mass – stores about one tenth of the Earth’s freshwater. If totally melted, this would rise global sea level by 7.4 m, affecting low-lying regions worldwide. Since the 1990s, the warmer atmosphere and ocean have increased the melt at the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, accelerating the ice loss through increased runoff of meltwater and i ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – The ups and downs of sea ice!

April 7, 2017
Image of the Week – The ups and downs of sea ice!
Figure 1: Left - Mean sea-ice extent in September 2016 (month of minimum sea-ice extent) compared to the median ice edge between 1981 and 2010 (pink). Right- Mean sea-ice extent in March 2017 (month of maximum sea-ice extent) compared to the median ice edge between 1981 and 2010 (pink). [Credit: Image courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center]

The reduction in Arctic sea-ice cover has been in the news a lot recently (e.g. here) – as record lows have been observed again and again within the last decade. However, it is also a topic which causes a lot of confusion as so many factors come into play. With this Image of the Week we will give you a brief overview of the ups and downs of sea ice! In general, Arctic sea ice is at its minim ...[Read More]

A year at the South Pole – an interview with Tim Ager, Research Scientist

April 6, 2017
A year at the South Pole – an interview with Tim Ager, Research Scientist
Tim Ager spent over a year working as a research scientist at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

What is it like to live at the South Pole for a year?  A mechanical engineer by trade, Tim Ager, jumped at the opportunity to work for a year as a research scientist at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.  When not traveling on various adventures he lives in Austin, Texas, and recently took the time to answer a few questions about his time at Pole. What goes on at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station? ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Microbes munch on iron beneath glaciers

March 31, 2017
Image of the Week — Microbes munch on iron beneath glaciers
Experiment showing that microbes in subglacial sediment reduce more iron when it's colder (blue lines, i.e. 4°C ) than when it's warmer (red lines,  15°C.) [Credit: adapted from Nixon et al, (2017) Fig.1] Click here here to enlarge the image.

The interface between a glacier and its underlying bedrock is known as the subglacial zone. Here lie subglacial sediments, the product of mechanical crushing of the rock by the glacial ice. Despite their lack of sunlight, nutrients and oxygen, subglacial sediments host active and diverse communities of microorganisms. What we (don’t) know about subglacial microorganisms The past few decades ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Ice on Fire (Part 2)

March 24, 2017
Image of the Week – Ice on Fire (Part 2)
A glacier cave on the flank of Mutnovsky volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. Sunlight filters through the glacial ice and a stream runs through the cave - fed by volcanic hot springs [Credit: Sergey Krasnoshchokov, National Geographic].

This week’s image looks like something out of a science fiction movie, but sometimes what we find on Earth is even more strange than what we can imagine! Where the heat of volcanoes meets the icy cold of glaciers strange and wonderful landscapes are formed.  The Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far East of Russia, has the highest concentration of active volcanoes on Earth. Its climate is cold due ...[Read More]