The cryosphere blog is taking a summer break but not without first providing you with your beach/airplane/train/fieldwork/balcony summer reading list to make you miss us a tiny bit less. Continue reading this post to explore some summer inspiration. Like a lot of northern countries who take long summer breaks to enjoy the long hours of light (midnight sun) after a dark winter, the Cryoblog is also ...[Read More]
Light emissions are increasing worldwide and much of the world is light polluted due to excessive and inefficient light use. This has negative consequences for many organisms, such as birds, insects, fish, plants and humans. Even in the high Arctic, which is remote and sparsely populated, and experiences the polar night for a large part of the year, there are artificial light sources which disturb ...[Read More]
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]
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]
As a reader of the Cryosphere blog, you may have spent a lot of time looking at the Greenland Ice Sheet, but do you really know what Greenland looks like? This “It Ain’t Easy Being Greenland” map is something I made for fun during the #30DayMapChallenge (an international project to complete one map a day during the month of November) and highlights how different the island country appears dependin ...[Read More]
To us, the cryosphere has always been a priority. It is our field of interest, research, maybe passion, it is the stuff that gets us excited. Now, the cryosphere also became a priority to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). In today’s post we cover a recent news item introducing this very decision made during WMO’s recent congress. Read along to find out why they emphasize the importance ...[Read More]
Do you think that it is sometimes challenging to understand science (as a reader or listener) or to explain it (as a scientist)? Then, art may be a good solution to the problem. Between April and June 2023, Zacharie Bodson (artist) and I (climate scientist) are participating in the Seas and Oceans exhibition to explain the links between changes in Arctic sea ice and over-consumption. Read here abo ...[Read More]
As scientists, we often encounter errors in our own work and in the work of others. As modelers, we call these errors “bugs”. Of course, they are not actual insects, but they definitely keep us awake from time to time. Even though everyone is aware of their existence, we rarely discuss them in a scientific context. In today’s post, I bring to you the work and journey of a snow scientist, Dr. Cécil ...[Read More]
When we think of dunes our thoughts automatically go to deserts and sand. But on Earth, as well as on other celestial bodies of the solar system, dunes exist also in a completely different environment. I am talking about gigantic dunes consisting of snow. On Earth they are called megadunes and you can find them only in East Antarctica, where they extend for thousands of km. If you want to know mor ...[Read More]
Whether they are natural occurrences or experimentally induced, permafrost and Arctic ecosystems are responding fundamentally to recent climate extremes. Good writing and statistics material for us scientists, but bad news on pretty much every other level. Are we effectively communicating how fundamental these changes are? And can we use our personal experiences, stories and artwork to support us ...[Read More]
