Cryospheric Sciences

Highlighted Paper – The ice factories of the Arctic Ocean

Jakob Dörr March 31, 2023

Sea ice forming rapidly in a lead during springtime. [Credit: Stefan Thiele]

Each year, the Arctic sea ice goes through a cycle of melting and freezing. From March to September, sea ice gradually melts and becomes thinner, and from October to March, the water freezes again. In our warming climate, we see that more and more ice melts each year. One would expect that the ice would also freeze less, but we have observed that the ice growth – or ice production – has increased ...[Read More]

3 Reasons to engage in early career networks

Marek Muchow, Lena Nicola and Alexandra Zuhr March 24, 2023

There are several early career groups, which are affiliated with cryosphere-based research in one way or another. APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists) is an international network that is present during many occasions and events in the world of polar research. Have you ever wondered why busy early career researchers (ECRs) use their time also for volunteering in such groups? Today, ...[Read More]

Did you know about the dark secrets of Arctic sea ice?

Linda Thielke March 17, 2023

A map that shows the Thermal infrared tsurface temperature of the ice floe of the MOSAiC expedition in blue where its cold and red where it is warmer (leads).

Have you ever wondered what dark secrets the Arctic sea ice holds during the harsh winter months? Imagine total darkness in the central Arctic, making it almost impossible to gather scientific information. At this time of the year, usually only satellite observations are available. This changed in September 2019 when a team of scientists collected in situ and airborne data in the central Arctic as ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Receiving messages from the deep

Natalie Robinson March 10, 2023

‘Walter’ eyes us up as he takes a breather in one of our ocean access holes. [Natalie Robinson | NIWA]

The Weddell Seal pops his head up through the hole in the floor of the shipping container… for the fourth time today. The shipping container is one of several making up our field camp on sea ice, 40 km from Scott Base – situated on Ross Island, in the south-western Ross Sea. Today I talk about the sub-ice platelet layer, which provides the base for a rich marine environment. Generating super ...[Read More]

For Dummies: Radar altimetry for measuring ice sheet elevation changes

Inès Otosaka March 3, 2023

Greenland and Antarctica surface elevation changes from CryoSat-2. Credit: ESA, Inès Otosaka.

Does measuring the surface of the ice sheets provide more than superficial knowledge of their current status? Read further to find out why the answer is definitely yes! Measuring surface elevation changes actually tells us where Greenland and Antarctica are thinning or thickening and how much they contribute to sea level rise. Scientists have been doing this for the past three decades, so keep on ...[Read More]

Arctic Frontiers Emerging Leaders

Jenny Arthur February 24, 2023

Kabelvåg, Lofoten Islands, Arctic Norway [Credit: Jenny Arthur]

Here on the Cryoblog we often talk about the impacts of climate change in the Cryosphere. So now for something completely different: how does this fit into sustainable development in the Arctic? Here, I take you on a journey through the Arctic in a round-up of the recent Arctic Frontiers Emerging Leaders program, a unique early-career and mentoring program bringing together academic, industry, ind ...[Read More]

Enigmatic Climatic Event: Antarctic Cold Reversal

Levan Tielidze February 17, 2023

Figure 1. Dated glacier moraines from New Zealand from the period of Antarctic Cold Reversal (ka signifies thousand calendar years ago). Blue colour symbolizes the reconstructed glacier 12,600 thousand years ago. While line indicate reconstructed snowline or equilibrium line altitude (ELA). [Credit: Tielidze et al., 2023].

In this week’s blog, Levan Tielidze tells us about the insight into the response of mountain glaciers to the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR) event in New Zealand to better understand the climatic history of the Southern Hemisphere during the last deglaciation. The ACR was a cold period occurred in the Southern Hemisphere during the transition from the last glacial period to the current interglacial ...[Read More]

Perspective on Listening to Permafrost

Kerstin Ergenzinger, Bnaya Halperin-Kaddari, Julia Boike February 10, 2023

The Bayelva site (Svalbard, Ny-Ålesund) during polar night (January 28, 2022). Picture by Esther Horvath, Alfred Wegener Institute (Creative Commons Licence CC-BY 4.0)

> Reflections from an ongoing art-science research project Common Grounds < How to visualize thousands of thousands (> 20,000,000) of data points collected in the Arctic atmosphere and subsurface at a permafrost observatory over 25 years? How to tell the story of permafrost, ground that is permanently frozen and an important part of the cryosphere, that is currently warming and thawing at ...[Read More]

The Polar Night Week and the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System

Ugo Nanni & the Early Career Scientists of the Polar Night Week February 3, 2023

Moonrise over the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS) during the 2023 Polar night Week. Credit: S. Aparicio.

In the early days of 2023, nearly 100 researchers gathered in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, one of the last permanently inhabited places before reaching the North Pole (see my previous blogpost about Svalbard). The Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) held its fifth Polar Night Week. SIOS is an international partnership of research institutions that study the environment and climate ...[Read More]

Image of the week – The gaze of the ice cap

Giovanni Baccolo January 27, 2023

Slowly approaching an ice cap in northern Greenland. Credits: Giovanni Baccolo.

We are getting used to perceiving glaciers more and more distant and disconnected from our mountains. With each passing year, it is more difficult to observe them, reach them or climb them. They are becoming an exotic element of the Alpine imagination. When our gaze rests on a mountain glacier, with its crevasses and large moraines, we are filled with the fascination of someone observing a new nat ...[Read More]