CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Antarctica

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]

Cryobook review: The Quickening

July 8, 2024
The cover of Elizabeth Rush's book
Cover of The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush. Credits: https://milkweed.org/book/the-quickening]

Even before its publication, my partner stumbled over the book The Quickening by Elizabeth Rush on Twitter and send it to me. In this book, Rush describes her journey to Thwaites Glacier and – as I was very curious about it – I bought it immediately after its release. It is not only documentary work about the journey, but also a meditation on responsibility, motherhood and life in a world of chang ...[Read More]

Blue ice in Antarctica: small extent, big science

June 21, 2024
A figure with a map of Antarctica in the middle, and 8 zoomed in sections of it showing blue ice areas.
Figure 1: A new blue ice area map, based on deep learning. Credit: Tollenaar et al., 2024.

Kggk kggk kggk – the sound of crampons accompanies me. A thin layer of snow covers the slippery ice while I pull a sled. As I wipe my hand over the snow, underneath, a blue color glitters in the sun (Figure 2). In the last days it has been snowing in the White Desert (Antarctica). All blue ice we could see before is temporarily covered by a thin blanket, perfect to pull a sled. However, this snow ...[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]

antARcTica

October 20, 2023
antARcTica

In the frozen expanse of Antarctica, where the remote environment tests the limits of scientists, a unique relationship between science and art can emerge. As the isolation, weather and beauty of the ice-covered continent introduce themselves, some Antarctic individuals find solace in the realm of art. In this blog post, we delve into the interplay between the world of scientific exploration and t ...[Read More]

An inclusive field team is a great field team: Strategies and resources

June 23, 2023
A scheme showing the 6 aspects leading to positive and inclusive fieldwork environment, including physical and mental well-being, team values, recognising and valueing diversity, rest days, dealing with stress, communication and daily checkin.
Key elements of a positive and inclusive field work environment. From Karplus, Young et al. (2023).

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]

Did you know about Antarctic snow megadunes?

May 19, 2023
Maps showing areas on East Antarctica that have megadunes made of snow and ice.
Location map of megadune area adapted from (Traversa et al. 2023)

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]

For Dummies: Radar altimetry for measuring ice sheet elevation changes

March 3, 2023
For Dummies: Radar altimetry for measuring ice sheet elevation changes
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]

Hidden beneath the surface – what can we learn from an ice sheet’s internal stratigraphy?

October 28, 2022
Hidden beneath the surface – what can we learn from an ice sheet’s internal stratigraphy?
The ski-equipped Polar-6 Basler aircraft from the Alfred-Wegener Institute (AWI) flying an ice-penetrating radar from Rothera research base. The radar antennas are visible under the wings. Photo credit: Michael Fischer, AWI.

Hidden beneath the surface of ice sheets lies an intricate structure carrying a unique fingerprint of past ice flow and climate conditions. Disentangling the drivers of an ice sheet’s enigmatic stratigraphy could theoretically unravel the ice sheet’s past evolution and provide a much clearer picture of things to come in the future. One way to detect this mysterious stratigraphy is to use ice-penet ...[Read More]

Lights out: cryosphere instruments perfectly placed to study solar eclipse

July 8, 2022
Lights out: cryosphere instruments perfectly placed to study solar eclipse
The view from the path of totality in West Antarctica during the eclipse. Photo credit: Jesse Norquay, accessed from https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/science/4712/

On 04 December 2021, only a handful of people in Antarctica were fortunate enough to experience a total eclipse. As well as spectacular views—including a brief window of totality that darkened the midnight sun for 2 minutes—this phenomenon is known to affect the flow of energy between the Northern and Southern hemispheres of the ionosphere. Because eclipses in Antarctica only happen once every ~20 ...[Read More]