Cryospheric Sciences

Image of Week: Blue Ice in East Antarctica

Nanna B. Karlsson January 22, 2016

Blue ice area in front of the northernmost part of the Heimefrontfjella, East Antarctica. Credit: N. B. Karlsson

The blue ice areas of Antarctica are one of the most fascinating parts of the ice sheet. In these regions, snowfall is so low that the ice is laid bare by the wind and consequently sublimates. This exposes beautiful, blue ice surfaces, like an ocean frozen in time. This picture was taken at a site named “Windy Corner” by the Kottas Mountains, in the northernmost part of the Heimefrontf ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Happy New Year

Sophie Berger January 8, 2016

Night-owl unicorn in Antarctica. Credit: Brice Van Liefferinge

December 2014, 11:50 p.m., the sun licks the horizon on Derwael ice rise; It’s time to go back to the tent … The shot was taken during the 2014 IceCon Field campaign in East Antarctica (read Brice’s blog post telllling about his first journey to Antarctica). Here, you can also read about the 2016 field season of the IceCon project, which started just a few days ago.

Image of the Week — Greetings from Antarctica

Sophie Berger December 25, 2015

Credit: The British Antarctic Survey

Christmas greetings from people at Rothera Research Station, Adelaide Island, Antarctica. Rothera, which is the British Antarctic Survey’s largest base in Antarctica, is a centre for marine biology and gateway for getting scientists into their deep field camps. Christmas Day is a regular working day for the staff of around 90. However the chefs will be getting everyone into the festive spiri ...[Read More]

Image of the Week: Atmospheric CO2 from ice cores

Nanna B. Karlsson December 9, 2015

CO2 concentrations from EPICA and Vostok ice cores. The red bar at the side shows the Mauna Loa measurements. Credit: The IPCC AR 4 report Fig. 6.3

The measurements of atmospheric CO2 levels at Manu Loa, Hawaii read 401.01ppm on the 7th of December this year. To understand the significance of this number, you just need to look at the figure above from the 4th IPCC report. It shows the changes in CO2 concentrations during the past 800,000 years based on ice core measurements. Values have fluctuated between 190ppm and 280ppm. In other words, bo ...[Read More]

Image of the Week: Under the Sea

Sophie Berger November 20, 2015

Sea ice from below. Credit: Marcus Arnold

Always wondered how it looks like under the sea ice? Getting an answer is simpler than you might think: Just go out to the front of McMurdo ice shelf in Antarctica and drill a tube into the sea ice. Then let people climb down and take pictures of the ice from below. More information: – Photo taken by Marcus Arnold, Gateway Antarctica, University of Canterbury during his November 2015, Antarc ...[Read More]

Sunshine, ice cores, buckets and ALE: Antarctic Fieldwork

Helen Millman November 12, 2015

The field site in the Patriot Hills. The katabatic winds scour the surface of the blue ice, making these ripples which look like the ocean. (Credit: H. Millman)

My Antarctic adventure started from Punta Arenas at the bottom of Chile, opposite Tierra del Fuego, on New Years Eve 2014 after a long journey from Heathrow via São Paulo and Santiago. Punta Arenas Punta Arenas is where Shackleton organised the rescue of his men from Elephant Island after his voyage to South Georgia in the James Caird. It is also where I met my PhD supervisors Chris Fogwill and Ch ...[Read More]

Image of the Week: Antarctic ice-shelf thickness

Sophie Berger October 9, 2015

Thickness of the Antarctic ice shelves. Credit: M. Depoorter

Thickness of floating ice shelves in Antarctica. Ice thickness is greatest close to the grounding line where it can reach 1000 meters or more (red). Away from the grounding line, the ice rapidly thins to reach a few hundreds of meters at the calving front. Ice thickness varies greatly from one ice shelf to another. Within ice shelves, “streams of ice” can be spotted originating from in ...[Read More]

Image of the week : formation of an ice rise

Sophie Berger September 25, 2015

Deglaciation and formation of an ice rise with the ice-sheet model BISICLES. The simulation starts with an ice sheet in steady state that overrides a topographic high in the bed, close to the calving front. The sea level is then forced to rise steadily with 1 cm per year during 15 thousand years, and the simulation goes on until the ice sheet reaches steady state. The animation below shows that t ...[Read More]

Ice Nomads: The iSTAR traverse of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica

Damon Davies May 27, 2015

It’s the 2nd December 2013 and I find myself in one of those rare occasions in life where I feel I need to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming. Why? Somehow I’m in control of a British Antarctic Survey De Havilland Twin Otter aircraft flying over the white featureless expanse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. I’m part of a team of 12 heading to Pine Island Glacier, a remote ice stream 75°S and arou ...[Read More]

My first journey to Antarctica – Brice Van Liefferinge

Brice Van Liefferinge May 8, 2015

(Credit B. Van Liefferinge)

19 November 2014, the Iliuchine 76 gently lands on the runway of the Russian Antarctic station, Novolazarevskaya, in Dronning Maud Land. For the first time, I’m in Antarctica! It is 4 o’clock in the morning and we need to hurriedly offload 2 tons of material intended for our field mission near the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Station. I’m deeply impressed by the landscape although it is dotted with ...[Read More]