Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the week – Birds in the Arctic

Loeka Jongejans January 20, 2023

Northern Gannet in flight in the Lofoten, Norway. Photo credit: L. Jongejans

I am a hobby ornithologist and love watching birds. It is fun and relaxing to search the trees or fields for feathered friends. One has to be aware of their surroundings, which can make birding even meditative. Here, I will tell you more about Arctic breeding birds, their population declines and I present to you three birds of the many I saw on my very first trips to the Arctic. Arctic breeding bi ...[Read More]

A little guide to find your way through the Cryo-Jungle?

EGU Cryoblog November 4, 2022

Are you starting your studies in cryospheric sciences, or are coming into our field from another subject? If so, you may have unsuspectingly waded into a (very thick) soup of acronyms! Don’t fret–here is your “one stop shop” that tells you where to look for more information! Early Career Organisations Unless you’re fortunate enough to be working in a polar-oriented institute (some of our previous ...[Read More]

Did you know the differences between Arctic and Antarctic sea ice?

Hayat Nasirova & David Docquier October 14, 2022

Figure 1: Satellite observations of (top) Arctic and (bottom) Antarctic sea-ice concentration in (left) March 2020 and (right) September 2020. [Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, https://nsidc.org/home].

If you look at the maps in Figure 1, you will quickly see that sea ice is present in both polar regions (Arctic at the top, Antarctic at the bottom). Despite this apparent similarity, some differences exist between Arctic (in the Northern Hemisphere) and Antarctic (in the Southern Hemisphere) sea ice. We provide a brief explanation of two key differences in this post. Geography The first main diff ...[Read More]

The intriguing order of cold terrains

Giovanni Baccolo October 6, 2022

Beautiful stone circles forming a stone net in the Kronprins Christian Land (Northern Greenland) [Credit: Giovanni Baccolo].

Do you know what the periglacial environment is? Well, the word periglacial refers to those environments which are somehow sculpted by seasonal freeze and thaw cycles. The alternation of freezing and thawing conditions can change the landscape, creating some spectacular landforms. Stone circles are certainly among the most mysterious and fascinating. Come and discover them! Some definitions Glacia ...[Read More]

A place called home?

Katrin Lindbäck February 18, 2022

Black-legged kittiwakes in Kongsfjorden, Svalbard. Photo credit: Geir Wing Gabrielsen/Norwegian Polar Institute.

Welcome to Kongsfjorden in Svalbard. The front of the glaciers terminating into the sea is an ecological hotspot, home to many marine animals, like kittiwakes, who love to hunt here. They feed on small fish and shrimp, which at marine-terminating glacier fronts are brought to the surface by upwelling glacial meltwater. Retreating glaciers lose their contact with the ocean As the planet warms these ...[Read More]

Climate change and cryosphere – A wetter future for the Arctic

Michelle McCrystall February 11, 2022

Rain fall will likely become the more dominant precipitation type in the Arctic earlier than previously projected. Credit: Cole Farlow.

The latest climate models show that Arctic precipitation is changing more rapidly than previously projected with an earlier transition to a rainfall-dominated precipitation. This rapid change in precipitation will have huge implications for the Arctic ecosystem as well as those who live within the region. Arctic precipitation change, why is it so important? The rapid change in Arctic climate, from ...[Read More]

Did you know… Arctic lightning strikes are on the rise?

Jenny Turton February 4, 2022

When we think of lightning, it is often accompanied by warm summer nights, tropical storms and a sticky feeling when we try to sleep. However, lightning also happens in the cold Arctic, and is even increasing in frequency. But how and why? And why does that matter? What is lightning? Lightning is caused by a difference in electrical charge between the cloud and the air, nearby clouds, or the groun ...[Read More]

Climate Change & the Cryosphere: Fjord sediments reveal how melting ice impact the marine ecosystem

Mimmi Oksman and Anna Bang Kvorning January 7, 2022

Coastal marine landscape in Ilulissat, West Greenland [photo: Anna Bang Kvorning]

It is scary how fast the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting and how much freshwater it is discharging to the coastal areas around Greenland. This freshening is having a serious impact to coastal marine primary production, which is the foundation of the Arctic marine food web. Now, because of increased melting and freshwater discharge, we need to understand how coastal ecosystems will react. How will A ...[Read More]

The Polar Amplifier

Seelye Martin December 17, 2021

Drip, drip, drop of the melting sea ice. Figure [Maria Scheel, imaggeo.egu.eu]

It’s no secret that the Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet, but why? Polar Amplification (often called Arctic Amplification) is the mechanism at play. In this week’s blog, we find out about its origins and why it happens. Early Discoveries In 1969, Russian scientist Mikhail Budyko and US scientist William Sellers discovered independently that the increase in greenhouse gases comb ...[Read More]

The Norwegian Polar Institute

Ashley Morris June 18, 2021

Spot the glaciologists! Norwegian Polar Institute researchers work on the highly crevassed surface of the fast-flowing glacier Kronebreen, near Ny-Ålesund, in northwestern Spitsbergen. Credit: Elvar Ørn Kjartansson, Norsk Polarinstitutt.

It is a pleasure for the EGU Cryoblog team to present a new post category: Cryo-institutes around the world! There are many institutes working on cryosphere-related research spread around the world. The aim of this new category is to highlight the cool research that is carried out at these institutes, showing off our multi-faceted cryo-related science. In this opening post, Ashley Morris will pres ...[Read More]