CR
Cryospheric Sciences

climate change

Why the 2022 Italian snow drought matters to you

September 16, 2022
Why the 2022 Italian snow drought matters to you
2022 was a particularly poor snow season across the Italian Alps, with estimated anomalies in Snow Water Equivalent compared to the last 12 years well below -75% at places. Photo credit: S3M Italy by CIMA Research Foundation, background layer is from the ESRI Satellite Theme.

June 2022: I was discussing the ongoing drought with my family over lunch, when my dad pointed to me and summarized things as follows: “You know, less snow in winter means less water in summer!” I almost choked … what? Not only was it the first time I realized my family had been listening to my scientific anecdotes for years, but I also had concrete evidence now that snow was entering public ...[Read More]

Summer 2022: A perfect storm for Alpine glaciers

July 1, 2022
Summer 2022: A perfect storm for Alpine glaciers
The Kleinfleiss glacier in the Hohe Tauern region of the Eastern Alps. Credits: https://www.foto-webcam.eu/.

The summer of 2022 is shaping up to be a perfect storm for Alpine glaciers. By a strange coincidence, all the factors that could adversely affect glacial dynamics seem to have come into agreement. Let’s find out why. What controls the behavior of Alpine glaciers? Snow, temperature, weather conditions and the properties of snow and ice. These are the most important factors governing the life ...[Read More]

Ice-hot news: A cryo-summary of the new IPCC assessment report!

May 13, 2022
Ice-hot news: A cryo-summary of the new IPCC assessment report!
Figure 1: An illustration of the Vernagtferner glacier in Austria, under the influence of climate change. Painting by Larissa van der Laan, based on historical photographs compiled by Markus Weber.

We have waited eight years for it, and it is finally out: the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (a.k.a. « IPCC AR6 »)! And it is more than 10,000 pages long across Working Groups! Fortunately, a synthesis report integrating the findings of all three working groups should be released in Autumn 2022. However, we, at the EGU Cryosphere Blog, thought it might be us ...[Read More]

Current challenges: high-altitude Chilean glacier monitoring in an extended drought

April 29, 2022
Current challenges: high-altitude Chilean glacier monitoring in an extended drought
Olivares Alfa Glacier in January 2021, Photo credit: Alejandro Silva.

Central Chile has been facing a long dry period since 2010, marked by a high mean precipitation deficit, a so-called Mega Drought (MD) (Garreaud et al., 2019). This, besides long-term temperature increase (Burger et al., 2018; Falvey & Garreaud, 2009), has affected negatively the glaciers’ mass balance in the region mainly due to low snow accumulation throughout a hydrological year (which is f ...[Read More]

More pancakes in the future!

April 21, 2022
More pancakes in the future!
Evening sun over pancake ice covering Hornsund Fjord in Svalbard, 27 March 2020. Credits: Roxana Cremer.

More pancakes in the future – that sounds like a very good New Year’s Eve resolution for Sunday brunches, but it could also be a development of the most tasty looking sea ice shape in the Arctic. Let’s find out more! Arctic Sea Ice The growth and melt of Arctic sea ice follows a seasonal cycle. In the springtime, under the midnight sun, the sea ice begins to melt until it reaches its m ...[Read More]

You left us too early: a eulogy to permafrost

March 4, 2022
You left us too early: a eulogy to permafrost
Cotton grass grows in wet landscapes in many tundra landscapes. Photo credit: Loeka Jongejans

Most problems faced in research are complex and require creativity and critical thinking. Thus, we need to be creative in science! Or maybe, science itself is creative and there is no such thing as non-creative science. Anyhow, in today’s world, where TED-talks, science slams and elevator pitches, not to mention tweets, are ubiquitous, it is important that scientific expression takes on a form tha ...[Read More]

Time & space of glaciers

February 25, 2022
Time & space of glaciers
Ice fall in Azay glacier in the beginning of XX century [Credits: Alexandra Rogozhina & IGRAS/RGO]

People usually perceive space and time, comparing them to their own life Words such as “forever” and “until the end” appear in fiction But how can we imagine the space and time of the mountain glaciers whose existence goes beyond our usual perception? And why is it so important for us now? With this post, researcher Alexandra Rogozhina shares her thoughts on these suggestive topics. Mostly, ...[Read More]

Living IN the Greenland ice sheet: the story of Sites I and II, Camp Century’s older, smaller siblings

January 21, 2022
Living IN the Greenland ice sheet: the story of Sites I and II, Camp Century’s older, smaller siblings
Site I in 1953 or early 1954, just after installation and before it was buried by accumulating snow. These three main tubes each have a diameter of 5.4 meters. [Credits: U.S. Air Force]

Greenland, cold as it is, was appropriately front and center in the Cold War. Strategically placed between Europe and North America, the United States sought to maintain and enhance its position on the island so that American missiles and bombers were in striking range of many Soviet targets. Soviet bombers and missiles coming toward North America would streak over Greenland making early warning c ...[Read More]

The EverDrill project: shedding light on the interior of a Himalayan debris-covered glacier

December 3, 2021
The EverDrill project: shedding light on the interior of a Himalayan debris-covered glacier
Figure 1 – The upper ablation area of Khumbu Glacier, with clean ice (left centre of image) coming out of the Khumbu Icefall becoming debris-covered as it flows towards the terminus (flow is towards the bottom right of the image). Credit: the author.

We know that glaciers are actively responding to climate change, but what is happening on the inside? The conditions within a glacier strongly influence its behaviour, but the deep and dark depths of a glacier are difficult to access – we know very little about this remote environment. The EverDrill project (2016 – 2019), funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council, aimed to fill this kn ...[Read More]

Will the ice break out? – a story from the farthest north ice trails

November 26, 2021
Man on snow machine looks bake to the canoe he is towing across ice.
A family traveling up the coast with a traditional Umiaq skin boat on an ice trail only days before the ice broke out in 2014. Photo: Dyre Dammann

"For over two decades, the sea ice group at the University of Alaska has worked with the community of Utqiaġvik, establishing an integrated observing network. This network includes local observations, a coastal radar system to monitor ice conditions, an in-situ mass balance site monitoring environmental change such as ice growth and snow cover, and the mapping of community sea ice trails." In thi ...[Read More]