CR
Cryospheric Sciences

colors

Image of the Week – Super-cool colours of icebergs

March 30, 2018
Image of the Week – Super-cool colours of icebergs
Fig.1: Clear blue marine ice visible on an upturned iceberg [Credit: Stephen Warren].

It is Easter weekend! And as we do not want you to forget about our beloved cryosphere, we provide you with a picture nearly as colourful as the Easter eggs: very blue icebergs! What makes them so special? This is what this Image of the Week is about… What are icebergs made of? Icebergs are chunks of ice which break off from land ice, such as glaciers or ice sheets (as you’ll know if you rem ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – The colors of sea ice

March 9, 2018
Image of the Week – The colors of sea ice
Thin sections of sea ice photographed under polarized light. Individual ice crystals are shown by different colors. The color is random – it does not tell us anything specific about the crystals. Examples of granular ice, with smaller crystals in the top parts of the ice samples, are shown in the top rows. Columnar ice, with long layered ice crystals, can be seen in the bottom rows. Several pictures with columnar ice have air bubbles, for example all pictures in the left column and the center right picture [Credit: Polona Itkin and Anja Rösel, Norwegian Polar Institute].

The Oscars 2018 might be over, but we have something for you that is just as cool or even cooler (often cooler than -20°C)! Our Image of the Week shows thin sections of sea ice photographed under polarized light, highlighting individual ice crystals in different colors, and is taken from a short video that we made. Read more about what this picture shows and watch the movie about how we got these ...[Read More]