Cryospheric Sciences

Cryo Adventures – Discovering the beauty of polar winter

Mirjam Paasch September 12, 2025

Fig. 1: Digging snow pits, taking ice cores, and watching out for polar bears – a cold day in February on a glacier in Svalbard. [Credit: Wenceslas Marie-Sainte]

Only one month after starting my PhD, I found myself in a tiny plane flying over one of the most beautiful and breathtaking landscapes I’ve ever seen. I was on the way to the northernmost settlement in the world – the research village Ny-Ålesund. What I expected from the trip: cold temperatures, darkness, and lots of snow. What I found instead: stunning views, magical colors, friendly people, and ...[Read More]

The Proglacial Puzzle: Sampling of Glacier-fed Lakes in Greenland

Joost van Genuchten July 11, 2025

Figure 1: Sampling on top of a frozen proglacial lake - April 2025, 67° 7′ 46.95″ N, 50° 6′ 41.21″ W . Photo: Joost van Genuchten

Would you like to follow the endeavours of a small team working in the ice-marginal terrain in South-West Greenland? They set out to investigate proglacial lakes using sediment coring, water sampling and gas collections (figure 1), aiming to better understand methane dynamics, proglacial terrain development and the environmental drivers behind methane production in glacially influenced lake system ...[Read More]

Cryosphere Caps: PhD hats and the researchers that wear them – Episode 4

Mack Baysinger June 27, 2025

Figure 1 : Dorothea stands in front of a freshly excavated snow pit (near Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard) and gets ready to carry out an experiment as part of the data collection for her PhD. [Credit: Guy Hillyard]

This miniseries features the tradition of ‘PhD hat’ making in German research institutes and universities. For those of you unfamiliar with this idea (as I once was), this is one of the final milestones a graduate student has before they are officially a “Dr.”. Upon the successful defense of a thesis, the labmates of the PhD student craft a graduation hat from a mishmash of scrap cardboard and mem ...[Read More]

Cryosphere Caps: PhD hats and the researchers that wear them – Episode 1

Mack Baysinger February 21, 2025

Figure 1: Torben at the moment he received his PhD hat from his peers, at his defense in 2024 at the University of Potsdam. [Credit: Mack Baysinger]

This miniseries features the tradition of ‘PhD hat’ making in German research institutes and universities. For those of you unfamiliar with this idea (as I once was), this is one of the final milestones a graduate student has before they are officially a “Dr.”. Upon the successful defense of a thesis, the peers of the PhD student craft a graduation hat from a mishmash of scrap cardboard and memora ...[Read More]

Field notes from the Chhota Shigri Glacier: A journey of science and survival in the Himalaya

Himanshu Kaushik January 10, 2025

Figure 1: First-ever automatic weather station installed in the accumulation zone at 5218 m a.s.l. on the Chhota Shigri Glacier (Credit: Himanshu Kaushik).

I’m Himanshu Kaushik, a PhD student working under the guidance of Dr. Mohd Farooq Azam at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore (India). Seven years ago, I took my first steps onto the Chhota Shigri Glacier (CSG) in the Indian (Western) Himalaya, and it felt like stepping into another world. Surrounded by the towering peaks, it seemed otherworldly and humbling. After that first expeditio ...[Read More]

Crossing borders – Glacier fieldwork at Sulitjelma/Salajekna

Silje Waaler November 22, 2024

Postdoc Sarah Tingey filtering samples from the portal of Sulitjelma all wrapped up to avoid the chilling katabatic winds from the glacier. [Credit: Silje Waaler]

The time I first set foot at the university, I didn’t expect that two weeks later I would be looking at a backpack more than half my size, turning my back to the shelter of our rental car and walking almost 100 km in the Norwegian Arctic. Howling winds, heavy backpacks, daunting bridges, and endless beauty – that’s how I would describe my first experience with glacier fieldwork. I, Silje Waa ...[Read More]

A First-Timer’s Journey to the Heart of the Himalayas

Krishnanand J October 25, 2024

The route of our journey from Srinagar to Panikhar. The black line is the road we took for the car journey. The road is not to scale! (Credit: Krishnanand J)

I am Krishnanand J, a graduate student in glaciology from IISER Pune, India. This is a story about my very first field trip to the Himalaya. Coming from a small village in Kerala, which is the southernmost state of India, going to the Himalaya is considered a big thing. It is like a camel visiting Antarctica. So below, I will take you along on an immersive journey, as I tell you about my first fie ...[Read More]

Dreaming & reading about fieldwork – summer blog break 2024

Maria Scheel July 29, 2024

A person is kneeling down at a brown pond, all covered in mosquito net, waterproof gear, kitchen gloves and a pancake flipping spatula.

Maria during an Arctic Microbiomes PhD Summer school in Nunavut, Canada. Yes, sometimes, kitchen utensils help you stay away from mosquitos and discover some amazing bacterial mats (you can find them in your non-Arctic ponds, as well! (Photo Credit: Pascal Paradis)

As we are starting into our annual blog summer break, we reflect on what summer can mean for polar researchers (including some fieldwork saudades). As an Arctic or Alpine cryo-scientist, chances are that you are somewhere in between vacation, fieldwork or trying to work through data while everyone else is free. If you, like us, did not have your vacation yet or do not have any fieldwork com ...[Read More]

Women of Cryo VII: Making Fieldwork More Inclusive

Florina Roana Schalamon, Maria Dance and Marjolein Gevers July 12, 2024

Women make up 50.8% of the world’s population, yet fewer than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. Of this percentage, women of colour comprise around 5%, with less than 1% represented in geoscience faculty positions. Women are published less, paid less, and do not progress as far in their careers as men. Even within our EGU community, women account for only one third of all members, and make ...[Read More]

Blue ice in Antarctica: small extent, big science

Veronica Tollenaar 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]