Cryospheric Sciences

An Antarctic Road Trip

Nanna B. Karlsson June 8, 2016

Arriving at our first drill site with our sledge containing drill equipment, survival box and of course our lunch. Credit: N. B. Karlsson

Working in the Arctic and Antarctic presents its own challenges. It is perhaps easy to imagine how a station situated close to the coast is resupplied: during the summer, one or more ships will arrive bringing fuel, food and equipment, but what about stations inland? Flying in supplies by aircraft is expensive and, in the case of large quantities of fuel, unsustainable. Besides, many stations are ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Historical aerial imagery of Greenland

Mette Bendixen May 27, 2016

Aerial photo of the Zackenberg delta in North-East Greenland taken in 1932. (Credit: Danish Geodata Agency)

A few month ago, we were taking you on a trip back to Antarctic fieldwork 50 years ago, today we go back to Greenland during 1930s! When geopolitics serves cryospheric sciences The Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague awarded Danish sovereignty over Greenland in 1933 and besides geopolitical interests, Denmark had a keen interest in searching for natural resources and new opportun ...[Read More]

Image Of The Week – Do My Ice Deceive Me?

Sophie Berger April 1, 2016

F.I.B. in the ice, (credit: the person who took the shot would rather stay anonymous and not tell where the picture was taken sorry)

A few weeks ago, we focussed our image of the week on very particular parts of Antarctica, which display blue ice at the surface. Today we would like to put the spotlight on an even more extreme chromatic phenomenon : the Fyndið ísjaki Brandari (should be pronounced “/fɪːntɪð/ˈiːsjacɪ /ˈprantaːrɪ/“, even though a bit of phonetics never hurt anyone, for the sake of simplicity this phenomenon ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Antarctic fieldwork 50 years ago!

Sophie Berger February 26, 2016

Rest break in the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica. Summer campaign 1964-1965 of the Belgian-Dutch Antarctic Expeditions (Credit: Jean-Jacques Derwael)

So far this blog has published many pictures of current polar field work campaigns. Today, we would like to take you back to Antarctic expeditions during the 1960s. The photos presented in this post date back from the Belgian-Dutch Antarctic field campaigns of 1964-1966. The first picture shows Ken Blaiklock (red overalls) with a Belgian surveyor. Ken was part of the 1955–58 Commonwealth Trans-Ant ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — slush on top of sea ice

Sophie Berger February 5, 2016

Fieldwork on Greenland sea ice/slush (Credit: Marie Kotovitch)

Many glaciologists look forward to going on fieldtrips and then, once they are back, they make us dream by posting breathtaking photos (like THIS or THIS or THIS). However, the reality of the field can sometimes be very different…. The picture illustrates how difficult it can be to work on sea ice when the snow on top of it starts to melt and forms slush (a mixture of snow and liquid water t ...[Read More]

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]

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]

Riding the Storm: The Arctic Circle Traverse 2015

Babis Charalampidis October 8, 2015

Stormy day at Dye-2, 20th of May. Credit: Babis Charalampidis.

In the morning on the 19th of May, we – the Arctic Circle Traverse 2015 – found ourselves in a great dilemma; to stay or to go? On our check-in conversation with the KISS crew, we were informed that an east front from Kulusuk was expected to hit our location up on the ice sheet sometime in the afternoon. The relatively low winds that we were experiencing would get stronger, and the visibility woul ...[Read More]