Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – On the tip of Petermann’s (ice) tongue

Céline Heuzé January 27, 2017

Petermann's ice tongue. [Credit: C. Heuzé]

5th August 2015, 10:30 in the morning. The meeting had to be interrupted to take this picture. We were aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden, and were now closer than anyone before to the terminus of Petermann Glacier in northwestern Greenland. But we had not travelled that far just for pictures… Petermann’s ice tongue Petermann is one of Greenland’s largest “marine terminating glaciers”. As the name ...[Read More]

Katabatic winds – A load of hot (or cold) air?

Thomas Shaw January 25, 2017

Figure 1: A schematic of the potential wind flow and interplay of local effects on Tsanteleina Glacier in the Italian Alps. The diagram represents wind modelling, measured data and observations from the field. (1) The interactions of down-glacier katabatic winds (blue) and up-valley winds/local heat sources (red); (2) the potential heat emitted from the warm valley surroundings (pink) and; (3) localised surface depressions representing glacier 'cold spots' during calm, high pressure conditions. Arrows correspond to synoptic westerlies (purple), southerly airflow (orange), katabatic winds (blue) and valley winds (red) [Credit: T Shaw, unpublished] - Click here for a larger version.

It might seem obvious that a warming world will lead to a reduction in glacial ice cover, but predicting the response of glaciers to climatic change is no simple task (even within the short term). One way to approach this problem is to come up with relationships which describe how glaciers interact with the world around them, for example, how the ice interacts with the air above it. Our post today ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Climate Change and the Cryosphere

Sophie Berger November 11, 2016

Schematic summary of the dominant observed variations in the cryosphere. [Credit: fig 4.25 from IPCC (2013) ].

While the first week of COP22 – the climate talks in Marrakech – is coming to an end, the recent election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States casts doubt over the fate of the Paris Agreement and more generally the global fight against climate change. In this new political context, we must not forget about the scientific evidence of climate change! Our figure of the week, tod ...[Read More]

Sea Level “For Dummies”

Lionel Favier October 19, 2016

Looking out over the sea on a quiet day with no wind, the word “flat” would certainly pop up in your mind to describe the sea surface. However, this serene view of a flat sea surface is far from accurate at the global scale. The apparent simplicity behind the concept of sea level hides more complex science that we hope to explain in a simple manner in today’s “For Dummies” post, which will g ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Arctic porthole, Arctic portal

Sophie Berger July 15, 2016

Isfjorden, Svalbard, through the porthole of a boat, June 2012 [Credit: Dr Fabien Darrouzet (imaggeo )]

No need to be a superhero to momentarily escape your everyday life! For that you, can just rely on the EGU Cryosphere Blog, which cares for taking you on trips to all sorts of remote and cool places (OK, OK we have to admit that some of these places are indisputably cold 🙂). The picture of this week was taken through the porthole of a boat in the middle of Isfjorden, one of the largest fjord in Sv ...[Read More]