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Cryospheric Sciences

ice sheet

Recipe to quantify calibration errors in a time-dependent ice sheet model

October 27, 2023
Recipe to quantify calibration errors in a time-dependent ice sheet model
Figure 1: Upper diagram: schematics of baking a pie, representing an idealized 1D Bayesian inverse problem. Lower diagram: schematics of a multi-dimension ice sheet inverse problem solved using FEniCS_ice error propagation framework, created from a compilation of figures from Recinos et al. (2023). FEniCS_ice is designed to solve these problems over a finite element mesh containing (in this study case) more than 100,000 elements. These elements are the vertices, faces, and edges that form our triangular mesh (red map, check out ingredients list below for more information). [Credits: Beatriz Recinos, baking icons from https://www.flaticon.com/].

Ice sheet models are awesome tools that help us learn and predict the fate of ice sheets under human-induced climate change. However, all models have errors. What types of uncertainties exist in an ice sheet model and how can we quantify some of them efficiently? Check out our recipe to quantify one type of uncertainty in sea level rise projections: The model calibration error. Not a numerical mod ...[Read More]

CryoNews – The WMO is making the cryosphere a global priority

June 9, 2023
A plane and several researchers on the ice in Antarctica.
The collection and sharing of climate data especially from Antarctic is now more than ever supported by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). (Photo credit: Andrew Elvidge, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

To us, the cryosphere has always been a priority. It is our field of interest, research, maybe passion, it is the stuff that gets us excited. Now, the cryosphere also became a priority to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). In today’s post we cover a recent news item introducing this very decision made during WMO’s recent congress. Read along to find out  why they emphasize the importance ...[Read More]

How small changes can make a big difference: tipping points in Antarctica

November 13, 2020

As Antarctica’s mass loss increases, the threat of crossing tipping points both in the ice sheet and the surrounding Southern Ocean is increasing. But what actually is a tipping point? Have tipping points already been crossed in the past? And what might the future hold? What do we mean by a “tipping point”? Scientifically speaking, a tipping point is generally understood to be a threshold that, on ...[Read More]

Ice-hot news: The IPCC Special Report on the Oceans and the Cryosphere under Climate Change

October 30, 2019
Ice-hot news: The IPCC Special Report on the Oceans and the Cryosphere under Climate Change
[Credit: Martin Robles on Unsplash]

You have probably heard the name “Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)” mentioned frequently over the last few years. The IPCC is the United Nations body for assessing science related to climate change and it publishes global assessment reports on this topic every 5 to 10 years. Due to the current urgency of the global climate crisis and the need for more information by decision makers ...[Read More]

Image of the Week — Cavity leads to complexity

April 19, 2019

  A 10km-long, 4-km-wide and 350m-high cavity has recently been discovered under one of the fastest-flowing glaciers in Antarctica using different airborne and satellite techniques (see this press release and this study). This enormous cavity previously contained 14 billion tons of ice and formed between 2011 and 2016. This indicates that the bottom of the big glaciers on Earth can melt faster tha ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Greenland’s fjords: critical zones for mixing

October 5, 2018
Image of the Week – Greenland’s fjords: critical zones for mixing
An iceberg melts in Godthåbsfjord, West Greenland [Credit: Thomas-Juul Pedersen].

One of the most challenging research questions to address in the Arctic is how freshwater discharge from Greenland’s largest glaciers affects the biogeochemistry of the ocean. Just getting close to the calving fronts of these large marine-terminating glaciers is difficult. Fjords, hundreds of kilometers long and full of icebergs which shift with the wind and roll as they melt, make the commute a l ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Oh Sheet!

September 28, 2018
Image of the Week – Oh Sheet!
Fig. 1: Overview of the ISMIP6 framework. Obtain forcing from climate models, project sea-level contributions using ice-sheet models, and explore ice-sheet-climate feedbacks. [Credit : Figure 1 in Nowicki et al., 2016 ]

The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are major players in future sea level rise. Still, there is a lot about these ice sheets we do not understand. Under the umbrella of the World Climate Research Programme, the international scientific community is coming together to improve ice sheet modelling efforts to better grasp the implications of climate change for ice sheet evolution, and consequently, ...[Read More]

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]

Mapping the bottom of the world — an Interview with Brad Herried, Antarctic Cartographer

October 11, 2017
Mapping the bottom of the world — an Interview with Brad Herried, Antarctic Cartographer
Brad Herried, Antarctic cartographer at South Pole. [Credit: Brad Herried].

Mapping Earth’s most remote continent presents a number of unique challenges. Antarctic cartographers and scientists are using some of the most advanced mapping technologies available to get a clearer picture of the continent. We asked Brad Herried, a Cartographer and Web Developer at the Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota, a few questions about what it’s like to do this unique ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – A new way to compute ice dynamic changes

August 4, 2017

Up to now, ice sheet mass changes due to ice dynamics have been computed from satellite observations that suffer from sparse coverage in time and space. A new method allows us to compute these changes on much wider temporal and spatial scales. But how does this method work? Let us discover the different steps by having a look at Enderby Land in East Antarctica, for which ice velocities are shown i ...[Read More]