Cryospheric Sciences

The future of Arctic sea ice

David Docquier July 10, 2020

Figure 1: Sketch that shows the presence (in white, ‘ice covered’) and absence (in blue, ‘ice free’, i.e. less than 1 million km2 of sea ice) of Arctic sea ice for different levels of warming (X axis) and the different months of the year (Y axis), based on the extrapolation of observations. The estimated warming in 2018 is marked with ‘today’. Figure credit: Fig. 1 of Notz and Stroeve (2018).

The illustration above shows a sketch of the evolution of Arctic sea ice for different levels of warming and the different months of the year, based on the simple extrapolation of observations. A new study, in which I was involved, uses the latest available global climate models and shows that the Arctic Ocean could become practically ice free at the end of the summer for the first time before 205 ...[Read More]

Did you know… the difference between sea-ice area and sea-ice extent?

Clara Burgard April 10, 2020

Fig. 1: Sea-ice landscape [Credit: Tapio Haaja on Unsplash]

At the beginning of March, just over a month ago, sea ice in the Arctic reached its annual maximum extent. As currently all media attention is focused on other news, you might have missed that, once again, this maximum fell below the 1981 to 2010 average maximum extent. When reading headlines about such sea-ice facts, you may have been confused by the seemingly interchangeable use of “sea-ice exte ...[Read More]

Trapped in the sea ice – Educating the future generations of polar scientists

Thomas Rackow and Friederike Krüger March 6, 2020

In October 2019, the research icebreaker ‘Polarstern’ was moored to an ice floe for its year-long journey through the Arctic Ocean. Come with us on a slightly shorter journey and learn how MOSAiC participants from the supporting cruise educate the future generation of polar scientists! What is the MOSAiC expedition? The MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate ...[Read More]

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

Laura H. Rasmussen, Clara Burgard and Jenny Arthur October 30, 2019

[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]

Climate Change & Cryosphere – Summer 2019: The year that the Arctic was sunburned

Jenny Turton September 20, 2019

June, July and August 2019 saw extensive heat waves across Europe, with air temperatures reaching above 40°C in many countries. In response, record breaking ice melt was observed in Greenland and wildfires in Siberia, Alaska, Arctic Canada and Greenland occurred. A particularly dry and warm summer was responsible for hemisphere-wide changes to the cryosphere. In this week’s post, we will review so ...[Read More]

Climate Change & Cryosphere – Why is the Arctic sea-ice cover retreating?

David Docquier September 13, 2019

Picture of Arctic sea ice with melt ponds [Credit: David Mark on Pixabay].

The Arctic Ocean surface is darkening as its sea-ice cover is shrinking. The exact processes driving the ongoing sea-ice loss are far from being totally understood. In this post, we will investigate the different causes of the recent retreat of the Arctic sea-ice cover, using the most updated literature… Arctic sea ice is disappearing Due to its geographical position centered around the Nort ...[Read More]

Did you know? – Storms can make Arctic sea ice disappear even faster

Polona Itkin July 19, 2019

Fig. 1: The difficulties of in-situ observations on sea ice. Winter storm has broken up an ice floe that was only hours ago more than a kilometer wide into small pieces. Scientists are climbing over cracks and rescuing the equipment [Credit: Tor Ivan Karlsen, Norwegian Polar Institute].

The increase in air and water temperature due to climate change drives the retreat in the Arctic sea-ice cover. During summer, when sunlight reaches the Arctic, the absorption of heat by the dark ocean water enhances the sea-ice melt through the ice-albedo feedback. During winter, when sunlight does not reach the Arctic, another feedback is at work, as storms enhance the energy transfer between ai ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – 5th Snow Science Winter School

Caroline Aubry-Wake and Maren Richter March 29, 2019

From February 17th to 23rd, 21 graduate students and postdoctorate researchers from around the world made their way to Hailuoto, a small island on the coast of Finland, to spend a week learning about snow on sea-ice for the 5th Snow Science Winter School. The course, jointly organized by the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landsca ...[Read More]

Image of the Week – Will Santa have to move because of Climate Change?

Violaine Coulon December 21, 2018

Because of global warming and polar amplification, temperature rises twice as fast at the North Pole than anywhere else on the planet. Could that be a problem for our beloved Santa Claus, who, according to the legend, lives there? It appears that Santa could very well have to move to one of its second residences before the end of this century. But even if he moves to another place, the smooth runn ...[Read More]

Ice-hot news: The cryosphere and the 1.5°C target

Lionel Favier, Laura H. Rasmussen, and Clara Burgard December 5, 2018

How will a warming of 1.5°C affect the cryosphere? [Credit: modified from pexels.com]

Every year again, the Conference of Parties takes place, an event where politicians and activists from all over the world meet for two weeks to discuss further actions concerning climate change. In the context the COP24, which started this Monday in Katowice (Poland), let’s revisit an important decision made three years ago, during the COP21 in Paris, and its consequences for the state of the cryo ...[Read More]