EGU Blogs

Division blogs

ST
Solar-Terrestrial Sciences

Cosmogenic Radionuclides – The quest of studying the solar activity of thousands of years

September 18, 2018
Cosmogenic Radionuclides – The quest of studying the solar activity of thousands of years

Thanks to the invention of the Neutron Monitor in 1948 and multiple spacecraft which monitor the cosmic ray environment since 1970’s we now have a constant record of the solar activity over almost 70 years. Information prior to this space era, however, are rare and take us back in time only to the late 1930s, when ionization chambers have been introduced. This of course allows us only a narr ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – Climbing Everest and highlighting science in the mountains

September 14, 2018
Image of the Week – Climbing Everest and highlighting science in the mountains

Dr Melanie Windridge, a physicist and mountaineer, successfully summited Mount Everest earlier this year and has been working on an outreach programme to encourage young people’s interest in science and technology. Read about her summit climb, extreme temperatures, and the science supporting high-altitude mountaineering in our Image of the Week. It’s bigger than it looks! Experiencing the majesty ...[Read More]

GD
Geodynamics

CIDER summer school

September 12, 2018
CIDER summer school

And we’re back! After a refreshing holiday (or was it?), the EGU GD Blog Team is ready to provide you with amazing blog posts once more! Although holidays can be great, one thing that can be even more great is a good summer school. Yep, you heard that correctly! Let me convince you to apply for the CIDER Summer School program next year. Let’s start with the basics. What the hell is CID ...[Read More]

NH
Natural Hazards

Mapping population dynamics to advance Disaster Risk Management

September 11, 2018
Mapping population dynamics to advance Disaster Risk Management

  Today we have the honour to introduce Sérgio Freire as our guest. Sérgio Freire is a Geographer, currently working as Scientific/Technical Project Manager at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), Directorate E. Space, Security and Migration, Disaster Risk Management Unit, based in Ispra, Italy. His main activities focus on developing applications of the JRC’s Global Human S ...[Read More]

CR
Cryospheric Sciences

Image of the Week – The shape of (frozen sea) water

September 7, 2018
Image of the Week – The shape of (frozen sea) water

  Polar sea ice exists as isolated units of ice that we describe as floes. These floes do not have a constant shape (see here for instance); they can vary from almost circular to being jagged and rectangular. However, sea ice models currently assume that all floes have the same shape. Much focus has been paid to the size of floes recently, but do we also need to reconsider how floe shape is t ...[Read More]

Earth and Space Science Informatics

Research Software Engineers from the Geosciences assemble for the first time at EGU General Assembly 2018

September 4, 2018
Research Software Engineers from the Geosciences assemble for the first time at EGU General Assembly 2018

On April 12th 2018, the first Research Software Engineers (RSEs) for geosciences meeting was held at the European Geophysical Union (EGU) General Assembly (GA) in Vienna, Austria. The EGU GA is a huge event with over 15.000 people from more than 100 countries. It has a diverse programme with thousands of posters and hundreds of sessions, but what it lacked was an event to bring together scientists ...[Read More]

CL
Climate: Past, Present & Future

How glowing sediment can help to decipher the Earth’s past climate !

September 3, 2018
How glowing sediment can help to decipher the Earth’s past climate !

The last 2.5 Million years of the Earth’s history (termed Quaternary) are characterised by climatic cycles oscillating between warm (interglacial) and cold (glacial) periods. To be able to fully understand and interpret past climate variations the development of accurate and precise chronological techniques is crucial. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating is a strong geochronological too ...[Read More]

SSP
Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

The microworld of the past

September 1, 2018

In my last blog, I described the diverse world of pollen and how palynology – the study pollen, is used in geosciences. Today, I turn to another microcosmos: that of finest layers deposited at the bottom of a lake. A large majority of geoscientists would tell you the best part of their job is field work. Despite sometimes harsh weather conditions, long hikes in wind, rain or merciless sun, many ge ...[Read More]

AS
Atmospheric Sciences

The perfect ice floe

August 28, 2018
The perfect ice floe

Current position: 89°31.85 N, 62°0.45 E, drifting with a multi-year ice floe (24th August 2018) With a little more than three weeks into the Arctic Ocean 2018 Expedition, the team has found the right ice floe and settled down to routine operations. Finding the perfect ice floe for an interdisciplinary science cruise is not an easy task. The Arctic Ocean 2018 Expedition aims to understand the linka ...[Read More]

NH
Natural Hazards

Bridging the gap between science and decision makers – a new tool for nuclear emergencies affecting food and agriculture

August 27, 2018
Bridging the gap between science and decision makers – a new tool for nuclear emergencies affecting food and agriculture

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has developed an online system to assist in improving the response capabilities of authorities in the event of an emergency caused by natural hazards. This tool provides a clear overview of radioactive contamination of crops and agricultural lands through improved data management and visualization, it also assists in decision support processes by sugge ...[Read More]