European Geosciences Union
Division on Cryospheric Sciences
President: Olaf Eisen (cr@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Carleen Tijm-Reijmer
(c.h.tijm-reijmer@uu.nl)
The Cryosphere are those parts of the Earth and other planetary bodies that are subject to prolonged periods of temperatures below the freezing point of water. These include glaciers, frozen ground, sea ice, snow and ice. One of the main aims of the EGU Division on Cryospheric Sciences is to facilitate the exchange of information within the science community. It does so by organizing series of sessions at the annual EGU assembly, and through the publishing of the open-access journal `The Cryosphere’. The division awards the Louis Agassiz medal for outstanding contributions to the science of the cryosphere.
The 2018 Louis Agassiz Medal is awarded to Frank Pattyn for his unsurpassed contributions to the understanding of large-scale ice-sheet dynamics and his leadership in the internationally coordinated efforts to improve ice-sheet models.
The 2017 Louis Agassiz Medal is awarded to Eric Rignot for fundamental innovations in the remote sensing of glacier flow, leading to the first assessments of the mass balance of the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland.
The 2017 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientists Award is awarded to Ricarda Winkelmann for her innovative contributions to glaciology and the study of the interactions between climate and glaciation.
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Flavien Beaud Numerical modelling of esker formation in semi-circular subglacial channels
The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Louis Quéno Forecasting and modelling ice layer formation on the snowpack due to freezing precipitation in the Pyrenees
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 of Everest In April/May this year I climbed Mount Everest. To the top. It was two months of patient toil but in …
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 treated in models? Why might floe shape matter? …
Expeditions in the Southern Ocean are invaluable opportunities to learn more about this fascinating but remote region of the world. However, sending vessels to navigate the hostile Antarctic waters is an expensive endeavor, not only financially but also from a human perspective. When vessels are forced to turn back due to hazardous conditions or, even worse, become stuck in the ice (as shown in our Image of the Week), a mission full of expectations can quickly turn into a nightmare. …
Climate change will increase ice shelf melting around Antarctica. That’s the not-very-surprising conclusion of a recent modelling study, resulting from a collaboration between Australian and German researchers. Here’s the less intuitive result: much of the projected melting is actually linked to a decrease in sea ice formation. Learn why in our Image of the Week… Different types of Antarctic ice Sea ice is just frozen seawater. But ice shelves (as well as ice sheets and icebergs) are originally formed of …
A paper published in the EGU journal Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences this month shows that landslides triggered by human activity are on the rise. The conclusion is by a team at the UK's Sheffield University who compiled data on over 4800 fatal landslides during a 13-year period. You can read the press release on the EGU website.
Next month brings two important EGU deadlines. The call for candidates for EGU Treasurer is open until 15 September: we encourage EGU members to nominate themselves or propose a candidate. Before that, on 6 September, is the deadline to submit session proposals and short course ideas to the EGU 2019 General Assembly. We hope you help us shape the conference programme by submitting your proposals.