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 2019 Louis Agassiz Medal is awarded to Andreas Kääb for innovative and multidisciplinary contributions to the field of remote sensing of the cryosphere, with applications in glacier mass balance, permafrost and geohazards.
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Bartosz Kurjanski Cool deltas – Sedimentary environments of the Salpausselka I and II moraine ridges near Lahti, Finland
The 2019 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Gregory Church Detecting and characterising an englacial conduit network within a temperate Swiss glacier using active seismic and ground penetrating radar
The 2019 Arne Richter Awards for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Marie Dumont for outstanding contributions to the field of snow sciences.
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 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Fanny Brun Can ice cliffs explain the “debris-cover anomaly”? New insights from Changri Nup Glacier, Nepal
The 2018 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards is awarded to Sandra Vázquez-Martín Ground-based in-situ snowfall speed measurements: Microphysical properties of snowflakes
The 2018 Arne Richter Awards for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Mathieu Morlighem for his outstanding research in the field of ice-sheet modelling and his contribution to the dissemination of modelling methods and knowledge in the cryospheric community.
What inspired you to get into polar or cryospheric research? Perhaps it was a passion for the outdoors, a drive to protect the environment for the people and animals that live there, or a fascination with wild places. For me, it was all three – and the more I learned about Antarctic climate science, the more I realised that the polar regions are vital to the functioning of a healthy planet, and so should be important to all of us. …
Recent geological data shows that during a very cold phase of our Earth’s climate (between 40,000 and 26,000 years ago), there was a huge expansion of polar ice sheets, yet the north-eastern part of the Greenland ice sheet was less extensive than today. How could this have occurred? In this post we shed light on the potential causes of this ice sheet behaviour. What do we know about present-day north-east Greenland? The North East Greenland Ice Stream is one of …
![For Dummies – How do wildfires impact permafrost? [OR.. a story of ice and fire]](https://cdn.egu.eu/media/news/blogmessages/2019/11/01/ba29b6badd1147ee06bbf2284a606f6c.jpg.250x250_q85_crop-smart_upscale.jpg)
Wildfire – like the ones observed in the Northwest Territories, Canada in 2014 (Fig. 1) – is a natural part of permafrost landscapes, but fires are expected to get more frequent and severe as the climate warms. This could accelerate the degradation of permafrost, with negative consequences on the local and global scale! We have a pretty good understanding of how permafrost responds to fire today, but what should we expect as the climate warms and fire regimes change in …
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, the IPCC decided to publish several smaller more “special” reports between its fifth (published …
The EGU made several exciting announcements in October. Earlier this week we reported that beginning in 2020, the carbon dioxide emissions for the travel of all General Assembly participants will be offset. This represents a first for any major geoscience event and, along with a host of other greening initiatives, marks another important step towards minimising the meeting’s environmental impact.
Earlier this month EGU announced the winners of the 2020 awards and medals: 49 individuals who have made significant contributions to the Earth, planetary and space sciences and who will be honoured at the 2020 EGU General Assembly in May. We also announced the winners of the Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Awards from the 2019 General Assembly.
In October the EGU also hosted its second-annual science policy event in Brussels. The gathering brought together geoscientists and policymakers to provide feedback regarding the themes recently chosen for Horizon Europe, the EU’s next research and innovation framework programme.
The call for abstracts for our annual conference is now open. If you are interested in presenting your work in Vienna in May, please be sure to submit your abstract by 15 January 2020, 13:00 CET. If you would like to apply for Roland Schlich travel support to attend the meeting, please submit your abstract no later than 1 December 2019.
Only two weeks remain to provide input regarding EGU's activities, so please take five minutes to fill out the Membership Survey today!
In November, 2019 EGU members will have the opportunity to vote in the Union's autumn elections. Please check the elections page on our website for more information.