We are delighted to announce that on 18 May 2022, the two SPI Flagship Initiatives PAMIR and GreenFjord were officially launched in Bern. At this occasion, the concept and vision of the two SPI Flagship Initiatives and their scientific programme were presented to an audience of 45 participants and 89 […]
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High-elevation and high-latitude ecosystems are, and will be, particularly affected by the rapid and unprecedent climate warming our planet is currently experiencing, with rates of temperature increase two to four times higher than the global average since the 1980s. In line with these warming trends over recent decades, most plant […]
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The SPI introduces you to the new format of its newsletters designed to better embed its visual identity and ensure that you will enjoy them even more. The newsletter from April 2022 is the first one with this new update! We recommend that you check your spam box to ensure […]
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European polar institutions grouped in the EU-PolarNet2 consortium have published two new documents to help improve the coordination and cooperation of national polar funding organisations in Europe. The “Catalogue of National Polar Programmes and Other Large-scale programmes” The “Directory of European Polar Research Funding Programme” The catalogue provides an overview […]
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Despite their beauty, glaciers can be very hostile environments for us scientists. Crevasses, seracs and other non-traversable terrain renders data sampling for glacier research difficult and dangerous, if not impossible. We believe that unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”, commonly named drones) are key to mitigate this risk and to reach these […]
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We are excited that Greenlandic Minister of Finance, Mineral Resources, Justice and Gender Equality, Naaja Nathanielsen, opened our Koni Steffen Workshop on Natural Hazards in Greenland this morning! The Swiss Polar Institute and Greenland Research Council are discussing this week how Swiss expertise can support the monitoring and risk assessment […]
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In a four-year field research program led by EPFL, in association with several other Swiss institutions, scientists will aim to understand the ecosystem of Greenlandic fjords in the context of a changing climate. They plan to investigate how accelerated glacier discharge and soil erosion impact the fjords nutrient cycle, marine […]
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Tundra ecosystems are characterized by low stature vegetation, which covers the cold polar and alpine soils with dense mats of cryptogams, grasses and dwarf shrubs. Tundra is the area extending beyond the thermal limits of tree growth and reaching up until the permanent snow and glacier fields of the nival […]
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Numerical models for glacier hydrology rely on sound input data for calibration and validation. In particular when upscaling these models for regional-scale assessments of water availability in glacierised catchments, this is of great importance and includes data on various hydrological components, such as rain, snow, ice and permafrost. Understanding which […]
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While glaciers are shrinking worldwide, those in the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia show less change. They and the other components of the cryosphere (snow and permafrost) are key unknowns for future changes to runoff and hazards. Over the next four years, a research consortium led by the Swiss Federal […]
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