Impressions, anecdotes and experiences from the field. Authors are beneficiaries of SPI funding. The posts present the authors’ reflections of their field experiences.
In the Himalayas, glacier-fed rivers are an important source of freshwater for millions of people downstream. The cryosphere being very sensitive to rising temperatures, climate-change induced seasonal snow and glacier melt may have tremendous impact on streamflow in such basins. Its impact may be combined with anthropogenic interventions (e.g. hydropower) […]
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14.09.2022 – The protagonists 1936 – Arnold Heim and August Gansser 1939 – André Roch, Ernst Huber, Fritz Steuri, David Zogg Six Swiss mountaineers, geologists, topographers. Pioneers who explored the hidden valleys of the Garhwal range of the Indian Himalaya more than eight decades ago. They made impressive first ascents, […]
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Uf! It is 3 pm on 8 December, and we have finally finished setting up a weather station at 5366 metres above sea level on Cerro Tapado, in the dry Andes of northern Chile, after a kilometre-plus climb from the valley, and many weeks preparing sensors and logistics. I feel […]
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44% of Earth’s glaciers in high-relief mountains are covered by rock debris that insulate the ice from atmospheric forcing, reducing ice melt. However, as the debris cover is not homogeneous, space remains that produce differential melting under variable debris thicknesses, creating a surface morphology in the form of strongly incised […]
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In summer 2021, the field work in the Arctic was once more dominated by the weather and sea conditions. The team still tried their best to bring the scientists to all planned sampling sides in order to get a better insight into the Arctic marine fauna and their exposure to […]
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Volcanoes can have major impacts on the climate system, resulting in short-term cooling of earth’s surface following an eruption. Amongst the most active regions in the world is Iceland, the activity of which is reflected in its extremely diverse and largely desolate landscape. However, despite the high-activity of these volcanic […]
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Arctic permafrost is currently undergoing rapid changes. While regions like Alaska, the Russian Arctic or Svalbard have several long-term monitoring sites, the knowledge on permafrost distribution, thickness and change in general, and on rockglacier dynamics in particular, is very limited for Greenland. Finally, in summer 2021, we travelled to Disko […]
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Ice mass loss from Greenland has accelerated over the last few decades and it has recently been predicted that Greenland could become ice free in the next millennium. During past interglacial periods, when global mean temperatures reached values larger than today, the Greenland Ice Sheet was most likely smaller than […]
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How does accelerated climate change in the Arctic affect the ecosystems of Greenlandic Fjords? This is the central question which the GreenFjord project funded by the SPI Flagship Initiative aims to answer in the upcoming four years. Therefore each of the six individual research clusters within the project focuses on […]
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Early in the morning of 7 June 2022, 28 glaciology students from around the world convened at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) for the sixth biennial International Summer School in Glaciology.After a short welcome and introduction of the instructors, we lost no time and quickly got onto vans to […]
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