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 2020 Julia and Johannes Weertman Medal is awarded to Julienne C. Stroeve for her fundamental contributions to improved satellite observations of sea ice, better understanding of causes of sea ice variability and change, and her compelling communication to the wider public.
The 2020 Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award is awarded to Anna E. Hogg for outstanding research in the field of satellite remote sensing of the cryosphere and her contributions to science communications.
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) Award 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) Award 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 Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Marie Dumont for outstanding contributions to the field of snow sciences.
Climate research questions tend to focus on the future. What will global temperature be in 2100? Will extreme weather events become more frequent? When will sea level rise render coastal homes uninhabitable? But our understanding of climate processes first comes from observing the past: palaeoclimatology. To get these records, scientists often go on fieldwork to collect samples. But what happens when fieldwork isn’t successful? In this week’s post, Isobel Rowell tells us about her latest fieldwork, and what she learnt …
When most people hear the phrase “radiocarbon dating”, they think of measuring carbon to date organic material. But did you know that carbon is also produced within rocks, and that we can use it to learn about the past behaviour of a glacier? About 20,000 years ago it was colder and large parts of the continents were covered by ice. But what did Antarctica – the largest ice mass we have on Earth today – look like? In this blog …
With the West Antarctic Ice Sheet currently losing ice at a fast pace, leading to sea-level rise, it is very important to better understand the processes by which this ice melting occurs. In this context, Thwaites Glacier is a very good case study of an accelerating glacier, which contributes substantially to sea-level rise, and for which a huge scientific collaboration effort has recently been set up. We have already briefly mentioned this collaboration in a previous post, and this post …
In October 2019, the research icebreaker ‘Polarstern’ was moored to an ice floe for its year-long journey through the Arctic Ocean. Come with us on a slightly shorter journey and learn how MOSAiC participants from the supporting cruise educate the future generation of polar scientists! What is the MOSAiC expedition? The MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition is a one-year-long expedition into the Central Arctic, taking place from 2019 to 2020. The research icebreaker ‘Polarstern’ …
“They say there’s nothing more complex than the human brain. They haven’t worked in Brussels, have they?” Read all about EGU’s recent science-policy pairing scheme and sign up for EGU's database of expertise to receive emails about opportunities focussed on integrating science and policy.
This month we announced that EGU will contribute EUR 105,000 to help fund 17 training schools and conferences, including two Galileo Conferences, in 2020.
Fellowships: Tim Kalvelage, Cécile Dumas and Aisling Irwin are the recipients of this year's EGU Science Journalism Fellowships.
From a new audio accessibility system and more legible, browser-based programme to pronoun buttons and a diversity and pride reception, EGU is implementing extensive measures to foster an inclusive and respectful environment at the annual General Assembly. These include free, on-site childcare, for which the registration opens on 9 March at 13:00 CET and closes when filled - so be sure to sign up early.
The meeting programme for the EGU General Assembly 2020 (3–8 May, Vienna) will be published next week! With more than 1000 scientific sessions, debates, short courses and networking events scheduled, as well as two artists in residence - Lego photographer Stacy Phillips and digital artist Priyanka Das Rajkakati - it promises to be a diverse and exciting conference again this year. Please register by 31 March to qualify for the early registration rates.