The Cryosphere, 22 March 2024 The floating portion (“ice tongue”) of Greenland’s critical 79° North glacier has thinned by one-third over the past three decades, with extremely high melt rates where land-based ice meets the ocean. Authors reveal how rising air temperatures produce meltwater lakes that have carved huge drainage channels through the ice into […]

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet stores the equivalent of 52 meters of sea-level rise, more than four times greater than both Greenland and West Antarctica combined. Although often viewed as less vulnerable to global warming, East Antarctica could increase global sea-level rise by several meters over the next few centuries if emissions remain on their […]

Nature, 27 March 2024 Sediment records from the past five million years reveal that the massive Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) speeds up and slows down depending on Earth’s temperature, with previous warm periods bringing faster flow and increased Antarctic ice loss. During warm periods, these currents generate eddies that redirect warm water underneath floating ice […]

Communications Earth & Environment, 30 March 2024 Declining sea ice extent and lengthening open water conditions expose Arctic coastlines to more intense hazards every year, including storm surges, floods, and erosion. This paper assesses the vulnerability of Alaska to extreme wave events this century. Should current emissions continue, by 2070 the reduction in sea ice […]

Dr. Alexandra Jahn, University of Colorado Boulder, is the lead author of a recent sea ice paper published in Nature, making clear that only the lowest emissions scenarios will minimize the frequency and length of future sea ice-free periods. She outlined key takeaways for policy makers during an Arctic 21 meeting on April 4; a […]

Dear Cryosphere Capsule readers, We would like to share with you a recording of the last “Arctic 21” meeting. This group has been actively meeting for more than a decade; and is a mixture of current and former government representatives, think tanks, and scientists, all with an interest in climate change, the Arctic and other […]

World Meteorological Organization, 20 March 2024 This latest WMO report confirms 2023 was officially the hottest year in recorded history, shattering records of Antarctic sea ice decline, glacier retreat, ocean heat and acidification, sea-level rise, and greenhouse gas levels. Global average near-surface temperature reached 1.45°C above the pre-industrial baseline, increasing today’s ten-year average to 1.20°C. […]

The Cryosphere, 5 March 2024 This major study reveals how Arctic rivers will change over the next eight decades if the climate continues to warm, highlighting how permafrost thaw and a faster water cycle will greatly alter this region’s landscape and ecosystems. Historically, most water going into Arctic rivers flows atop frozen permafrost soils, which […]

During the first week of climate negotiations, Arctic scientists summarized the current state of monitoring, measuring, and accounting for carbon emissions produced by permafrost thaw. Key topics included loss and damage in the Arctic, land degradation and displacement of Arctic communities, and the need for co-produced resilience strategies. Abby Fennelly from the Woodwell Climate Research […]

Nature, 6 March 2024 This study combined sinking land measurements, sea-level rise projections, and tide charts to provide a comprehensive overview of potential flooding from global ice loss in 32 major U.S. coastal cities. The economic cost of home properties newly exposed to flooding by 2050 could reach $64 billion on the Atlantic, $22 billion […]

Weather and Climate Dynamics, 28 February 2024 Europe will become even hotter and drier in coming decades as melting from the Greenland ice sheet speeds up, intensifying weather extremes beyond what climate models predicted from fossil fuel emissions alone. This is the first study to unravel how influxes of meltwater in the North Atlantic would […]

European Environment Agency, 10 March 2024 This policy-oriented report identifies the top 36 “climate risks” facing Europe, warning that many of these have already reached critical levels and could become catastrophic by 2100 without urgent and decisive emissions reductions. Nearly all of these climate risks, from flooding to heatwaves, are driven by the impacts of […]

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is the world’s largest ice mass, storing over 52 meters of sea-level rise. It is often viewed as less vulnerable to global warming than the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, but recent work has detected worrying signs from East Antarctica and its surrounding oceans, suggesting that we are close […]

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, 5 March 2024 This review paper provides a clear message: the frequency and length of future sea ice-free periods in the Arctic directly depends on future CO2 emissions. Only the lowest emissions scenario, consistent with 1.5°C offers a possibility of maintaining a perennial sea ice cover. Up to three months […]

NSIDC: News & Analysis and Journal of Climate, 6 March 2024 For the third summer in a row, Antarctic sea ice coverage has dropped below two million square kilometers, a threshold which had not been breached since satellite records started in the 1980s. A new study labels these increasingly intense and long-lasting extreme events as […]