Nature Communications, 7 February 2023 Fifteen million people around the world are at risk from flooding caused by glacial lakes, with more than half of these people living in just four countries: Pakistan, China, India, and Peru. This study provides the first global assessment of the most vulnerable regions to glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs); […]

Nature Climate Change, 6 February 2023 Warm air currents from the tropics have caused more than one-third of the sea ice decline over the past four decades in the Barents-Kara Seas and central Arctic. “Atmospheric rivers” carry dense clouds of warm water vapor from low-latitude climates into polar regions. When they flow over newly formed […]

News Briefing: 6 February 2023 In January 2023, Arctic sea ice reached its second lowest extent for this time of year in the satellite record; while Antarctic sea ice extent remained at record-breaking lows throughout the month. It is almost unprecedented to have both polar regions simultaneously experiencing record- or near-record lows of sea ice […]

The Cryosphere Pavilion traditionally has five displays, one for each of the main cryosphere dynamics: ice sheets, mountain glaciers and snow, permafrost, polar oceans, and sea ice. During COP27, the fifth totem was almost toppled over on its side, with the remaining four standing tall. Based on the conclusions of the IPCC Sixth Assessment and […]

Geology, 20 January 2023 Researchers in the northern Antarctic Peninsula can use frozen moss samples to measure the growth and retreat of glaciers thousands of years ago, providing rare historical data in regions where other ice records have been lost. When a glacier advances, it covers the ground near its base in a layer of […]

News Briefing: 2 February 2023 For the first time in at least seven thousand years, the Hinman Glacier’s ice and snowpack has fully melted, forming a large body of water now unofficially known as the “Hinman Lake.” Hinman was the largest glacier between Mount Rainier and Glacier Peak in Washington state, U.S. Smaller glaciers in […]

This event summarized the key messages from the five-day conference “Cryosphere 2022: International Symposium on Ice, Snow, and Water in a Warming World,” that took place in Reykjavík last August. Members of the Icelandic Meteorological Office, WMO, Icelandic Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate as well as participants from the symposium emphasized the importance […]

Nature Climate Change, 26 January 2023 Future atmospheric warming will likely overpower the ability of snow to protect Antarctic ice shelves from surface meltwater ponding, increasing their vulnerability to collapse. Ponds of meltwater can generate enough pressure to crack the surface of the ice. When these cracks propagate downward to the base of a floating […]

Nature Climate Change, 5 January 2023 Rising temperatures can push parts of the climate system across “thresholds” that trigger abrupt or irreversible changes in other regions of the world, even tens of thousands of kilometers apart. In this study, an international team of climate researchers investigate the long-range impacts of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest […]

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report noted that due to emissions to-date, summer loss of Arctic sea ice will now inevitably occur at least once, even under very low emissions scenarios; and likely before 2050. Although the crossing of this summer Arctic sea ice threshold can no longer be prevented, urgent emission reductions consistent with the […]

Nature, 18 January 2023 Rising emissions are warming and increasing meltwater runoff in northern Greenland, one of the most remote regions of the ice sheet. Air temperatures in this region are now 1.5°C warmer than in the mid-20th century. In this study, researchers drilled deep into the ice sheet to analyze layers of trapped gas […]

Nature Communications, 10 December 2022 Warm Atlantic waters have been filling fjords and coastal areas along northeast Greenland for the past two decades, eroding the base of glaciers. This study consolidates one hundred years of oceanographic data to reveal that this region is shifting into an “Atlantification” hotspot. Within the past few decades, an influx […]

The two polar ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice, with both increasingly contributing to sea level rise. Greenland’s ice sheet may already be the largest single contributor to global sea level rise. At the other end of the planet, portions of Antarctica are becoming increasingly vulnerable to collapse. If temperatures overshoot 2°C, […]

PLOS Biology, 22 December 2022 In this study, scientists, conservation experts and policymakers from a dozen countries came together to propose ten key “threat management strategies” that can be implemented to benefit more than 80% of Antarctic organisms. This is the first comprehensive assessment of Antarctic conservation strategies that accounts for both benefit and overall […]

Nature Climate Change, 12 January 2022 Researchers in the European Alps can use juniper shrubs to reconstruct snow conditions from hundreds of years ago, providing centuries of data in a scientific field where direct snowpack measurements have only been carried out for a few decades. Juniper shrubs live close to the ground and their growth […]