A short article I wrote for the EGU blog about biological darkening of ice and snow was posted last month. The article was built around an aerial view of our 2016 field camp on the Greenland Ice Sheet, where large areas of dark ice are clearly visible. The dark colour is due to a collection … Continue reading EGU Image of the Week: Algal blooms on GrIS
Tag: greenland
Storm at Camp Bloom
Summer 2017 seriously challenged the idea that summer in SW Greenland has a reliably stable, clear, dry meteorology. Our field work was characterized by unpredictable swings between weather extremes from blizzards dropping 1ft of snow in an evening to bright sunshine and low wind, to rain and tens of centimeters of surface lowering in a … Continue reading Storm at Camp Bloom
On the ice with the BBC
The BBC Science team joined us for our first twenty-four hours on the ice this year, documented our work on algal darkening of the Greenland Ice Sheet. This started in the dusty town of Kangerlussuaq, where I took David Shukman, Kate Stephens and Jonathon Sumberg out to Russell Glacier. There, while I flew the drone … Continue reading On the ice with the BBC
Frontiers Paper: Albedo products from drones
A new paper, led by Johnny Ryan, shows that a consumer grade digital camera mounted to a drone can be used to estimate the albedo of ice surfaces with an accuracy of +/- 5%. This is important because albedo measurements are fundamental to predicting melt, but satellite albedo data is limited in its spatial and … Continue reading Frontiers Paper: Albedo products from drones
New TCD paper: Dark ice on Greenland Ice Sheet
Our new discussion paper, led by Black and Bloom PDRA Andrew Tedstone, examines in detail why there is a stripe of dark, fast-melting ice on the Greenland Ice Sheet, particularly in the south-west. This 'dark zone' is clearly visible in satellite imagery of the Greenland Ice Sheet and is important because darker ice melts faster. … Continue reading New TCD paper: Dark ice on Greenland Ice Sheet
Video: Alive and Well: Microbes Add to Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet
Peter Sinclair and Yale Climate Connections have released an excellent video detailing the role of microbial life in driving Greenland Ice Sheet melt, featuring several researchers from the Dark Snow Project and Black and Bloom. We were lucky enough to have Peter with us for a couple of days at the beginning of our trip in … Continue reading Video: Alive and Well: Microbes Add to Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet
Challenges in quantifying ‘bioalbedo’
On Wednesday last week I traveled to the University of Bristol to give a seminar at the Centre for Glaciology. I presented a new physical model for the spectral albedo of ice with algal growth, along with some field data from 2016. Preparing for the talk, discussions with fellow researchers and insightful questions in the … Continue reading Challenges in quantifying ‘bioalbedo’
Diverse microbial habitats on the GRIS
We are now well into planning 2017 field work so I revisited some archive footage from previous trips. The short clip below provides a good summary of the great diversity of microbial habitats that exist, even within a very small area of ice. These include cryoconite holes, a cryo-pond (the big cryoconite and water filled pool), algal … Continue reading Diverse microbial habitats on the GRIS
Life on Greenland’s Ice: 2 short videos
Here are two short films that Peter Sinclair (DarkSnow and Climate Crocks) made over summer 2016. The first is an interview with me about Greenlan's surface reflectivity. The second is about the microbiology of algal blooms on the ice surface by fellow Black and Bloom postdoc Chris Williamson. see more at the Black and Bloom … Continue reading Life on Greenland’s Ice: 2 short videos
Greenland Field Work 2016
Here is a brief field report from our 2016 field season which i also posted on the Arctic Club website (here). 2016 Greenland Field Work Report Our field work aimed to deepen our understanding of the processes darkening the Greenland Ice Sheet. This is important because the colour of the ice sheet is one of the … Continue reading Greenland Field Work 2016
To The Poles 