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Bluesy glacier (Credit: Velio Coviello, distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

CR Cryospheric Sciences Division on Cryospheric Sciences

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European Geosciences Union

Division on Cryospheric Sciences
cr.egu.eu

Division on Cryospheric Sciences

President: Carleen Tijm-Reijmer (Emailcr@egu.eu)
Deputy President: Daniel Farinotti (Email)
ECS Representative: Lu Zhou (Emailecs-cr@egu.eu)

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 (CR) is to facilitate the exchange of information within the science community. It does so by organising series of sessions at the annual EGU General Assembly, and through the publishing of the open-access journal The Cryosphere. The division awards the Julia and Johannes Weertman medal for outstanding contributions to the science of the cryosphere.

Latest posts from the CR blog

Celebrating at UNESCO: the first-ever global day for glaciers

2025 marks an important year for glaciers, as it’s the official Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, an initiative by UNESCO and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Part of the initiative is also the official declaration of March 21st as the World Day for Glaciers. UNESCO wants to celebrate this day in the hope that it “urges global action to protect glaciers and their crucial role in sustaining life on Earth for future generations.” Larissa van der Lann was lucky enough to …


Feeling (un)frozen lands: What we can learn from research on ecological grief

Retreating glaciers, shrinking sea ice or thawing permafrost – many of you might have witnessed formerly familiar landscapes being transformed by climate change over the last years, maybe even beyond recognition. And perhaps these undeniable changes have left you feeling sad, angry or anxious about the future, fearing what lies ahead. But did you know there is an entire academic field out there researching the emotions evoked by the impacts of climate change? To learn more about it, I talked …


Cryosphere Caps: PhD hats and the researchers that wear them – Episode 2

This miniseries features the tradition of ‘PhD hat’ making in German research institutes and universities. For those of you unfamiliar with this idea (as I once was), this is one of the final milestones a graduate student has before they are officially a “Dr.”. Upon the successful defense of a thesis, the labmates of the PhD student craft a graduation hat from a mishmash of scrap cardboard and memorabilia. Hours of work go into these beloved pieces, and you can …


Navigating the polar frontier: exploring the effects of sea-ice decline on shipping and sea routes in the Arctic

Sea ice is a critical part of the unique Arctic ecosystem, but climate change is becoming a serious threat. Warming in the Arctic has already resulted in the loss of over 4 million km² of sea ice. But is it all bad? Retreat of Arctic sea ice is allowing more ships to navigate the Arctic Ocean, along shorter, faster and cheaper sea routes, providing emission reductions of 24%. But will the growth of shipping sign the death warrant for Arctic …

Recent awardees

Shin Sugiyama

Shin Sugiyama

  • 2025
  • Julia and Johannes Weertman Medal

The 2025 Julia and Johannes Weertman Medal is awarded to Shin Sugiyama for outstanding work in the field of glacier dynamics and ice-water interactions, including seminal contributions to our understanding of lake-calving glaciers and ice-dammed lake outbursts.


Brice Noël

Brice Noël

  • 2025
  • Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists

The 2025 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Brice Noël for outstanding research in the field of the surface mass budget of ice caps and ice sheets, based on regional climate modelling.


Gwenn E. Flowers

Gwenn E. Flowers

  • 2024
  • Julia and Johannes Weertman Medal

The 2024 Julia and Johannes Weertman Medal is awarded to Gwenn E. Flowers for outstanding research in the field of the theoretical and observational hydrology of glaciers, ice caps and continental ice masses.


Katrina Lutz

Katrina Lutz

  • 2024
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2024 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Katrina Lutz Evaluation of supraglacial lake depth estimation techniques using Sentinel-2, ICESat-2, TanDEM-X, and in situ data, along with an analysis of rapid drainage events over Northeast Greenland


Laura Gabriel

Laura Gabriel

  • 2024
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2024 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Laura Gabriel Exploring englacial hydrology with surface nuclear magnetic resonance


Nora Krebs

Nora Krebs

  • 2024
  • Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award

The 2024 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Nora Krebs Testing four Sentinel (1 and 2) and MODIS Fractional Snow Cover products for the evaluation of five Alpine Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensing sites


Laura A. Stevens

Laura A. Stevens

  • 2024
  • Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists

The 2024 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Laura A. Stevens for outstanding research into the links between glacial hydrology and ice dynamics, and for their service to the cryosphere community.

Current issue of the EGU newsletter

In our March issue we are here to help you prepare for the EGU25 General Assembly, with guides for first time attendees, understanding the EGU Code of Conduct, our playlist of EGU25 walk-through videos, two webinars to help you prepare your presentations and sign ups open for the EGUtoday newsletter, we are excited to get together with you all, in Vienna and online, in less than a month!

This month we also learned about a special scientific landscape under threat and what we can do to help, and now is also your last chance to get involved in the Science for Policy interface in Europe by applying to join EGU's new Climate Hazard and Risk Task Force by 31 March.

For all our talented photographers, the EGU Photo Competition is still open for submissions; enter by 31 March and you could win free registration to EGU26, and the admiration of your peers! All this and much more in this month's Loupe!