Chasing Atmospheric Rivers on King George Island, Antarctica

 On 21 February it was raining and we did radiosonde launches together with the cloud sensor to measure the amount of the supercooled liquid water content in the clouds. At temperatures between 0ºC and -15ºC most clouds are composed of supercooled water droplets. Between -15ºC and -40ºC clouds typically made of a mixture of ice crystals and supercooled water droplets. The presence of supercooled liquid water in clouds occurs because of the relatively low amounts of cloud ice nuclei. At temperatures below -40ºC ice will form spontaneously (without ice nuclei).  In Antarctica, satellite observations showed an important presence of mixed-phase clouds containing supercooled liquid water. The amount of the supercooled water in cloud is important for the formation of precipitation and also cloud radiative forcing at the surface (how much clouds cools and/or warm the surface by reflecting shortwave radiation and emitting longwave radiation).  Supercooled liquid water in clouds...

Internet was very limited this season and I had to pause with my blog updates.. So with a bit of delay I continue updating my blog now.  On 20 February we went to the Nelson Island glacier. As many other glaciers around, including on King George Island, this glacier has been melting a lot during the last several decades leading to a big increase in the glacial lakes area . Our goal was to sample surface snow for analysis of the stable water isotopes and snow chemical and microbiological composition and if possible to take samples from a snowpit to look back in time. We arrived to the Nelson Island by Zodiac boat in the morning and had only five hours to do the work.  Photo: Nelson Island glacier arrival beach. 20 February 2023. ©Irina Gorodetskaya The approach to the glacier was along the rocky shore, climbing up snow patches and crossing melting water streams.  Photo: Meltwater stream from the Nelson Island glacier traversing a snow front. ©Irina Gorodetskaya When we a...