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Passing of Claude Lorius : A Pioneer in Polar and Climate Research

Published on March 27, 2023

Claude Lorius passed away on March 21st, 2023 at the age of 91. Claude had a huge contribution to the national and international ice core, polar and climate research communities. He will be deeply missed.
Claude Lorius met the polar regions at the time of the International Geophysical Year. He wintered over in 1957 as meteorologist and snow physicist with two other colleagues at the Antarctic station of Charcot. Then, instead of embracing a professional soccer career opportunity, he (…)

Human activities drive the ongoing intensification of the rainfall regime in the Sahel, and we better understand why

Published on March 08, 2023

Human activities influence the climate in different ways : greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, especially from the burning of fossil fuels, warm it, while sulphate aerosols (fine suspended particles) emitted by industry cool it. The direct and indirect effects of these external climate forcing factors interact with its internal variability (human activities or not, temperatures are, on average, always different from one year to the next, it never rains the same amount, etc.).
Understanding the (…)

A world atlas to characterise the response of glaciers to climate change

Published on March 03, 2023

In collaboration with Romain Hugonnet and Etienne Berthier from LEGOS (Toulouse), researchers from IGE, Antoine Rabatel and Romain Millan, recently published a synthesis (in French) of their work in the journal La Météorologie.
This synthesis reports on recent advances in satellite remote sensing for observing glaciers worldwide with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution.
The article also presents the current challenges to continue the developments on these satellite obsevations (…)

Micro Rain Radar (MRR) used to improve precipitation measurements in Everest region

Published on February 15, 2023

Precipitation and precipitation phase (liquid or solid) are key variables to understand the hydrology of mountainous catchments. However, measuring liquid and solid precipitation in mountainous area is very challenging for several reasons : precipitation is highly variable at small spatial scales, solid precipitation is not well measured by most instruments, and precipitation measurement instruments require frequent maintenance.
In order to improve precipitation measurements in Everest (…)

RI-URBANS launches the intercomparison of oxidative potential protocols

Published on January 23, 2023

The objective is to harmonise the measurements of most health relevant oxidative potential protocols and evaluate their potential to assess toxicological effects of PM10 and PM2.5
A total of 18 groups from Europe, the USA and Canada participate in the evaluation.

Beyond EPICA Deep Drilling Campaign Begins in Antarctica

Published on December 01, 2022

The Little Dome C site in Antarctica has reopened for the second ice core drilling campaign of the international research project coordinated by the Institute of Polar Sciences of the CNR (National Research Council of Italy). By analysing the ice cores extracted from the deep ice in Antarctica, the project aims to obtain information dating back to 1.5 million years ago, regarding the evolution of temperature, the composition of the atmosphere, and the carbon cycle. The team includes 15 people and aims to start deep drilling to reach depths of a few hundred metres

Published on October 12, 2022

Mountain ecosystems are complex, dynamic and exceptionally fragile. We are only beginning to understand the functional ecology of mountain ecosystems, but research already suggests that modifying communities of species will be detrimental to the environment, biodiversity and therefore an essential part of the support system for life on Earth. A new study, involving Ignacio Palomo, researcher at the institut des géosciences de l’environnement (IGE-OSUG, CNRS/UGA/IRD/Grenoble-INP-UGA), based (…)

Passing of Jérémie Mouginot

Published on September 30, 2022

It is with sadness that we learned of the death of Jérémie Mouginot on 28 September. Jérémie joined IGE in 2017. He was a brilliant and enthusiastic colleague, and a great friend to many of us. Committed to his research and the life of the laboratory, his departure leaves a huge gap.
Jérémie defended his PhD in 2008 at the Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble on the processing and analysis of Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding data. He then joined the University (…)

Substantial contribution of iodine to Arctic ozone destruction

Published on September 20, 2022

Iodine chemistry plays a major role in controlling tropospheric ozone over the Arctic, according to a study published in the journal Nature Geosciences, carried out during the ship-based Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition.

Snow and ice re-emissions control Arctic atmospheric mercury concentrations during summer

Published on September 06, 2022

Mercury is a toxic contaminant that impacts human, ecosystems and wildlife health globally and is a pressing concern in the Arctic due to the high concentrations found there.
However, there are very few mercury sources located in the Arctic and virtually all toxic mercury originates from outside the region. Elemental mercury (Hg0) is relatively inert (chemically inactive) and long lived and is found in air and the ocean that can be transported long distances, which can take days, months or (…)

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