Freezing - Blog Posts
Frost
@Hanv-iyxn/deviantart
@Hanv-Iyxn/artfight
We’re doing an evacuation drill. The entire school. It’s 46 degrees. We have to be here for like half an hour. I’m dying. 👏
Solar System: 10 Things to Know
All About Ice
1. Earth's Changing Cryosphere
This year, we will launch two satellite missions that will increase our understanding of Earth's frozen reaches. Snow, ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and permafrost, known as the cryosphere, act as Earth's thermostat and deep freeze, regulating temperatures by reflecting heat from the Sun and storing most of our fresh water.
2. GRACE-FO: Building on a Legacy and Forging Ahead
The next Earth science satellites set to launch are twins! The identical satellites of the GRACE Follow-On mission will build on the legacy of their predecessor GRACE by also tracking the ever-changing movement of water around our planet, including Earth's frozen regions. GRACE-FO, a partnership between us and the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), will provide critical information about how the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are changing. GRACE-FO, working together, will measure the distance between the two satellites to within 1 micron (much less than the width of a human hair) to determine the mass below.
Greenland has been losing about 280 gigatons of ice per year on average, and Antarctica has lost almost 120 gigatons a year with indications that both melt rates are increasing. A single gigaton of water would fill about 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools; each gigaton represents a billion tons of water.
3. ICESat-2: 10,000 Laser Pulses a Second
In September, we will launch ICESat-2, which uses a laser instrument to precisely measure the changing elevation of ice around the world, allowing scientists to see whether ice sheets and glaciers are accumulating snow and ice or getting thinner over time. ICESat-2 will also make critical measurements of the thickness of sea ice from space. Its laser instrument sends 10,000 pulses per second to the surface and will measure the photons' return trip to satellite. The trip from ICESat-2 to Earth and back takes about 3.3 milliseconds.
4. Seeing Less Sea Ice
Summertime sea ice in the Arctic Ocean now routinely covers about 40% less area than it did in the late 1970s, when continuous satellite observations began. This kind of significant change could increase the rate of warming already in progress and affect global weather patterns.
5. The Snow We Drink
In the western United States, 1 in 6 people rely on snowpack for water. Our field campaigns such as the Airborne Snow Observatory and SnowEx seek to better understand how much water is held in Earth's snow cover, and how we could ultimately measure this comprehensively from space.
6. Hidden in the Ground
Permafrost - permanently frozen ground in the Arctic that contains stores of heat-trapping gases such as methane and carbon dioxide - is thawing at faster rates than previously observed. Recent studies suggest that within three to four decades, this thawing could be releasing enough greenhouse gases to make Arctic permafrost a net source of carbon dioxide rather than a sink. Through airborne and field research on missions such as CARVE and ABoVE - the latter of which will put scientists back in the field in Alaska and Canada this summer - our scientists are trying to improve measurements of this trend in order to better predict global impact.
7. Breaking Records Over Cracking Ice
Last year was a record-breaking one for Operation IceBridge, our aerial survey of polar ice. For the first time in its nine-year history, the mission carried out seven field campaigns in the Arctic and Antarctic in a single year. In total, the IceBridge scientists and instruments flew over 214,000 miles, the equivalent of orbiting the Earth 8.6 times at the equator.
On March 22, we completed the first IceBridge flight of its spring Arctic campaign with a survey of sea ice north of Greenland. This year marks the 10th Arctic spring campaign for IceBridge. The flights continue until April 27 extending the mission's decade-long mapping of the fastest-changing areas of the Greenland Ice Sheet and measuring sea ice thickness across the western Arctic basin.
8. OMG
Researchers were back in the field this month in Greenland with our Oceans Melting Greenland survey. The airborne and ship-based mission studies the ocean's role in melting Greenland's ice. Researchers examine temperatures, salinity and other properties of North Atlantic waters along the more than 27,000 miles (44,000 km) of jagged coastline.
9. DIY Glacier Modeling
Computer models are critical tools for understanding the future of a changing planet, including melting ice and rising seas. Our new sea level simulator lets you bury Alaska's Columbia glacier in snow, and, year by year, watch how it responds. Or you can melt the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and trace rising seas as they inundate the Florida coast.
10. Ice Beyond Earth
Ice is common in our solar system. From ice packed into comets that cruise the solar system to polar ice caps on Mars to Europa and Enceladus-the icy ocean moons of Jupiter and Saturn-water ice is a crucial ingredient in the search for life was we know it beyond Earth.
Read the full version of this week’s 10 Things to Know HERE.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
In temperatures that drop below -20 degrees Fahrenheit, along a route occasionally blocked by wind-driven ice dunes, a hundred miles from any other people, a team led by two of our scientists are surveying an unexplored stretch of Antarctic ice.
They’ve packed extreme cold-weather gear and scientific instruments onto sleds pulled by two tank-like snow machines called PistenBullys, and after a stop at the South Pole Station (seen in this image), they began a two- to three-week traverse.
The 470-mile expedition in one of the most barren landscapes on Earth will ultimately provide the best assessment of the accuracy of data collected from space by the Ice Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), set to launch in 2018.
This traverse provides an extremely challenging way to assess the accuracy of the data. ICESat-2’s datasets are going to tell us incredible things about how Earth’s ice is changing, and what that means for things like sea level rise.
Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.
"Lick lick" ✨
You've been licked by Choco Mint! Reblog the post so that others will be licked too >:3
Cold out here for a pimp 😞 #cold #freezing #pimplife #toughitout #funny
Snow
Sources: SigningSavvy, Lifeprint, ASLDeafined
[Image ID:
The sign for Snow in American Sign Language. Both hands in 5 handshape wiggle fingers as they move down. Movement is illustrated by arms that are translucent shades of blue in different stages of the sign. Background is white.
End ID]
A Night With Friends
I don’t mind where life takes me, as long as,
I can be free and freeze in the dark
Sounds horrible but you wouldn’t understand
That’s because you'd rather it be light, and warm
But the light can leave a bad mark
And the warmth keeps you on land
Flying is more fun
There are many unknown,
Mysteries that hide,
That you can find only when you're on the run
Freezing reminds you that this is probably real
It keeps you there with possible illusion of your friends
My imagination knows that I need to be the teenager I am
The idiot that loves to be goofy and loves to have a good laugh
The kind of laugh that makes you addicted all over again
The one that makes you forget about the study guide you must cram,
Painfully into your head that doesn’t deserve to be broken in half
The kind of laugh that makes you forget about everything that doesn’t matter to the tip of this pen
To laugh so hard that I’ll forget the definition of depression and anxiety and just take flight,
Away from the lies
And freeze my scars and the oncoming wrinkles so they can’t leave a mark
Run to gain some height
To get out of earshot of their cries
And just know that together we are a single spark
It hailed
It was a storm trooper halestorm
I tried to count the raindrops
And failed
Because I can only count to four in correct form
Then we jaywalked in front of the cops
I want to go all night,
With you guys
Go all the way and see the sun come and break the dark
And then go to bed and not have me, myself and I fight
Go to bed content with who I really was today and take to the skies
And fall asleep on the blue side in the park
🌨️❄️⛄️🥶⛷️🏂Formen in Weiss 2025 🏂⛷️🥶⛄️❄️🌨️
International Snow Sculpture Competition (4. to 11. January 2025)
The annual event features snow artworks against the impressive backdrop of the Silvretta Arena Ischgl/Samnaun.
“Formen in Weiss” is an integral part of the winter season in Ischgl and combines art and nature in a unique way. This year’s motto “Summer in Ischgl” promises exciting interpretations and new perspectives on the connection between summer and winter. The event is a special highlight for art lovers and winter sports enthusiasts and a reason to visit the Silvretta Arena.
For more than three decades, the “Formen in Weiss” competition has been one of the cultural highlights of winter in Ischgl. International artists create impressive sculptures from snow that can be up to five metres high. The participants have five days to create their works of art, which can then be seen in the Silvretta Arena until spring. For the implementation of the event, artists from different countries are invited to submit their ideas and concepts. The selection of participants and their designs is made by a jury. The competition not only promotes the engagement with an unusual material, but also offers an international platform for creative exchange and cultural diversity.
This year’s motto “Summer in Ischgl” focuses on contrasts. The artists interpret the summer aspects of the region, such as alpine landscapes, sports activities and the diversity of the mountain flora, in winter environment. The snow sculptures are intended to convey the atmosphere and sports of the summer and at the same time explore the artistic possibilities of snow as material. The snow sculptures will be presented along the slopes in the Silvretta Arena ski area. Skiers and pedestrians can visit the artworks with a valid ski ticket. The region's snow guarantees that the sculptures will be preserved until the end of April under appropriate rainfall conditions and can be admired throughout the winter season.
Further information is available at www.ischgl.com. Site is only available in german so far!)
Source: https://hansmannpr.de/formen-in-weiss-2025-schnee-trifft-kunst-in-ischgl/ (german original text)
Heres the Link to see some more sculptures (text is in german) - hope he is accessible:
https://www.meinbezirk.at/tag/formen-in-wei%C3%9F
Happy looking through! Have you heard of this event? Maybe you pay Ischgl a visit someday to see them in real life?
Note: Not all of the photos are from this year. I just wanted to give a general overview of what "Formen in Weiß" is all about and the different kinds of stunning sculptures people from different countries come up with. The motto changes yearly. I am curious what motto they choose for 2026.