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Tall, spiky snow structures (penitentes) occur high in subtropical mountains, in the form of blades oriented east-west and tilted toward the noontime sun. By trapping sunlight, they cause a reduction of albedo by ~0.3 relative to flat snow. The formation of penitentes, explained by Lliboutry in 1954, requires weather conditions allowing the troughs to deepen rapidly by melting while the peaks remain dry and cold by sublimation, losing little mass, because of the 8.5-fold difference in latent heats. Lliboutry's explanation has been misrepresented in some recent publications. A concern has been raised that in the low latitudes of Jupiter's moon Europa, the ice surface may have developed penitentes, which would pose a hazard to a lander. They would require a different mechanism of formation, because Europa is too cold for melting to occur. If penitentes are present on Europa, they cannot be resolved by the coarse-resolution satellite images available now, but the high albedo of Europa (~0.7 at visible wavelengths) argues against the existence of such extreme roughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tall, spiky snow structures (penitentes) occur high in subtropical mountains, in the form of blades oriented east-west and tilted toward the noontime sun. By trapping sunlight, they cause a reduction of albedo by ~0.3 relative to flat snow. The formation of penitentes, explained by Lliboutry in 1954, requires weather conditions allowing the troughs to deepen rapidly by melting while the peaks remain dry and cold by sublimation, losing little mass, because of the 8.5-fold difference in latent heats. Lliboutry's explanation has been misrepresented in some recent publications. A concern has been raised that in the low latitudes of Jupiter's moon Europa, the ice surface may have developed penitentes, which would pose a hazard to a lander. They would require a different mechanism of formation, because Europa is too cold for melting to occur. If penitentes are present on Europa, they cannot be resolved by the coarse-resolution satellite images available now, but the high albedo of Europa (~0.7 at visible wavelengths) argues against the existence of such extreme roughness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen science and related engagement programmes have proliferated in recent years throughout the sciences but have been reasonably limited in the cryospheric sciences. In the semiarid Andes we at the Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas have developed a range of initiatives together with the wider community and stakeholder institutions to improve our understanding of the role snow and ice play in headwater catchments. In this paper we reflect on ongoing engagement with communities living and working in and near study sites of cryospheric science in northern Chile as a strategy that can both strengthen the research being done and empower local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citizen science and related engagement programmes have proliferated in recent years throughout the sciences but have been reasonably limited in the cryospheric sciences. In the semiarid Andes we at the Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas have developed a range of initiatives together with the wider community and stakeholder institutions to improve our understanding of the role snow and ice play in headwater catchments. In this paper we reflect on ongoing engagement with communities living and working in and near study sites of cryospheric science in northern Chile as a strategy that can both strengthen the research being done and empower local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]