5 January, 2016 Joanne Johnson
Greetings from Marie Byrd Land! The waiting is over….we finally arrived at our field site on 11th December, after a 4 hour flight from Sky Blu one of BAS’s fuel …
4 January, 2016 Ashly Fusiarski
Life in Antarctica can be difficult but strangely the more difficult it is, the easier it becomes. Life starts to be simple. One only has to do whatever it takes. The …
Read more on ANTARCTIC BLOG: Polar guide tackles the long wait #6
1 January, 2016
Dr Emily Shuckburgh, British Antarctic Survey’s Deputy Head of Polar Oceans, was among those named in the New Year’s Honours List. She has been awarded an OBE for services to …
23 December, 2015 Thomas Barningham
Welcome to my blog. My name is Thomas Barningham and I’m currently in the third year of my PhD at the University of East Anglia. My work aims to understand …
16 December, 2015
This paper reveals that the amount of snowfall in coastal West Antarctica has increased during the 20th century, with annual snow accumulation since the 1990s the highest we have observed …
12 December, 2015 Joanne Johnson
Geologist Jo Johnson waits patiently to go deep-field
10 December, 2015
The British Antarctic Oral History Project is the result of a collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), BAS Club, UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT), and Scott Polar Research Institute …
7 December, 2015 Tom Jordan
Tom Jordan is part of the PolarGAP project, an ambitious international collaboration which will use airborne geophysics to explore one of the last known frontiers on our planet – the …
2 December, 2015 Ashly Fusiarski
As we finally approached our input site I could see our future home in the distance, a little black dot on a frozen white ocean, slowly growing in size as …
25 November, 2015 Ashly Fusiarski
A week after iBeam departed, our aircraft arrived at Sky-Blu from Rothera to take us further into the field, to our winterised vehicles, to our start point. The call sign …
Read more on ANTARCTIC BLOG: Polar guide flies into the field – #4
23 November, 2015
New season tackles ambitious science and logistical challenges The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) 2015/16 field season is underway with dozens of scientists and support staff – together with planes and tonnes …
20 November, 2015 Thomas Welsh
New summer season starts at Halley
19 November, 2015 Joanne Johnson
Being a parent working in Antarctica
19 November, 2015
The Earth’s climate was warmer than today by at least 1°C during the Last Interglacial (between 129,000 and 116,000 years ago). Thus, the Last Interglacial represents an invaluable case study …
16 November, 2015
A new study by an international team of scientists, including from British Antarctic Survey (BAS), has analysed the effects on seabed communities of glacial retreat. Writing in Science Advances this …
12 November, 2015 Joanne Johnson
A long drive ahead….update from polar guides preparing for a geology project in remote Marie Byrd Land Whilst Steve Roberts and I are preparing to depart the UK for Rothera …
6 November, 2015 Ashly Fusiarski
“Goodbyes” get harder each time so I avoid them by saying “See you later” as if I’m just going to the shop. The journey South is long and for me …
Halley Research Station is the British Antarctic Survey’s most southerly Research Station and is built on a floating ice shelf. All the vehicles at Halley are tracked and can be …
Ensuring our Antarctic vehicles fleet performs in extreme conditions
27 October, 2015 Sian Tarrant
Leopard seal peak The penultimate month of the lep round has been by far the most exciting. September has been the busiest month yet for leopard seal sightings. It has …
Read more on ANTARCTIC BLOG: Busy month for leopard seal sightings!
26 October, 2015 Ashly Fusiarski
It’s four AM and I’m wide awake, staring at the deep blue and black shadows on the ceiling of my bedroom. I allow myself just this once to indulge in …
21 October, 2015 Sian Henley
Find out about NERC Research Fellow Dr Sian Henley’s preparations for her fifth visit to Rothera Research Station and what she looks forward to onboard the RRS James Clark Ross.
Read more on GUEST BLOG: Ready for Antarctic trip number five!
13 October, 2015
Recent research in polar and non-polar regions showed that sun-lit snow packs are important chemical reactors and reservoirs, which strongly influence air quality of the lower atmosphere and likely also …
7 October, 2015
Antarctic seabird community structure remains unaffected by changes in food availability A new study of sub-Antarctic seabirds shows that their community structure (how they co-exist and share resources) is unaffected …
7 October, 2015 Joanne Johnson
Science team goes deep field to Marie Byrd Land
6 October, 2015
NERC funds PhD training in robotics and autonomous systems
28 September, 2015
Warmer temperatures stimulate diversity of soil fungi Remote and covered by ice for much of the year the Antarctic Peninsula is home to hidden and dynamic communities of microbes that …
Read more on PRESS RELEASE: Fungal diversity in Antarctic soils
25 September, 2015
BAS scientists awarded grant to study penguins’ reliance on krill Norwegian and British scientists are to take part in a research project to determine how dependant non-breeding penguins are on …
28 August, 2015
Most comprehensive ice loss model A new international study is the first to use a high-resolution, large-scale computer model to estimate how much ice the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could …
12 August, 2015
In February 2002, satellite images from a remote location in Antarctica revealed how an immense volume of floating ice, up to 1km thick, suddenly collapsed. Over the course of a …
Read more on FEATURED PAPER: Glacier response to ice shelf collapse
10 August, 2015
Antarctic fur seals have unique ‘scent profile’ to recognise their pups Researchers studying Antarctic fur seals have discovered their scent has a unique ‘profile’ which enables them to recognise their …
22 July, 2015
Why does Antarctica matter? Young Geographer of the Year Award 2015 The Royal Geographical Society is running a schools competition to mark the centenary of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition, …
To assess the wider impact of global climate changes on the environment we are investigating intervals of deep geological time that provide clues about the evolution and sensitivity of organisms …
We aim to detect patterns and mechanisms of late glacial and Holocene climate change and to place recent human impacts on the Earth’s climate system in the context of long …
Shallow UW Camera System can work to depth up to 1000m, showing a black and white live low resolution video stream and can take colour high resolution stills. The system consists …
BAS has developed aerogravity systems that can be mounted in its geophysical survey aircraft, or in a UAV. Over 100,000 km of gravity data has been collected since such systems …
The radar system is composed of a complex waveform generator, signal processor, data handler and data store. It includes a high power transmitter (up to 66dBm or 4kW), a low …
Two of the four BAS Twin Otters are equipped with a full remote sensing capability, providing scientists with data on land, ice and sea. This includes VNIR & SWIR hyperspectral …
Enabling ice observation programmes
Specialist team for specialist work
Operational support for UK polar research is managed by our Operations teams. The team covers a wide range of activities from managing Arctic and Antarctic Research stations, operating polar ships …
4 June, 2015
FREE event: ‘Discover Antarctica’ at British Geological Survey Open Day, Saturday 27 June, 10am-4pm Staff from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) will showcase its work at this year’s British Geological Survey …
Read more on NEWS STORY: Space weather features at free event
26 May, 2015
Petrels tracked across the Oceans Staff at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are following the journeys of White-chinned Petrel fledglings as they make their first journeys over the South Atlantic Ocean …
19 May, 2015
EU boost for polar science A new initiative to enhance the integration of Europe’s scientific and operational capabilities in the Polar Regions has been funded by the EU Horizon 2020 …
18 May, 2015
Announcement of opportunity – Antarctic construction works associated with a new polar research vessel. Cambridge Seminar 4 June 2015 In April 2014 the British Government earmarked more than £200 million …
13 May, 2015
New study shows Antarctic ice shelf is thinning from above and below A decade-long scientific debate about what’s causing the thinning of one of Antarctica’s largest ice shelves is settled …
11 May, 2015
30th Anniversary of the Discovery of Ozone Hole This week British Antarctic Survey (BAS) commemorates the 30th anniversary of one of its most important scientific discoveries that affected the world …
Airborne instrument capability
30 April, 2015
NERC Advanced Training Short Course A Skills Framework for Delivering Safe and Effective Fieldwork in the Polar Regions Course date: 26 August – 8 September 2015 Deadline for applications: 4pm, …
29 April, 2015
First new family of starfish discovered in hydrothermal vents A new family of deep-sea starfish has been discovered living in the warm waters around a hydrothermal vent in the East …
Exploring the unknown, predicting the future
Exploring the unknown
Providing geospatial information support to BAS science and operations programmes
Understanding the present, predicting the future
Understanding past change in ice sheets, oceans and global climate
Understanding the present, exploring the unknown
Our ambition Is to support the UK’s polar research effort through effective and efficient operation and management of research stations and deep-field locations in the Antarctic, the subantarctic and in …
Predicting the future
Understanding the present
Communicating excellence with impact
The Environment Office coordinates and monitors environmental activities on BAS stations and ships and at its headquarters in Cambridge to ensure minimum environmental impact. Our responsibilities Developing and implementing BAS …
17 April, 2015
British Antarctic Survey takes part in the National Engineering & Construction Recruitment Exhibition 2015 British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is recruiting for engineers and construction workers at this year’s National Engineering …
SAOZ measures sunlight scattered from the overhead sky in a way that allows us to calculate how much of the atmospheric gases ozone and nitrogen dioxide the light has passed through …
The instrument that led to the discovery of ozone depletion over Antarctica
The microwave radiometer enables us to gain a better understanding of the chemistry and physics of the polar middle atmosphere, 35–90km above the ground, and how it affects climate. For example, …
The riometer at Halley measures the radiowave noise at 30MHz coming from the Galaxy. Typically there is a gentle variation of the noise during each day as the Earth turns …
Search coil magnetometer Several kinds of natural waves in the ultra-low-frequency (ULF) range are generated in Earth’s space environment (the magnetosphere, bounded by Earth’s magnetic field as it extends into …
The Halley VLF receiver listens to very-low frequency radio waves as part of a network of receivers located all over the polar regions. The data gathered by this network is used by …
Bomem The Bomem has been operating at Halley periodically since 2002. It’s a spectrometer: an instrument that splits light into its component colours. It is designed to look specifically at …
At Halley, balloon launches take place every day at 11am. A device called a radiosonde hangs beneath the helium-filled balloon and measures temperature, pressure and humidity. From GPS we can …
Studying winds, waves, and tides in the upper atmosphere across the polar regions.
Met tower Meteorological scientists at Halley have been measuring the weather in great detail and with ever more sophisticated gadgets since the station first opened over 50 years ago. Instruments …
Rothera Research Station ARIES Dome
MF Radar Info to be added Skiymet Radar Info to be added
New Bransfield House Hardware for general use A number of networked computers for all staffr Hardware for science use (Bonner Lab) 8 x Windows XP PCs for visiting scientists HP …
Hardware for general use A Module 4 x networked PCs running Windows 7 Enterprise HP colour laser printer with duplexer Epson stylus 1400 photo printer Epsom GT20000 scanner H1 Module …
These facilities are on board and available for BAS cruises. They will not necessarily be available to external personnel when the vessel is on hire during North Sea work. Hardware …
Offices, social and recreational faclilities
The runway at Rothera is 900 metres long (2,950 ft) and is made of crushed rock. To the west of the runway lies the aircraft hangar, which houses the Dash-7 and three Twin …
1 April, 2015
New study tracks feeding behaviour of Antarctic fur seals in winter During the Antarctic Summer female fur seals feed in the waters around their breeding breaches. In winter, when their …
26 March, 2015
WWF’s Earth Hour is a global annual event where hundreds of millions of people switch off their lights for one hour to show they care about the planet.
26 March, 2015
New research shows volume loss from Antarctic ice shelves is accelerating New research published today in the journal Science Express (Thursday 26 March) describes how the ice shelves around Antarctica …
The Twin Otter is a high-wing, twin-engine, turbo-prop aircraft. They are used all over the world and are known for their rugged construction, reliability and short take-off and landing performance. …
The De Havilland Canada Dash-7 (DHC-7) is a key element of our aircraft capability. This four-engined aircraft with a worldwide reputation for reliability, economy and performance made its first flight …
Specialised observatory with a suite of instruments to measure the air and snow chemistry around Halley.
Supporting near-shore marine biology
Used mainly for transporting staff and cargo to research stations. On charter when not in Antarctica
Supporting deep-field science missions
Refuelling and meteorology facility to support deep-field science parties
Signy Research Station is one of Britain’s smallest stations, and is only occupied in summer. The island’s abundant wildlife and greenery make it an ideal outdoor laboratory. Research at Signy …
5 March, 2015
Oceanographers discover ‘Taylor columns’ are widespread in Southern Ocean according to new research published recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research Lead author Professor Mike Meredith, a Senior Oceanographer at …
Read more on NEWS STORY: Columns widespread in Southern Ocean