Investigating physical and chemical changes in atmospheric circulation, ozone depletion, temperatures and sea-ice extent in both Polar Regions can help determine how much of the observed change is due to human activity and how much is a result of natural factors. Unique chemical processes occur in the atmosphere above Antarctica and the Arctic reveal much about our changing world.
Understanding the atmosphere and the ozone layer – a short film from UNEP
JASPER brings together two of the best equipped Polar meteorology instrumented aircraft and teams to study boundary layer meteorology in the Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea. A joint project between …
Assessing Space Weather impacts
Investigating the twilight zone The four-year COMICS project, is led by the National Oceanography Centre, is a collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey and the universities of Queen Mary London, …
The Sub-Antarctic – ice coring expedition (SubICE), part of the international Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE), successfully drilled several shallow ice cores, from five of the remote and globally significant sub-Antarctic …
Methane is one of the most important greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and changes in its concentration could have major influences on the Earth’s climate. Measurements made around the world …
A new research platform to put UK scientists at the forefront of polar science
Long-term meteorological and ozone observations and data help determine the causes of climate change in the polar regions. Meteorology Meteorological observations are made regularly throughout the day at Halley and …
QEPPA is a joint project between the British Antarctic Survey and the Space physics group at Lancaster University. The objective of QEPPA is to work out the amount of charged …
The cause of the variability in atmospheric CO2 over glacial-interglacial timescales has been a puzzle since its discovery in the early 1980s. It is widely believed to be related to …
iStar-D will identify the potential contribution to sea-level rise, from ice locked in the Amundsen Sea sector of Antarctica
26 July, 2016
An international team of scientists have used air bubbles in polar ice from pre-industrial times to measure the sensitivity of the Earth’s land biosphere to changes in temperature.
20 July, 2016
The rapid warming of the Antarctic Peninsula, which occurred from the early-1950s to the late 1990s, has paused. Stabilisation of the ozone hole along with natural climate variability were significant in bringing about the change. Together these influences have now caused the northern part of the peninsula to enter a temporary cooling phase. Temperatures remain higher than measured during the middle of the 20th Century and glacial retreat is still taking place. However, scientists predict that if greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise at the current rate, temperatures will increase across the Antarctic Peninsula by several degrees Centigrade by the end of this century.
14 July, 2016
A new study has found for the first time that ocean warming is the primary cause of retreat of glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula. The Peninsula is one of the largest current contributors to sea-level rise and this new finding will enable researchers to make better predictions of ice loss from this region.
1 July, 2016
An international team of researchers has identified the “first fingerprints of healing” of the Antarctic ozone layer, published this week (30 June 2016) in the journal Science.
16 June, 2016
Levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere – which is the leading driver of recent climate change – have reached a milestone at British Antarctic Survey’s …
29 April, 2016
BBC Horizon documentary ‘Ice Station Antarctica’ to be broadcast on Wednesday 4 May at 8pm, BBC2.
26 January, 2016
This paper provides new evidence and proposes a new dynamical mechanism for the teleconnection between the two largest jet streams in the northern winter stratosphere – the tropical wind system …
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 …
9 September, 2015
Researchers from the Arctic Research Programme, managed at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), have shown for the first time that phytoplankton (plant life) in remote ocean regions can contribute to rare …
