Digital Twins of the Polar Regions
Digital Twinning is next generation technology for data fusion and computer modelling enabling us to rapidly get answers to “what-if” questions. Digital Twins (DTs) are already in operation in industry …
Sea-level rise
Changes to the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets affects sea level all over the world.
Changes to the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets affects sea level all over the world. On the Antarctic Peninsula and in West Antarctica, the ice sheet is thinning, and satellite data reveals this rate is accelerating. Warm ocean currents deep beneath the ice shelves are melting the ice and causing it to flow into the sea faster than snow can accumulate.
SO-WISE
We are constructing observationally-constrained estimates of the state of the Weddell Gyre, including associated ice shelves and sea ice Introduction In the 25 years between 1992 and 2017, ocean melting …
Geophysical Habitat of Subglacial Thwaites
GHOST is an ice-based project which will examine the bed beneath the Thwaites Glacier, to assess whether conditions are likely to allow rapid retreat, or if the retreat may slow …
Melting at Thwaites Grounding Zone and its Control on Sea Level
MELT is an ice-based project that will use autonomous sensors to monitor the ice column and ocean beneath the ice shelf in the critical area of the grounding line (the …
International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration
This joint UK-US research programme aims to improve the understanding of the processes affecting ice sheet stability to predict, with more certainty, the future impact of sea-level rise from Thwaites …
Data As Art
DATA AS ART is an ongoing science & art project in development at NERC’s British Antarctic Survey (BAS). It visualises science data (in its widest definition), to create stunning and …
PolarGAP
The polar regions have the capacity to amaze and astound, but despite the considerable progress of recent decades we still know far less about them than less remote parts of …
Depositional patterns and records in sediment drifts off the Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica
The biggest uncertainty in predictions of sea-level rise is what the contribution will be from the great ice sheets on Antarctica and Greenland as climate warms. The West Antarctic Ice …
BEAMISH: Basal Conditions on Rutford Ice Stream
The polar ice sheets play a major role in controlling Earth’s sea level and climate, but our understanding of their history and motion is poor. The biggest uncertainty in predicting …
ANiSEED
This project will reconstruct millennial-scale ice sheet change in the western Amundsen Sea Embayment, Antarctica, using high-precision exposure dating.
Antarctic tipping points
1 June, 2023
Concern is rising about tipping points in the Antarctic region (Armstrong et al., 2022). Recent heatwaves, changes in the Southern Ocean, and a reduction in the extent of Antarctic sea …
Sea-level rise
30 June, 2022
Introduction Sea-level rise increases the frequency of coastal flooding events and threatens coastal populations around the world. Why is sea-level rise important? Around 148 million people are exposed to coastal …
Antarctic drilling missions seek to understand climate and ice dynamics
12 December, 2024
Over 30 researchers from international institutes are working on ice core drilling campaigns in Antarctica to probe the ice sheet’s behaviour, carbon cycling in the Southern Ocean, and the Earth’s …
Grim outlook for Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier
20 September, 2024
New science briefing summarises results of the ambitious international collaboration to study Antarctica’s most worrying glacier Cambridge: A vast area of the Antarctic Ice Sheet continues to retreat as a …
New insights into the bed beneath remote Antarctic glacier
16 April, 2024
Scientists have discovered a landscape of rocky hills and smooth plains beneath the remote Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. A team of researchers used seismic imaging to map the area …
New field season on Thwaites Glacier underway
7 December, 2023
Thirty seven scientists and over 24 support staff are arriving in Antarctica to work on Thwaites Glacier. They are part of the ambitious international effort to understand the glacier and …
Antarctica’s glacial border moves for miles with the tide
26 September, 2023
New measurements of how the boundary between onshore glacier and floating ice shelf glides back-and- forth could help predict melting The grounding line of the southern Ronne Ice Shelf in …
60 years of Antarctic ice sheet data released
17 July, 2023
In a significant milestone for Antarctic research, detailed and extensive information on ice thickness and bed topography is now available for the first time in a centralised and standardised format. …
Scientists named on TIME100 list for Antarctic research
13 April, 2023
Scientists Dr Peter Davis (British Antarctic Survey) and Dr Britney Schmidt (Cornell University) have been named in the 2023 TIME100 annual list of the 100 most influential people in the …
Extreme snowfall in West Antarctica driving sea-level rise
21 March, 2023
A new study highlights how extreme snowfall events significantly alter the amount of ice lost by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. A team of scientists from British Antarctic Survey, along …
New close-up view of melting beneath Thwaites Glacier
15 February, 2023
The rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica appears to be driven by different processes under its floating ice shelf than researchers previously understood. Novel observations from where the …
New funding to predict future sea-level rise in Antarctica
2 February, 2023
Researchers at British Antarctic Survey (BAS) will develop new and ambitious ideas to tackle critical global environmental challenges, such as global sea-level rise from Antarctica, thanks to new funding. The …