In January-February, a scientific expedition traveled to Antarctica to study its fastest melting glacier, the Thwaites. You can find out more here (includes photos and videos): www.nytimes.com/live/2025/cl... (gift). 🌎

You can follow @zhonggg.bsky.social and Chang Lee's coverage of the trip to the Thwaites Glacier here. This has got to be the most well-covered research cruise ever. 🌊

To go under Thwaites Glacier, the only way is through ⬇️ This intrepid UK-Korean science team are tunnelling 1000m through one of the world's most unstable ice shelves. They'll get daily data showing how warm ocean water is melting Thwaites from below - crucial for predicting sea level rise.

We've never seen anyone so enthusiastic to crush ice – but a team of scientists are studying the cracking of ice, and they’re pretty hyped! ❄️ @newscientist.com spoke to members of the RIFT-TIP project, who are investigating how ice shelf fractures grow. Watch the video here: tinyurl.com/526tn8zz

We've had a Very Important Ice delivery! These precious ancient ice core samples from Antarctica are expected to reveal a climate record stretching back more than 1.5 million years 🤯 That's further than we've ever looked back before. 🧵 1/4

"It is impossible to overstate how critical this region is to our shared future." - @tobyperkinsmp.bsky.social, Chair Read our report on the UK and the Antarctic environment: publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cm...

This is almost unbelievable. It's now May and there is still virtually no new sea ice forming in the Bellingshausen Sea (lower left region in image). Image showing sea ice concentration derived from AMSR satellite data is by Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany.

The Penguin Book of penguins - An Expert's Guide to the World's Most Beloved Bird by Peter Fretwell and Lisa Fretwell www.penguin.co.uk/books/464310... @ptfretwell.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk #PenguinBooks #VikingBooksUK

Update on Thwaites Glacier Eastern Ice Shelf from Copernicus Sentinel-1 SAR. Downloadable version here: aluckman4.wixsite.com/ade-s-world-...

Year-end scramble getting you down? ⏳ Applications for lots of our Antarctic #jobs are closing in the next week. They include vehicles manager at Halley, and Radio Operator and IT Engineer at Rothera Research Station. These are jobs unlike any other, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth ⬇️

Iceberg A23a pictured from the ISS. The space station is almost as far south as it can reach here (51.5° S, 49.0° W - altitude of 422km). Picture taken on 14 March, so the berg had been grounded at South Georgia for a fortnight by this time.

Scientists made a stunning discovery beneath an Antarctic ice shelf—thriving life in a world once thought uninhabitable.The breakthrough offers new insights into deep-sea ecosystems and the resilience of life in extreme environments. indianexpress.com/ar...

1.2 million years - have you heard of ice this old?! 🧊 These ice cores were retrieved as part of the Beyond EPICA - Oldest Ice project, which aims to unlock crucial insights into Earth's past climate and atmospheric conditions #ice #climate Read the full story 👇 www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/a...

As polar night ends and sunlight begins to return to Longyearbyen, lets see how the Svalbard seasons progressed last year - from ice-locked fjords in March, through to the first snows of October. Thanks to NASA MODIS via GIBS. Download at full resolution here: aluckman4.wixsite.com/ade-s-world-...

Bedmap3 is now out rdcu.be/ecTmO

The last Twin Otter aircraft has just left Rothera which marks the end of the field season, and gives us a chance to look back at the support we have provided over the year. We started with fieldwork and air unit maps! 🧵 1/5

The world's largest iceberg, A23a, appears to have grounded close to South Georgia. We've been monitoring and mapping this berg for many years now and we're watching closely to see what it might do next! These maps show its route since 1986 and the latest position to the SW of South Georgia ❄️🐧 1/3

Hot off the press - the latest edition of the BAS Long Read! 🔥📰 Get ready to hear from three Antarctic scientists - Dr Emma Pearce, Dr Liz Thomas, and Dr Dieter Tetzner - about their work drilling for ice cores in Antarctica Grab a coffee, and settle down for a read 👇 www.bas.ac.uk/blogpost/the...

Here's the @aria-research.bsky.social page about the Forecasting Tipping Points programme. It's well worth a proper read! 🌍 www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-... Here’s the BAS news story about GRAIL - and three other projects involving BAS researchers: ❄️ tinyurl.com/kzhhha6w 3/3

A new paper about the Antarctic Ice Sheet in a special issue of @science.org reviews critical knowledge gaps in our understanding of how Antarctica responds to variations in global climate. Antarctica in 2025: Drivers of deep uncertainty in projected ice loss www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Find out why this is the perfect place for an automatic monitoring station to measure ocean temperature, salinity and currents. It's crucial research about potential sea-level rise: are warming waters melting the ice shelf that holds back the glaciers? ▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/fishing-for-...

A new iceberg, ~30x14 km in size, recently calved from the southern end of the George VI Ice Shelf. It's called A84 and is already making quite an impact, bumping into the Stange Ice Shelf over the weekend! These Copernicus Sentinel-1 images from Polar View show the new berg over the last few days.

Beautiful Sentinel-2 imagery of George VI Ice Shelf with lots of meltwater from yesterday. The patterns that this water produces is like artwork! Fossil Bluff is shown in the second image, and Hodgson Lake shown in the last - a former subglacial lake sealed under ice thick perennial ice ❄️

🔥New paper alert! 🔥🧪❄️🥼 Ever wondered what to consider when drilling through an ice sheet into rock? We take you through how we chose a drill site in West #Antarctica using field observations, samples, radar survey, modelling & satellite imagery. tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/... @bas.ac.uk 🧵1/n

Important paper in Nature today about collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. There is a positive isotope anomaly at Skytrain Ice Rise during the last interglacial, consistent with what we found in our high-resolution water-isotope simulations when WAIS collapses. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Southern Ocean is a critical part of our planet, exerting profound influences over global climate and ecosystems. Great to see some of the leading-order priorities for its research elucidated by Earle, @carlosmoffat.com et al.! 🌊🧪🥼❄️

Satellites have transformed our understanding of Earths polar regions, and it's wonderful to see the work of The IMBIE Team recognised by @esa.int as a groundbreaking discovery ! tinyurl.com/mtut9dc6

Yesterday, 22/1, another step on the way was reached with the second reaming pass completed to target depth of 125 m, widening the hole to 209 mm. This leaves the third pass to go, which will widen to final diameter of 260 mm down to 120 m. Derryn, Daniel and Chelsea pictured (📷D.Harvie).

You can now follow along with the more detailed drilling field diary for MYIC available below, and we will continue posting summary snippets here at bluesky. www.antarctica.gov.au/science/clim...

Could your next job be in Antarctica? We're looking for carpenters, chefs, electricians, plumbers, plant operators and more to work at our research stations. These are jobs like no other, in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. ✅ Vacancies bas.ac.uk/vacancies 💡 Job alerts ow.ly/fWsu50UJHBP

How is Antarctica melting, exactly? Crucial details are beginning to come into focus theconversation.com/how-is-antar...

We had the first sunset at Rothera in weeks a few days back, meaning the evening/night light is perfect for stunning Antarctic photos! @bas.ac.uk

And the view from your bridge looks also very well 👍 Footage: The webcam on RRS Sir David Attenborough 🇺🇳 #Antartica

🥳🎉 for the 👌 Sentinel1-C 🛰️ launch. This animation highlights again the key insights #sentinel1 provides for ❄️+🧊+🌎 ; here nicely illustrating the decay of Pine Island Glaciers' shear zones.

Beautiful image showing an almost cloud free Stange Ice Shelf with the RRS Sir David Attenborough alongside 🚢 (you’ll need a good eye to spot it!)

TIL that you do occasionally get TWELVE-sided snowflakes, when two six-sided ones collide in the right way and stick together. They seem to stick at a suspiciously perfect angle! Photos from Ken Libbrecht's brilliant website here: www.snowcrystals.com...

Hello from the Brunt Ice Shelf! ⚡🧪 The RIFT-TIP team are using ice cores and seismology to model how huge fractures travel across ice shelves. With just a few weeks left, they've been putting in a real shift: 🧊 4 ice cores drilled 🔍 60km of radar transects taken ⚡ 64 surface seismometers set up

The Australian🇦🇺 Million Year Ice Core Project entered a new phase yesterday, with the commencement of drilling at Dome C North.

🌐 Exciting news! We’re thrilled to announce the release of the new Ice Logistics Portal, providing global sea ice charts from 13 ice & weather services. Explore: www.icelogistics.info 1/3

There are also good views from the RRS Sir David Attenborough webcam and a wider area view in radar images from EC Copernicus/ESA downloaded from Polarview. The yellow arrows show the ship's location against Stange Ice Shelf and the bright lines to the south are the vehicle tracks.

Yesterday's Danish #greenland ice sheet seminar finished with a screening of this spectacular film about new findings from the Camp Century ice core. The memory of darkness light and ice is absolutely outstanding. And if you get a chance, a must watch. https://youtu.be/ukf54a6ZRW0

Work onboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough continues as numerous icebergs drift past to our north. Using a combination of optical and radar satellite imagery, plus regular RPAS flights, we keep watch on any icebergs that might get close enough to interrupt us. Credit Pete Bucktrout & Jamie Oliver.

They did it! "An international team of scientists announced they’ve successfully drilled one of the oldest ice cores yet [...] to reach ice they say is at least 1.2 million years old." So far scientific ocean drilling was the only way to go back in time further than 800ka! apnews.com/article/anta...

🎉🎉🎉 Woo hoo! 🎉🎉🎉 Amazing feat by the Beyond EPICA-Oldest Ice team! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Smashing the 800,000 year record for a continuous ice core by a country mile back to 1.2 million years ago.

Thwaites Glacier calves kilometre-scale icebergs every few weeks. Here's an animation of the process from Sentinel-1. For a longer and higher-resolution version, have a look here: aluckman4.wixsite.com/ade-s-world-...

What does the future hold for the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf? @jbsallee.bsky.social, @elindarelius.bsky.social, & colleagues investigate in new #AGUPubs research. eos.org/research-spo...

2024 was the fourth warmest year for the UK on record (behind 2014, 2022 and 2023) and included the warmest Spring on record.

Congratulations to Rod Arnold, MBE! 🥇 As Head of the Air Unit at British Antarctic Survey, Rod was awarded his MBE in the New Years Honours list for services to Polar Science and Aviation in British Antarctic Territory Find out more about his achievements 👇 www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/n...

We are currently onboard the @bas.ac.uk ship RRS Sir David Attenborough, ensuring it has up to date information about sea ice and icebergs to help with safe and efficient navigation. Our SIIS (Sea Ice Information System) delivers sea ice data and satellite imagery directly to the bridge.