It’s the 2nd December 2013 and I find myself in one of those rare occasions in life where I feel I need to pinch myself to see if I’m dreaming. Why? Somehow I’m in control of a British Antarctic Survey De Havilland Twin Otter aircraft flying over the white featureless expanse of the West Antarctic …[Read More]
Guest author
My first journey to Antarctica – Brice Van Liefferinge
19 November 2014, the Iliuchine 76 gently lands on the runway of the Russian Antarctic station, Novolazarevskaya, in Dronning Maud Land. For the first time, I’m in Antarctica! It is 4 o’clock in the morning and we need to hurriedly offload 2 tons of material intended for our field mission near the Belgian Princess Elisabeth …[Read More]
High-tech science, old-school ship – Anne-Katrine Faber and Malte Winther
Last summer we got the chance to participate in an incredible Arctic expedition. The mission was clear and yet unclear at the same time: Bring your fanciest laser technology on a wooden schooner. Then cross the Atlantic and sail to the fjords of southern Green land and conduct science throughout the journey. During most of …[Read More]
Do Beers Go Stale in the Arctic? – Jakob Sievers
A story about CO2 -fluxes between sea-ice and the atmosphere What’s it all about? Whenever I have had to describe my PhD research project to people outside of my research community, I have always found it useful to use an analogy most people are familiar with, namely beers. Now that I have the full attention …[Read More]
Only extremes – Babis Charalampidis
– In fieldwork, you have no average. You just have extremes. When Daniel spoke his mind out loud we were facing a bright sunny day coming in from the opening of our tent. We were very glad to see that and ready to engage with our glaciological tasks. Our camp site was at the immediate …[Read More]
Four years in Tibet – Eva Huintjes
The Tibetan Plateau – area: 2.5 million km2, mean elevation: 4,700 m a.s.l., surrounded by a series of high mountain ranges that are home to some of the world’s highest peaks: Himalayas, Karakoram, Pamir, Kunlun Shan. Considering these characteristics and the unique cultural heritage of Tibet the decision was easy when I was asked if …[Read More]
The bi-polar behaviour of surge-type glaciers – Heidi Sevestre
Surge-type glaciers are the bi-polar member of the family of glacier dynamics. Every now and then they go into a complete fury and nobody really understands why. What are surge-type glaciers? Surge-type glaciers typically go through what we call the “surge cycle”. It is divided into two phases; a long quiescent phase during which the …[Read More]
Around the Poles in approx. 100 minutes: Earth Observation for Climate Science and the Cryosphere – Anna Maria Trofaier and Anne Stefaniak
Everyday we come into contact with technology that has changed the way we work, live and even think. Yet it is still easy to forget how integral satellite technology is to our daily lives; over two thousand artificial satellites currently orbit our planet – satellites for navigation, for telecommunication, for meteorology, and for environmental and …[Read More]
4 Reasons Why You Should Get Involved as an Early Career Scientist (& a caveat) – Allen Pope
You’re an early career scientist (ECS), or maybe you mentor one. So you know that we ECS are busy people, with responsibilities ranging from coursework to teaching, research to outreach, and labwork to fieldwork. And now there is this listicle (no, I’m not embarrassed about choosing this format) telling you to make time in your …[Read More]
My drone summer – Johnny Ryan
In the summer of 2014, our group at Aberystwyth University and the University of Cambridge decided to pursue an ambitious but exciting field campaign in West Greenland. The aim was to survey Store Glacier once a day using a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) (see photo above for a view from the UAV on its …[Read More]