Channel Title: British Antarctic Survey Channel Description: Uncovering the secrets of Earth’s frozen places - from the depths of the oceans to the inner edge of space. British Antarctic Survey staff have been living and working in the extremes of Antarctica and the Arctic for over 60 years. What happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica. Our planet’s frozen regions are changing in ways that impact the entire planet, and at a rate and scale we haven't seen before. We're working to understand why, what this means for the inhabitants of Earth, and what we can do about it. <video> A23a megaberg escapes after months in ocean vortex | British Antarctic Survey Description: This iceberg cannot be contained! But it has faced many significant delays. After calving from Antarctica’s Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in 1986, the colossal chunk of ice was grounded on the bed of the Weddell Sea for the last three decades – only recently breaking free to end up where it is now, adrift in the Southern Ocean. This mega-iceberg: 😎 Weighs in at nearly a trillion tonnes ⬆️ Is roughly twice the size of Greater London Despite its slow journey, A23a has been the source of much scientific intrigue. For months, the iceberg was trapped in a Taylor Column – a phenomenon where rotating water above a seamount traps objects in place. This kept the immense frozen mass spinning on one spot (rotating about 15 degrees counterclockwise every day) and delaying its rapid drift North. And last year, scientists conducting part of the BIOPOLE project aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough were able to get close enough to observe and study the iceberg. They were able to collect data from alongside it to investigate how Antarctic ecosystems and sea ice influence ocean cycles of carbon and nutrients, building a more accurate image of how these normally elusive objects influence global oceanographic processes. A23a is predicted to continue its journey into the Southern Ocean, driven toward the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Here, the iceberg will encounter the region’s warmer water where it is expected to break up into smaller icebergs and eventually melt – free at last! </video> <video> S4: Life after Antarctica: post-deployment with Dr Bav Sasi, Jerry Gillham and Kirsten Shaw Description: Adapting to life after Antarctica can be a strange (and sometimes difficult) transition. Whether it's adjusting back to the daily hustle of home life after being in a remote community, or coming down from the emotional highs and lows of life in the wildest environment on Earth, returning to normal can be a challenge. In this episode, host Nadia Frontier speaks with Dr Bav Sasi, a former medic at Rothera Research Station, about his research into the psychological and emotional effects of returning from Antarctic deployments. Also joining the conversation are Station Leader Jerry Gillham, and Antarctic Postal Logistics founder Kirsten Shaw. Together, they share their personal experiences of moving between life on the frozen continent and the 'normal' world, plus their top tips for managing the transition - whether you’re returning from an extreme experience, or supporting someone who is. --- Welcome to Antarctica. What's it like living and working in one of the most extreme environments in the world? From polar scientists to plumbers, ICEWORLD is a series of interviews with ordinary people who are doing extraordinary jobs in Antarctica. The team talk climate science, extreme living, expeditions and becoming a community.  A podcast from British Antarctic Survey, hosted and recorded by marine biologist Nadia Frontier. Produced in partnership with Boffin Media. </video> <video> Three penguins cross a weighbridge near Antarctica | British Antarctic Survey Description: It's time for the penguin weigh-in! Since 2009 an automated weighbridge has been used on Bird Island in the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, allowing researchers to monitor foraging patterns and weight changes in macaroni penguins. Throughout the breeding season - November to April - adult macaroni penguins of ‘Little Mac’ colony leave to forage at sea, bringing back food in their stomachs for their chicks. As flightless birds, penguins use designated walkways between the sea and colony, called ‘penguin highways’, passing through a gateway containing the weighbridge each time. The weighbridge weighs the adults both as they leave and return after foraging. Researchers can: ⚖️ Calculate how much food they have brought back, based on how much heavier they are on their return. 📉 Monitor how the weights of individual adult penguins change throughout the season, using a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader to identify individual penguins. ⌛ Learn how long adult penguins are foraging for. Each week a field assistant recovers the data from the system and calibrates the weighbridge using standard weights to ensure accurate functioning, as well as inspecting the load cells for damage or debris that may affect how well they work. #antarctica #penguins #cuteanimals #trailcam #animalcute #trailcamera </video> <video> S4 Ep5: Penguin passion at the poles with Derren Fox and Peter Fretwell Description: Are you a professional in penguin bum lifting? Derren Fox’s love for penguins began long before he made the trek to the icy sub-Antarctic island of Signy, where he works as a Zoological Assistant. In this episode, Derren chats to Nadia from Signy Research Station, where he spends his days getting up close and personal with Adélie penguins. He’s joined by Peter Fretwell, a satellite-wielding penguin expert who studies emperor penguins across the vast, frozen continent. Together, they share some of the more interesting ways they weigh and monitor the health of these iconic, charming, and stubborn birds - and spoiler: it involves a lot of careful penguin wrangling. They also discuss the serious threats facing emperor penguins from climate change. From dodging the occasional disgruntled penguin, to the iconic place these flightless birds have in Antarctica’s ecosystem, this episode is a fun, eye-opening look at the challenges and joys of studying penguins in the wild. --- Welcome to Antarctica. What's it like living and working in one of the most extreme environments in the world? From polar scientists to plumbers, ICEWORLD is a series of interviews with ordinary people who are doing extraordinary jobs in Antarctica. The team talk climate science, extreme living, expeditions and becoming a community.  A podcast from British Antarctic Survey, hosted and recorded by marine biologist Nadia Frontier. Produced in partnership with Boffin Media. </video> <video> Sail on RRS Sir David Attenborough to Antarctica 🇦🇶 An epic journey in 5 mins | Ticket to Antarctica Description: UK's big red icebreaker, RRS Sir David Attenborough, set off in October for the Antarctic summer season. From Harwich Port in the East of the UK, to Montevideo in Uruguay, across Drake Passage to Rothera Research Station, and then cruising up along the chain of sub-Antarctic Islands - this journey features rolling seas, vistas of sea ice, and sharp mountains rising out of the Southern Ocean. This voyage of a lifetime was available to follow in detail with the Ticket to Antarctica project - and you can still read and explore the story! 🚢 https://tickettoantarctica.co.uk/journal --- 🐧 About British Antarctic Survey (BAS) The polar regions may be at the ends of the Earth, but what happens there affects us all. We're committed to understanding our planet - and how humans are impacting the future of our home. British Antarctic Survey carries out and supports polar science for the UK, and in collaboration with science communities around the world. #SouthernOcean #rrssirdavidattenborough #antarctica #timelapse #voyage #epicjourney #epicjourneys </video> <video> Want to protect whales from ships? 🐋 Add speed limits ✅ | British Antarctic Survey Description: Ship strikes are the biggest cause of death for whales 🚢 But a new study has found that adding speed limits in just 2.6% of the world's ocean covers all the highest-risk collision hotspots! The international collaboration, led by University of Washington, has researched the overlap between global shipping traffic and the hotspots of four large whale species. They found: 🚢 92% of these whales' ranges overlapped with global shipping traffic 7️⃣ only 7% of highest risk areas for whale-ship collisions have protections in place 🗺️ 95% of hotspots fall within a nation’s exclusive economic zone This study found that relatively straight-forward measures would have substantial impacts on reducing the risk of ship strike, such as mandatory or voluntary speed reductions for vessels in whale hotspots. Speed reductions would also have benefits for the wider environment, such as lessening noise pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. </video> <video> 5: Why does melting Arctic ice matter? | Dr Kelly Hogan & Professor Kate Hendry Description: The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet. So far, so bad - and scientists are seeing changes there now. Fresh off scientific fieldwork in the Arctic this summer, marine geophysicist Dr Kelly Hogan and marine biogeochemist Professor Kate Hendry reflect on what they saw and studied in this spectacular and important environment. Through the lens of their science projects - KANG-GLAC and SiCLING - they explain what the consequences of a melting Arctic could be, how these frozen environments are connected to the 'normal' climate we enjoy today, and how understanding the past could be the key to predicting what changes await us in the future. --- Beyond the Ice helps you unpack the latest news in climate science with the experts at British Antarctic Survey. Our planet is changing at a rate and scale unlike anything seen in human history - and Earth's frozen places are the front line. After all, what happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay in Antarctica. Beyond the Ice is also available as a LinkedIn Newsletter. Subscribe here: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/beyond-the-ice-7114973466654560256/  Beyond the Ice is edited and presented by Em Newton. </video> <video> S4 Ep4: Scouting for shags and skuas with Paul Whitelaw and Aurelia Reichardt Description: Paul Whitelaw started dreaming of a job in Antarctica when a BAS marine biologist visited as a lecturer during his degree. Only a few years later, Nadia speaks to Paul while he is monitoring seabirds at Rothera Research Station in Antarctica as part of his PhD. From dodging dive-bombing skuas to tracking hatching egg numbers, Paul's work includes monitoring the health of the substantial seabird populations in Antarctica. With 10% of the world's population of skua in the same bay as Rothera, Paul is able to use the changing fate of the birds there as an indicator for the health of the marine ecosystem as a whole. Paul is joined in the interview by Aurelia Reichardt, Station Leader, who has also been involved in the long term monitoring of skua populations at Rothera. --- Welcome to Antarctica. What's it like living and working in one of the most extreme environments in the world? From polar scientists to plumbers, ICEWORLD is a series of interviews with ordinary people who are doing extraordinary jobs in Antarctica. The team talk climate science, extreme living, expeditions and becoming a community.  A podcast from British Antarctic Survey, hosted and recorded by marine biologist Nadia Frontier. Produced in partnership with Boffin Media. Cover photo of Paul by Patrick Griffin. </video> <video> Allie Clement introduces ocean science at Rothera | Ticket to Antarctica | British Antarctic Survey Description: </video> <video> How to count penguins on a volcano 🐧🌋 | Ticket to Antarctica | British Antarctic Survey Description: Penguins on a volcano: perhaps the most unlikely sounding pairing in Antarctica! This remote and rocky isle in the Southern Ocean is Zavodovski Island. It’s home to around one million breeding chinstrap and macaroni penguins, making it the largest population of breeding penguins on Earth! Zavodovski is also home to some unique land-based biodiversity: mosses, lichens and invertebrates that survive the cold by living around volcanic vents. Because it’s an active volcano with a sheer coastline that’s battered by rough seas, Zavodovski is a tricky place for researchers to get to. But, in December 2023, a team of intrepid researchers made the 1,300-mile journey from the Falkland Islands, sailing for seven days in a yacht over one of the world’s roughest oceans. They spent three weeks camping on the island, counting penguins on the ground and using drones. These more detailed counts were compared to photos taken at a higher altitude, by a plane. If these aerial photos prove to be an accurate way of counting penguins, they can be used to monitor the colonies in the future. #volcano #penguins #drone #epicanimals #epicdroneshots #ecosystem </video> <video> Serene swimming with penguins for 2 minutes - and 15 seconds of POV chaos | Ticket to Antarctica Description: The magical sight of Adélie penguins swimming in Antarctica 😍 We installed these underwater cameras at Rothera Research Station as part of a long term plan to monitor the health of the ocean in this area. One of the species we’re actually looking out for are krill: 🌡️ Warming has shortened the winter sea-ice cover. ☘️ Krill eat algae on the bottom of sea ice. 🦐 Krill numbers and distributions have changed. 🐧 Penguin, whales and seals eat krill. This camera is one of 66 non-intrusive Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems (BRUVS) around the world in UK Overseas Territories. They are all part of a collaboration between the UK’s Blue Belt programme, with CEFAS, The University of Western Australia and Blue Abacus. 🎥 Simon Morley #penguins #penguinsofinstagram #underwaterphotography #underwaterworld #antarctica </video> <video> S4 Ep3: The operation to survey sea ice - from land, sky and satellite Description: Flying low over ice in a timed dance with satellites. Digging 52m of ice cores out on the frozen sea. This is a team tackling Antarctica's sea ice question from every angle! In this group interview, teams from the DEFIANT* and CRYOVEX* projects talk about their epic campaign to 'ground-truth' the data collected from two important satellites that monitor Antarctic sea ice - ESA's CryoSat-2 and NASA's ICESat-2. This calibration work makes sure we know more about how the thickness of Antarctica's sea ice - helping us predict how climate changes will affect ocean circulation and ecology. Nadia Frontier is joined by guest host Matt Hughes, and members of the project team Andy Shepherd, Inès Otosaka, Sebastian Simonsen, Isobel Lawrence and Gaëlle Veyssière, and BAS' Head of Airborne Survey Technology, Carl Robinson. -- *Acronym Busting: • ESA - the European Space Agency • NASA - the National Aeronautics and Space Administration • DEFIANT - Drivers and Effects of Fluctuations in sea Ice in the ANTarctic • CRYOVEX - CRYOsat Validation EXperiment • CryoSat-2 - it's not an acronym, 'cryo' just means ice • ICESat-2 - Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite • Dash-7 - also not an acronym, it's the nickname of the de Havilland Canada DHC-7 aircraft </video> <video> Scouting the skies for Southern Ocean Clouds ✈️ | Ticket to Antarctica | British Antarctic Survey Description: What better way to investigate clouds than from the skies? In Antarctica, there is a type of cloud known as a ‘mixed phase cloud’ – these are clouds that are typically found where the air is below zero, like Antarctica or the UK in winter. These clouds contain a mixture of water droplets and ice crystals, and the numbers of droplets and crystals is controlled by particles of dust, known as aerosols. These dust particles act as little ‘seeds’ that the water droplets and ice crystals form on (a bit like growing a cloud). These clouds play a critical role in our climate system by affecting the amount of sunlight that reaches the Earth’s surface and the heat that escapes back into space. There's also a lot uncertainty in the specific of how these clouds are represented in scientific models. Scientists are trying to learn more about these clouds to help us predict our future climate. This research is part of a much bigger project called CloudSense that is investigating how clouds affect our climate all over the world. Join project leader Tom Lachlan-Cope and the team in the skies as they fly from Rothera Research Station to take these measurements! 🎥 Tom Lachlan-Cope, Floortje van den Heuvel, Mike Flynn, Dan Smith, Jonathan Witherstone, The BAS Air Unit. #aircraft #plane #twinotter #antarctica #clouds </video> <video> Ask the Antarcticans! Your questions for Rothera Research Station | Ticket to Antarctica Description: No one lives permanently in Antarctica - but people working at science stations across the continent certainly spend a lot of time making a temporary life in this remote and extreme place! Meet Rothera Research Station's Leader, Aurelia Reichardt, and the operations and aircraft Tower Supervisor, Matt Hughes. They answer questions sent in from around the world, from people of all ages. What local animals have they spotted? What does it look like flying into Antarctica? And how do you keep morale up away from home? From diving deep in Antarctic waters to missing the sound of trees, they share what it is like to live and work in Antarctica. Aurelia and Matt were interviewed by Amy Ringrose. #antarctica #extremeliving #rothera #antarcticaexploration </video> <video> Feeling sea sick? Tips from the crew of #RRSSirDavidAttenborough 🚢 | Ticket to Antarctica Description: How are your sea legs holding up? Every time we sail to Antarctica, we have to cross cross the notorious Drake Passage. It can get pretty rough in this area between South America and Antarctica - so the team on the RRS Sir David Attenborough have suggested their tried and true tips to help us with sea sickness! </video>

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Uncovering the secrets of Earth’s frozen places - from the depths of the oceans to the inner edge of space. British Antarctic Survey staff have been living and working in the extremes of Antarctica and the Arctic for over 60 years.

What happens in Antarctica doesn't stay in Antarctica. Our planet’s frozen regions are changing in ways that impact the entire planet, and at a rate and scale we haven't seen before. We're working to understand why, what this means for the inhabitants of Earth, and what we can do about it.

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