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 …
Archives: Projects
Previously Released Data
Version 1.0 Data, released April 2010 Version 1.0 was superceeded by version 1.1 in June 2010 and version 2 in June 2022. In version 1.0, a maximum of 20 iterations …
Auroral Boundary Location Method
To estimate the poleward and equatorward boundaries of auroral emissions, we perform the following steps: Step 1 – Get an IMAGE FUV image The website maintained by the IMAGE …
OCB Correction Values
Poleward boundaries of the auroral oval derived from satellite images of the aurora, can provide a reasonable approximation of the open-closed magnetic field line boundary (OCB) in the Earth’s magnetosphere. …
SI13 Boundary Data
All Available SI13 Boundaries May 2000 – October 2002
SI12 Boundary Data
All Available SI12 Boundaries May 2000 – October 2002
WIC Boundary Data
All Available WIC Boundaries May 2000 – October 2002 There are no WIC boundaries available for Apr 2001.
IMAGE Auroral Boundary Data
The objective of this project was to investigate whether magnetic reconnection in the space environment has a characteristic scale in space and time by characterising statistically the spatial and temporal …
Beyond Epica
A decade ago, the European EPICA project completed drilling a deep ice core at Dome C, revealing the close link between climate and atmospheric greenhouse gases over the past 800,000 …
The Global Electric Circuit
Weather and climate prediction are inevitably limited by incomplete knowledge of the Earth system and its external influences. One under-explored and consequently controversial area of research is the meteorological influence …
Maps
The KRILLBASE density data indicates the relative probability of occurrence for both Antarctic krill and salps at the circumpolar scale and at finer scales in well-sampled areas such as the …
Publications
KRILLBASE data have been used in a range of peer-reviewed publications Click here to search Google Scholar for the key word “KRILLBASE”. Click here to link to the NERC Open …
KRILLBASE
KRILLBASE is a data rescue and compilation project which aims to improve the availability of information on two of the Southern Ocean’s most important zooplankton taxa: Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) …
A new polar research ship for Britain: project delivery
A new research platform to put UK scientists at the forefront of polar science
Data as Art: POLAR AESTHETICS
British Antarctic Survey has an ongoing science & art collaboration with Royal College of Art PhD candidate Wayne Binitie. Wayne has visited BAS a number of times to develop his …
Fossil database
Biodiversity at BAS Cambridge
Biodiversity@BAS is an initiative formed by BAS staff. Adopting current NERC Biodiversity policy and working closely with BAS Estates and Environment Office teams, its goal is to assist with the …
Continuous Plankton Recorder
Contemporary research has shown that the Southern Ocean is warming. Summer surface temperatures have risen by more than 1 degree Centigrade in the last 80 years and a strong upper-layer …
ACSIS
Major changes are occurring across the North Atlantic climate system: in the ocean and atmosphere temperatures and circulation, in sea ice thickness and extent, and in key atmospheric constituents such …
UKESM-BAS
Reliable projections of the Earth’s climate are at the heart of scientific support for international efforts to address global change. There is increasing recognition that reliable projections require that physical …
ORCHESTRA
Understanding the Ocean Regulation of Climate by Heat, Carbon Sequestration and Transports
Krill Hotspots
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) are a key component of the food chain throughout much of the Southern Ocean. These small, shrimp-like animals occur in dense swarms, but their distribution is …
White-chinned Petrel Tracking
The white-chinned petrel is the most common bird species recorded as fisheries bycatch in the Southern Ocean [1]. Although currently listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, limited population trend data …
ANGWIN
ANGWIN is now a SCAR action group. See the proposal that was presented at the Polar 2018 conference here: SCAR_Proposal.pdf ANGWIN (in the Cornish English dialect ANGWIN means “the white”) …
GOCE+Antarctica
GOCE+Antarctica- Dynamic Antarctic Lithosphere -is an international project supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) that is using GOCE satellite gravity gradient data, GPS data and innovative 3D modelling to …
LPM Network
Access data from the Low Power Magnetometer (LPM) network
Microphysics of Antarctic Clouds NE
Introduction and Background The largest uncertainties in future climate predictions highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC 2007) arise from our lack of knowledge of the interaction of …
Meteorology and Ozone Monitoring
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 …
DATA AS ART #12
Pollen and climate Artwork #12 shows how the amounts of different fossil spores and pollen from Antarctic rock samples change through geological time with changing climate. Each stacked graph is …
Oceanographic models for the Scotia Sea
Development of regional models to examine the detailed oceanography of island shelves and surrounding regions.
DynOPO
Dynamics of the Orkney Passage Outflow (DynOPO) is a collaboration between BAS, the University of Southampton and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC). The project aims to investigate the flow of …
Resisting temperature change in the marine environment
Can animals used to living in freezing waters cope with climate change? Will they survive in a warmer world? Marine animals around Antarctica are very used to living in water …
Testing space flight missions at Halley
The remoteness and winter isolation of communities working in Antarctica provide an excellent environment for research into human behaviour, performance, health and well being. Many studies of overwintering staff in Antarctica …
Halley Research Station relocation
In 2017 Antarctica’s first re-locatable research station was moved successfully 23 km inland to avoid the path of large cracks in the ice
Reproduction in a changing world
Reproductive capacity and success of marine animals
Skeleton structure, size, predation and climate change
How do the skeletons of marine animals change with habitat and environmental conditions? External skeletons, in the form of calcium carbonate shells are found predominantly in molluscs and brachiopods (marine …
Dynamic Live Cell Imaging
Dynamic live cell imaging at sub-zero temperatures How do Antarctic marine organisms, such as fish, manage to thrive at temperatures below 0°C? How do their cells and in particular, their …
Monitoring climate change in action
Long term science We know that our world is changing due to human influence. But how is it changing? Some areas, such as the Antarctic Peninsula, are changing more rapidly …
Cold Skeletons
Does the cold affect how animals grow? Are skeletons different in Antarctic marine species, which survive almost permanently below 0°C? It is well known that animals grow at different rates …
Changing biodiversity
Baseline study to monitor how marine biodiversity will respond to climate change
EISCAT Science Support
The UK EISCAT support group (UKESG) is a collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, funded via the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) EISCAT, the …
Electron Acceleration in the Radiation Belts of Earth, Jupiter & Saturn
Radiation belts of very high energy electrons and protons can form around some planets – at the Earth these large donut shaped regions in space are often called the Van …
The effects of long-term changes in the Earth’s magnetic field
The Earth’s magnetic field plays a key role in the interaction between the solar wind and near-Earth space, which affects the upper atmosphere (~100-500 km altitude) in particular in the …
A High-Order Model of the Earth’s External and Induced Magnetic Field
For centuries people have used magnetic compasses to guide them on their way and explore new territories. This has led scientists to embark on their own journeys of discovery about …
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 …
QEPPA
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 …
DATA AS ART #11
Swath bathymetry Most ice is lost from Antarctica through ice streams. To better predict the future of the Antarctic ice sheet it is important that we improve our understanding of …
DATA AS ART #10
Ice layers Radio waves can be transmitted down through an ice sheet, ice stream or glacier and are reflected off the internal layers in the ice as well as off …
DATA AS ART #09
Volcanic ash Ice cores are cylinders of ice (approximately 10cm wide) drilled out of an ice sheet or glacier. On the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, these can be up to …
DATA AS ART #08
Krill ball Antarctic krill are a key species in the Antarctic ecosystem. They are a consumer and re-packager of phytoplankton (algae) and therefore part of the biological carbon pump; they …
DATA AS ART #07
Thin section Thin sections of geological samples viewed under cross-polarised light can reveal valuable information about the origin of the rocks they come from. This helps understand the geological process …
SO-AntEco
The South Orkney Islands is a small archipelago located in the Southern Ocean, 375 miles north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. The seafloor around the South Orkney Islands …
The Heated Settlement Panels
How will life and biodiversity on Earth will respond to climate change? This information is particularly urgent for the waters along the Antarctic Peninsula, which are experiencing rapid regional climate …
EMBRC
European Marine Biological Resource Centre
A23 repeat section
Understanding Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) and its affect on global ocean circulation.
Ascension Island Marine Sustainability (AIMS)
The project Ascension Island Marine Sustainability (AIMS) – A Fisheries and Marine Biodiversity Project Ascension Island harbours globally important marine biodiversity, potentially representing a unique assemblage of western and eastern …
Polar Thematic Exploitation Platform
A Polar Thematic Exploitation Platform (Polar TEP) is being developed for the European Space Agency (ESA). Polar TEP will provide polar researchers with access to computing resources, earth observation (EO) …
EC Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service
The Copernicus marine environment monitoring service provides regular and systematic reference information on the state of the physical oceans and regional seas. The observations and forecasts produced by the service …
ESA IAP ArcticSat project
Situational awareness in the Arctic
Bedmap2
understanding whats beneath the ice, opens new opportunities for detailed modelling of the past and future evolution of the Antarctic ice sheets
Automated lithological mapping using airborne hyperspectral remote sensing
Antarctica is a unique and geographically remote environment. Field campaigns in the region encounter numerous challenges including the harsh polar climate, steep topography, and high infrastructure costs. Additionally, field campaigns …
DATA AS ART #06
Ozone Hole The discovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole is one of the most important scientific papers of recent decades. The discovery, in 1985, by British Antarctic Survey scientists Joe …
DATA AS ART #05
Genetic antifreeze When many insects get cold they produce a special sugar that stops their cells from freezing and keeps them working at low temperatures. In any biochemical process there …
DATA AS ART #04
Electron precipitation Space weather events involve large explosions on the Sun, called coronal mass ejections, which create geomagnetic storms. These storms are fierce enough to tear open the magnetic field …
DATA AS ART #03
Radio echo A perspective view of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains, imaged using airborne ice-penetrating radar to look through the overlying ice sheet. The rugged subglacial topography holds a record of …
DATA AS ART #02
Sea ice An optical satellite image of sea ice in the marginal ice zone in the northern Weddell Sea. The image is approximately 100km across and shows swirling sea-ice patterns, …
DATA AS ART #01
Echo sounder The bathymetry of the sea floor north-east of the volcanic Saunders Island in the South Sandwich Archipelago. Deeply-eroded canyons funnel sediment down the submarine slope of the volcano …
Bedmap Himalayas
Bedmap Himalayas is an ongoing BAS core-funded and grant-funded programme. It aims to measure how much water much is stored as glacier ice in High Mountain Asia. In warm weather, …
Rothera Time Series
Earth System indicators in Antarctica
Detecting rare earth elements with remote sensing
Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of naturally occurring, chemically similar elements present in the Earth’s crust. Over the past decades these elements have become increasingly critical to many …
Geological mapping of British Antarctic Territory
Geological maps remain the most effective method of communicating large amounts of geological information. An ongoing project to compile over 50 years of geological field data into new geological maps …
Cambridge Centre for Climate Science
CCfCS promotes interdisciplinary research in climate science across the wide range of departments and institutes in Cambridge.
Past Westerly Winds
The behaviour of the westerly wind belt (see Figure 1a) over the Southern Ocean during cold glacial periods has been debated for many years. These winds matter because explanations of …
Weddell Sea ice sheet and climate
In the south of the Weddell Sea lies the Ronne and Filchner Ice Shelves. During the coldest part of the last glacial period about 25,000 years ago, the ice in …
Looking through the ice
The British Antarctic Survey airborne geophysical platform: a tool to explore the Polar Regions Because 99.6% of its surface is covered by ice up to 4.8km thick Antarctica is one …
The aircraft mission
The agencies involved in this exciting project were: United States National Science Foundation (NSF); British Antarctic Survey; German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR); Australian Antarctic Division (AAD); …
The logistics mission
The logistics Mission — making the science happen Years of planning and intense co-operation between national Antarctic operators were required to mount this hugely ambitious scientific expedition. Fuel, food, tents, …
The science mission
Exploring the climate history of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and the geological structure and evolution of the Gamburtsev Subglacial Mountains were the primary goals of this flagship International Polar …
The role of Antarctic sea-ice in global climate
Sea-ice is frequently cited as a likely driver and propagator of abrupt climate change because of the rapid and far-reaching impact of its feedbacks. However, numerical climate models are still …
The role of the Southern Ocean in regulating atmospheric CO2 on glacial-interglacial timescales
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 …
Impact of Southern Westerly Winds and Circumpolar Deep Water on climate and marine ecology
The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed ~3°C over the last 50 years, approximately 6 times faster than the global average. Mechanisms for this accelerated rate of warming have been linked with …
Identification of glacial-time sources for Antarctic deep- and bottom-water masses
Over the past few millions of years, the Earth’s climate has switched between (cold) glacial and (warm) interglacial states many times. Although driven by long term changes in the Earth’s …
Surface exposure dating
What can surface exposure dating tell us about ice sheet history? Information on the shape and size of the Antarctic Ice Sheets over the past 20,000 years is contained within …
Ocean-driven ice-shelf thinning in Antarctica
By exploiting advances in ice sheet modelling, and new Antarctic-wide datasets, this project aims to predict how far and how fast the observed ocean-driven thinning of floating ice shelves will …
RAID
Ice cores take a long time to collect. The 3.4 km- ice core drilled at Dome Concordia (Antarctica) took 5 years to collect and encloses the oldest ice drilled so …
Ice Sheet Modelling
The research of the ice sheet modelling group focuses on integrating observational data with dynamical models that describe how the ice flows in order to improve our representation of how …
Climate and Ice during the Last Interglacial
During the Last Interglacial (129-116 thousand years ago, ka) CO2 and global temperature were both higher than they were before human industrialisation. By examining Last Interglacial climate, we thus gain …
Antarctic Climate over the last millennia
The Antarctic Peninsula and West Antarctica have warmed dramatically in recent decades, with some climate records indicating that these are among the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. The Antarctic …
Impacts of Ocean Acidification on Sea-Surface
In order to assess the impact of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) on the oceans today we are investigating the effect of decreasing upper ocean pH on calcifying zooplankton. Pteropods, …
Impact of global disturbances on evolution of polar life
Why does global biodiversity show such a steep increase just as climates were deteriorating?
West Antarctica wind strength and atmospheric circulation
Changes in wind strength and circulation patterns above the Antarctic Peninsula are linked to its warming and increased upwelling of warm circumpolar deep water, resulting in accelerated melting and thinning …
Improving estimates of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level
This research aims to improve estimates of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level. Sea level is currently rising at approximately 3mm/yr. If we are to understand why it is rising and …
Late Quaternary changes in the Westerly Winds over the Southern Ocean
In this NERC-funded project, we are generating Southern Hemisphere Westerlies (SHW) proxy records from each of the three major sectors of the Southern Ocean, focusing on subantarctic islands situated in …
Arctic marine geophysics
This research focuses on investigating the glacial histories of Arctic ice sheets and ice caps using the marine geological record preserved on continental margins. By reconstructing past ice sheets, their …
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 …
IMCONet
IMCONet is an international Research Network that follows an interdisciplinary approach to understand the consequences of Climate Change in coastal Western Antarctica. A Network for Staff Exchange and Training, IMCONet …
Aero geophysical investigation of Institute and Moller Ice Streams
West Antarctic ‘rivers’ of ice
AGAP
Exploring Antarctica’s ‘ghost mountains’
Role of oceanic forcing in West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat
Ocean temperature has been identified as a key driver of current ice sheet retreat in the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), yet its long-term history …