Polar oceans influence the entire Earth System in all areas, including the seas around the UK. The polar oceans have an enormous capacity to store and redistribute fresh water, heat, carbon dioxide and other climatically-important substances. Oceanographic studies help make more accurate predictions about global impacts.


CONSEC

CONSEC is addressing the challenge to understand the links between the biodiversity, structure and function of Southern Ocean ecosystems and the impacts of rapid environmental changes to improve scientific knowledge …



Orkney Passage Long Term Monitoring

The densest waters in the Atlantic overturning circulation, Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), originate in the Weddell Sea, as Weddell Sea Deep Water. A large proportion is exported northward to the …


SiCLING

The polar regions are experiencing the most rapid climate change observed on Earth: temperatures are rising in some regions of the Arctic and Antarctic at more than double the global …


Arctic Summer-time Cyclones

The Arctic Summer-time Cyclone Project is a joint project of scientists from the University of Reading, University of East Anglia and the British Antarctic Survey with expertise in atmospheric dynamics, …


SIWHA

The NERC funded SIWHA_CO2 project “Sea Ice and Westerly winds during the Holocene in coastal Antarctica, to better constrain oceanic CO2 uptake” will be a breakthrough in our understanding of how …


Southern Ocean Clouds

SOC is a project of the NERC CloudSense Programme The biases observed in climate models over the Southern Ocean in surface radiation and sea surface temperature are larger than anywhere …


CUPIDO

CUPIDO aims to address: what is the role of zooplankton in promoting the transport of plastic in the ocean?
and how this plastic transport interferes with zooplankton’s ability to store carbon in the deep ocean?


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 …


First Antarctic research mission on polar ship

20 November, 2023

A team of international researchers set sail on the RRS Sir David Attenborough today (20 November) to answer some of the big questions about how Antarctic ecosystems and sea ice …


Urgent call for more Southern Ocean research

18 August, 2023

Today, hundreds of international scientists are sounding a clarion call for urgent expansion of Southern Ocean research in the emerging climate crisis. 300 scientists from 25 nations have been meeting …



Underwater tsunamis created by glacier calving

23 November, 2022

Scientists on a research vessel in Antarctica watched the front of a glacier disintegrate and their measurements ‘went off the scale’. As well as witnessing disruptions on the ocean surface, …


New map of Southern Ocean floor

10 June, 2022

A new map of the seafloor of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica provides the most accurate representation of this vast area to date. An international team of scientists, including several …


New polar ship makes London debut

28 October, 2021

RRS Sir David Attenborough visits London as pre-COP event ahead of first mission to Antarctica. The UK’s new polar research ship is making its London debut in Greenwich (Thursday 28 October …





Giant iceberg mission begins

2 February, 2021

A research mission to determine the impact of the giant A-68a iceberg on one of the world’s most important ecosystems departs from Stanley in the Falkland Islands today (2 February …