BAS-Arctic Working Group
Working Group purpose
The Arctic Working Group is a group of more than 60 BAS scientists and operations staff who are currently working in the Arctic or have aspirations to work there. The AWG was started in 2018 to bring together researchers in different fields to share their experiences of Arctic research, to enable new collaborations, and to maximise the potential output of this group by coordinating efforts and knowledge regarding Arctic projects, funding calls and logistics.
Terms of Reference
Content coming soon
Our priorities
Content coming soon
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 …SDOO
Abrupt warming episodes punctuate Greenland ice core records throughout the last glacial period. These events were first identified in two Greenland stable water isotope records (Dansgaard et al., 1993), and …
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 …
TEA-COSI
TEA_COSI assesses Arctic Sea-ice which has an important impact on currents and ocean circulations around the globe
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 …
ESA IAP ArcticSat project
Situational awareness in the ArcticAerosol-Cloud and Climate interations in the Arctic
Developing a better understanding of cloud and aerosol processes in the Arctic in order to improve climate models.
ICE-ARC
physicists, chemists, biologists, economists, and sociologists from 21 institutes in 11 countries across Europe assess the rapid retreat and collapse of Arctic sea-ice cover
SIOS
Svalbard Integrated Earth Observing System (SIOS) is an international infrastructure project. There are 26 partners from Europe and Asia involved. The essential objective is to establish better coordinated services for …
SEANA
Global shipping is undergoing significant changes. In January 2020 the maximum sulphur emission by ships in international waters will reduce from 3.5% to 0.5% by mass, as a result of …
Data As Art
DATA AS ART is an ongoing science & art project in development at NERC’s British Antarctic Survey (BAS). It visualises science data (in its widest definition), to create stunning and …
ICEMAR
The EC-funded ICEMAR project is a GMES pilot service delivering sea ice information products directly to ships navigating through sea ice in the Arctic.
EISCAT Science Support
The EISCAT science support group is a collaboration between the British Antarctic Survey and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, funded via the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) EISCAT, the European …Iceland Greenland seas Project
PI: Ian Renfrew (University of East Anglia) CO-I’s: Tom Bracegirdle, Tom Lachlan-Cope, Alexandra Weiss PDRA’s: Andrew Elvidge (University of East Anglia), James Pope NERC Grant: NE/N009924/1 Project Partners: Robert Pickart …
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 …
Britain’s Arctic Research Station celebrates 30 years of science and monitoring climate change
28 September, 2021
The Arctic Station in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard in Norway, the UK’s permanent Arctic research facility, celebrates its 30 years anniversary this week (Tuesday 28 September) as it continues to undertake critical …
BAS celebrates International Day of Women and Girls in Science
11 February, 2022 by Melody Clark
Today, 11 February, is International Day of Women and Girls in Science, a global initiative led by UNESCO and UN-Women. To celebrate, we have asked some of our female staff …
Turbulence and coherent structure characterisation in a tidally energetic channel
16 May, 2022 by Natasha Lucas
Understanding the temporal and spatial characteristics of turbulent coherent structures is of interest to the emergent sector of marine renewable energy for power generation from tidal stream turbines as loading…Read more on Turbulence and coherent structure characterisation in a tidally energetic channel
Contrasting state-dependent effects of natural forcing on global and local climate variability
9 May, 2022 by Louise Sime
Natural forcing from solar and volcanic activity contributes significantly to climate variability. The post-eruption cooling of strong volcanic eruptions was hypothesized to have led to millennial-scale variability during Glacials. Cooling…Antarctic sea ice projections constrained by historical ice cover and future global temperature change
6 May, 2022 by Caroline Holmes, Paul Holland, Thomas Bracegirdle
There is low confidence in projections of Antarctic sea ice area (SIA), due to deficiencies in climate model sea ice processes. Ensemble regression techniques can help to reduce this uncertainty.…Origin of the tropical-polar biodiversity contrast
4 May, 2022 by Alistair Crame
Aim: The aim was to investigate the evolutionary origins of the striking biodiversity contrast between high- and low-latitude regions in the present day. Is this a relatively recent phenomenon, causally…Read more on Origin of the tropical-polar biodiversity contrast
Existing and potential evidence for Holocene grounding line retreat and readvance in Antarctica
3 May, 2022 by Claire Allen, Joanne Johnson, Liz Thomas
Widespread existing geological records from above the modern ice sheet surface and outboard of the current ice margin show that the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) was much more extensive at…Fungal diversity in a sediment core from climate change impacted Boeckella Lake, Hope Bay, north-eastern Antarctic Peninsula assessed using metabarcoding
2 May, 2022 by Peter Convey
We studied the fungal DNA present in a lake sediment core obtained from Trinity Peninsula, Hope Bay, north-eastern Antarctic Peninsula, using metabarcoding through high-throughput sequencing (HTS). Sequences obtained were assigned…Rapid radiation of Southern Ocean shags in response to receding sea ice
1 May, 2022 by Norman Ratcliffe, Richard Phillips
Understanding how natural populations respond to climatic shifts is a fundamental goal of biological research in a fast-changing world. The Southern Ocean represents a fascinating system for assessing large-scale climate-driven…Read more on Rapid radiation of Southern Ocean shags in response to receding sea ice
An ancient, Antarctic-specific species complex: large divergences between multiple Antarctic lineages of the tardigrade genus Mesobiotus
1 May, 2022 by Chester Sands, Katherine Short, Peter Convey, Sandra McInnes, Sandra McInnes
Antarctica has been isolated and progressively glaciated for over 30 million years, with only approximately 0.3 % of its area currently ice-free and capable of supporting terrestrial ecosystems. As a…Global maps of soil temperature
1 May, 2022 by Peter Convey
Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids…Modern and early Holocene ice shelf sediment facies from Petermann Fjord and northern Nares Strait, northwest Greenland
1 May, 2022 by Kelly Hogan, Keith Nicholls
Based on sediment cores and geophysical data collected from Petermann Fjord and northern Nares Strait, NW Greenland, an Arctic ice shelf sediment facies is presented that distinguishes sub and pro…Fishers’ tales—Impact of artisanal fisheries on threatened sharks and rays in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh
30 April, 2022 by Rachel Cavanagh
Increasing fishing pressure has negatively impacted elasmobranch populations globally. Despite high levels of historical and current fishing pressure, the Bay of Bengal region remains data-poor. Focusing on Bangladesh, we conducted…A record of microplastic in the marine nearshore waters of South Georgia
29 April, 2022 by Clara Manno, Claire Waluda
The polar plastics research community have recommended the spatial coverage of microplastic investigations in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean be increased. Presented here is a baseline estimate of microplastics in…Read more on A record of microplastic in the marine nearshore waters of South Georgia
Can current reanalyses accurately portray changes in Southern Annular Mode structure prior to 1979?
29 April, 2022 by Gareth Marshall, John Turner
Early reanalyses are less than optimal for investigating the regional effects of ozone depletion on Southern Hemisphere (SH) high-latitude climate because the availability of satellite sounder data from 1979 significantly…Temperature and concentration affect particle size upon sublimation of saline ice: Implications for sea salt aerosol production in polar regions
28 April, 2022 by Xin Yang
Using an environmental scanning electron microscope, we quantified for the first time aerosol-sized salt particles formed during the sublimation of sea ice as a function of temperature and concentration. The…DNA metabarcoding reveals cryptic diversity in forest soils on the isolated Brazilian Trindade Island, South Atlantic
28 April, 2022 by Peter Convey
Located 1140 km from the South American coastline in the South Atlantic Ocean and with an age of 4 million years, Trindade Island is the most recent volcanic component of…The coupled atmosphere-ocean response to Antarctic sea-ice loss
27 April, 2022 by Thomas Bracegirdle
Antarctic sea ice is projected to decrease in response to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. Limited studies so far have examined the coupled atmosphere-ocean response to Antarctic sea-ice loss. Here, we…Read more on The coupled atmosphere-ocean response to Antarctic sea-ice loss
Ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone in the polar middle atmosphere
20 April, 2022 by David Newnham, Mark Clilverd, William Clark
Ground-based observations of 11.072 GHz atmospheric ozone (O3) emission have been made using the Ny-Ålesund Ozone in the Mesosphere Instrument (NAOMI) at the UK Arctic Research Station (latitude 78∘55′0′′ N, longitude 11∘55′59′′ E),…Read more on Ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone in the polar middle atmosphere
Five decades of terrestrial and freshwater research at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard
19 April, 2022 by Elisabeth Biersma, Kevin Newsham, Peter Convey
For more than five decades, research has been conducted at Ny-Ålesund, in Svalbard, Norway, to understand the structure and functioning of High-Arctic ecosystems and the profound impacts on them of…Read more on Five decades of terrestrial and freshwater research at Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard
Antiphased dust deposition and productivity in the Antarctic Zone over 1.5 million years
19 April, 2022 by Victoria Peck
The Southern Ocean paleoceanography provides key insights into how iron fertilization and oceanic productivity developed through Pleistocene ice-ages and their role in influencing the carbon cycle. We report a high-resolution…Does maritime Antarctic permafrost harbor environmental fungi with pathogenic potential?
16 April, 2022 by Peter Convey
We assessed the potentially pathogenic fungi in Antarctic permafrost and the overlying active layer on King George, Robert, Livingston and Deception Islands in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, maritime Antarctica.…
