Searching for moorings

Oceanographer Povl Abrahamsen continues his trip to the Amundsen Sea: When we travel down to the Amundsen Sea by ship, it is almost always at the height of summer, when there is least sea ice. We make our measurements, but that only gives us a snapshot of what goes on. In this area, we know… Read more »

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Return to Amundsen Sea

Oceanographer, Povl Abrahamsen, has returned to the Amundsen Sea in west Antarctica on the Korean research ship, Araon. One of his tasks is to assist with the deployment of ten autonomous phase-sensitive radio echo sounders (ApRES) on ice shelves in the region. These downward-looking radars are dug into the snow at the surface, and measure… Read more »

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iSTAR struggles on despite storm

2015 started with a bang for the iSTAR team as strong winds swept in across Pine Island Glacier. Here Isabel Nias describes how everyone had to batten down the hatches: I always thought that seeing in the New Year on Pine Island Glacier would be one to remember purely due to the location. However, I… Read more »

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Deep field mechanic

We apologise for the delay in uploading more instalments in the iSTAR blog. While those of us in Cambridge were on holiday, the traverse has continued doing its work on Pine Island Glacier. The latest update comes from mechanic Mark Baird: Life as a mechanic on the iSTAR traverse is definitely not your average job!… Read more »

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Drilling into history

One of the components of this season’s research programme on Pine Island Glacier is the ice core drilling. Here Becky Tuckwell explains how it works: Ice cores from Antarctica are important to help unlock past climate records and to reveal historic records of snow accumulation to name but two of their important uses. But drilling… Read more »

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