Scientists at York University in Canada have used miniaturised geolocators developed at British Antarctic Survey to track wood thrushes during their autumn migration. The birds travel from Pennsylvania in the US to Nicaragua and Honduras each year, and the geolocators allowed the researchers to see for the first time where the birds have been to within a couple of hundred kilometres. Being slow d...

During the SCAR Open Science Conference in Buenos Aires from 30th July to 11th August this year, the SCAR Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research will be awarded to Dr. John Turner, Climatologist at British Antarctic Survey, for his extensive contributions to Antarctic Science and to SCAR. The medal will be awarded during a banquet by the SCAR President, Professor Mahlon ‘Chuck’ Ke...

Aerial view of King Edward Point (KEP), South Georgia A South Georgia Town Meeting takes place at British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge on 28 September 2010. The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) seeks to expand the range of scientific research at King Edward Point and make the facilities available for science projects. The meeting will discuss science curre...

Observations west of the Antarctic Peninsula show diminishing sea ice and a rapid warming of atmosphere and ocean, changes that have led to the collapse of ice shelves and the thinning of inland ice. In the centre of the nearby Bellingshausen Sea, however, ocean observations are spatially and temporally coarse, hampering progress in understanding the critical processes there. This paper uses ocea...

New results from an investigation into Antarctica’s potential contribution to sea level rise are reported this week (Sunday 20 June) by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and the National Oceanography Centre in the journal Nature Geoscience. Autosub gallery Autosub - autonomous underwat...

Scientists have located the ideal drill site for the first ever exploration of an Antarctic sub-glacial lake, a development that it likely to facilitate a revolution in climate-change research and which may lead to the discovery of life-forms cut off from the main line of evolution for millions of years. In a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters this week, scientists from Northumbria U...

The West Antarctic Rift System provides the underlying geological template over which the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, the largest remaining marine ice sheet on Earth, flows. In this paper we used new airborne gravity data over the Pine Island Glacier region to reveal crustal thickness variations, shedding new light on the structure of the West Antarctic Rift System. Of major significance is the iden...

British Antarctic Survey is delighted to announce the election of one of its leading climate scientists, Dr Eric Wolff, to the Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS). Selected for his scientific achievements in the advancement of knowledge of the Earth’s past climate, Dr Wolff joins a community of over 1300 of the most eminent and distinguished scientists, engineers and technologists from th...

This week British Antarctic Survey (BAS) commemorates the 25th anniversary of one of its most dramatic scientific discoveries — the ozone hole. In May 1985 reporting in Nature Joe Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin described their observations of large losses of ozone over Antarctica. In this week’s Nature Jonathan Shanklin reflects on how the discovery was made and what l...

Dr. Fausto Ferraccioli receives Polar Medal from HRH Prince Philip Dr Fausto Ferraccioli, Geophysicist at British Antarctic Survey, has been presented with a Polar Medal by HRH Prince Philip for his continued dedication to science in the Polar Regions. The Duke of Edinburgh awarded the silver medal to the Italian who has clocked up a total of 12 months on the ice during 16 visits to Antarctica ...