Archives: Projects
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GRAIL
GRAIL aims to quantify the key link between the North Atlantic ocean and the Greenland Ice Sheet: melting and calving at Greenland’s glaciers. The physical processes controlling melting and calving …
Runway Resurfacing and Lighting Project
Hangar Project
Thermal biology of Antarctic ectotherms
Are aquatic ectotherm communities in Antarctica uniquely adapted to thrive at sub-zero temperatures? If so, does this prevent the invasion by non-native species? How will this situation change in the …
Future Air Capability
POLOMINTS
The overarching goal of POLOMINTS is to determine the key mechanisms of internal tsunamigenesis across a wide range of temporal/spatial scales of glacier calving and ocean conditions, and to quantify …
Sustained Monitoring of Whales at South Georgia
It is now estimated that >30,000 whales visit South Georgia in summer, making this sub-Antarctic island the highest-density UK hotspot for recovering whales, including critically endangered Antarctic blue whales. The …
ExtAnt
ExtAnt started in February 2024 and is a 4 year NERC Highlight Topic project. Work is around three research aims (RAs): RA1. Quantify the relative contributions of key drivers of …
AI for Earth Observation
Recent increases in the spatial coverage and temporal resolution of 40 m resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, is opening new opportunities to rapidly detect environmental observations e.g. ice sheet and iceberg position with greater positional accuracy. Our team are developing supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques to automatically detect sea ice and iceberg position from Sentinel-1 SAR imagery.
South Georgia Lost Giants
South Georgia’s Lost Giants is part of the British Antarctic Survey’s “Wild Water Whales” project studying the recovery of whales from historical exploitation in South Georgia. Antarctic blue whales (Balaena …
PRESCIENT
PRESCIENT (UK Polar Research Expertise for Science and Society) is a joint programme between BAS (British Antarctic Survey) and CPOM (the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling). The programme supports …
South Georgia seabirds from space
Globally-important populations of seabirds breed at South Georgia. However, human-induced impacts have led to the decline of many seabird populations. Four species of albatrosses and white-chinned petrels have shown persistent …
The Sustainable Flag Project
Flags which are crucial in denoting safe travel, visual aids to relocate deep field scientific instruments and marking station equipment are constantly shedding polyester Microplastics across Antarctica. This is particularly …
Snow Hill Emperor Penguin Expedition
A BAS science team has returned from Snow Hill emperor penguin colony, where they have conducted survey work, collected guano samples for DNA analysis and deployed the first tracking tags …
Mass extinction and biological responses to Cenozoic environmental change
The evolution and ecology of Antarctic sea floor communities
The evolution and ecology of Antarctic sea floor communities is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, led by Dr Rowan Whittle, looking at the past, present and future of life at …
Hungry Humpbacks
Whales are the largest krill predators in the UK Overseas territory of South Georgia, yet their impacts on krill stocks are poorly understood. Recently, whale surveys revealed high summer abundance …
Sustainability
The Antarctic Infrastructure Modernisation Programme (AIMP) Sustainability Strategy comprises eight major sustainability themes.
Zavodovski Expedition
The South Sandwich Islands are the most remote and inhospitable part of the UK Overseas Territories, which means they’re also the most data-deficient. Zavodovski Island is the …
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 …
Evaluating climate change risks to Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish
This is a Darwin Plus project, funded by Defra, and its activities are focussed in the UK Overseas Territory (OT) of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands. The project …
AI for smart conservation
In the AI for smart conservation project, BAS are collaborating with local ecologists and conservation agencies to develop decision-making tools informed by sea ice forecasts. By combining satellite observations, GPS …
RIFT-TIP
RIFT-TIP is a NERC-funded scientific project investigating iceberg calving and fracture growth in ice shelves. The RIFT-TIP team will work primarily out of Halley Research Station, using seismic, radar, ApRES …
SO-ICE
The European Space Agency (ESA) Southern Ocean-Ice Shelf Interactions (SO-ICE) project is a collaborative research project bringing together the ESA Polar+ Ice Shelves and 4D Antarctica projects, and the European …
PADIE
Recent research has demonstrated that electro-magnetic waves present in space can have a dramatic effect on the charged particles in the radiation belts. Under certain conditions the particles can resonate …
HOTRAY Ray Tracing Model
HOTRAY is a ray tracing computer code designed to trace the path of electromagnetic waves in a hot magnetised plasma. HOTRAY has been used to understand the generation and propagation …
BAS-RBM
The radiation belts are the region of space around the Earth where high energy charged particles are trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field. The energy of the particles and their …
South Georgia Pelagic Biodiversity
The South Georgia Pelagic Biodiversity project is a Darwin-funded project, led by BAS, and in partnership with the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) and the …
CANARI
Extreme weather events can have substantial impacts. For instance: the extensive UK flooding during the stormy winters of 2013/14 and 2015/16 resulted in £3 billion of damage to property and …
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 …
SWESNET
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) provides a forecast of high energy electrons in the Earth’s radiation belts which can cause damage to satellites on orbit. These forecasts are used by …
DI4EDS
Environmental research relies on digital infrastructure (hardware, software and methods) to provide services that help researchers answer questions about the environment around us, and innovators to work out ways that …
KANG-GLAC
The Greenland Ice Sheet is decaying at an accelerating rate in response to climate change. Warm ocean waters moving through the fjords eventually meet the faces of marine-terminating glaciers, increasing …
SO-CHIC
The Southern Ocean regulates the global climate by controlling heat and carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and the ocean. Rates of climate change on decadal time …
Arctic PASSION
The Arctic is more affected by climate warming than any other region. To monitor the ongoing changes, to predict the evolution of the climate system and to develop mitigation measures, …
ICED
ICED is an international multidisciplinary programme launched in response to the increasing need to develop integrated circumpolar analyses of Southern Ocean climate and ecosystem dynamics. ICED has been developed in …
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 …
PolarRES
The Polar regions play a crucial role in balancing the global climate system – with the poles heating up much faster than the rest of the world. Yet, climate projections …
Scalable automated detection and tracking of icebergs in the Southern Ocean
We are developing fully automatable methods for the detection of icebergs using satellite radar data and bayesian tracking methods to monitor icebergs at the individual level and continental extent.
Safeguarding Antarctic krill stocks for baleen whales
This Darwin Plus funded project aims to improve our understanding of how Antarctic krill, foraging whales and the krill fishery interact in space and time, to improve krill fishery management …
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, …
Radbelt-DA
The goal of the Radbelt-DA project is to apply data assimilation techniques used in weather forecasting to the BAS radiation belt model (BAS-RBM). This will enable much better reconstructions of …
OCEAN:ICE
Overview OCEAN ICE will assess the impacts of key Antarctic Ice Sheet and Southern Ocean processes on Planet Earth, via their influence on sea level rise, deep water formation, ocean …
The Big Thaw
The Big Thaw is an ambitious new UKRI/NERC-funded Highlight Topic project assessing past, present and future changes in global mountain water resources by studying snow/ice accumulation and melt in the …
SORBS
Violent eruptions on the Sun can trigger large magnetic storms at the Earth lasting for days. These storms can increase the number of high-energy charged particles trapped in the radiation …
Fish by-catch in the Antarctic krill fishery
Fish bycatch is a global problem requiring accurate information to develop conservation and management strategies. Within the Antarctic krill fishery, fish and larval fish are regularly observed as bycatch. Improved …
Bedmap3
Bedmap3 is a collaborative community project with the aim to produce a new map and datasets of Antarctic ice thickness and bed topography for the international glaciology and geophysical community, …
Bedmap
Bedmap is a collaborative community project with the aim to produce a new map and datasets of Antarctic ice thickness and bed topography for the international glaciology and geophysical community, …
HEXPLORES
The HEXPLORES project aims to explore for active hydrothermal vents in the Red Sea Rift. Although the Red Sea Rift hosts the world’s largest submarine metalliferous sulphide deposit, no active …
Darwin Plus SO Red Listing
The IUCN Red List is the international standard for conservation, a crucial tool to communicate threats to species, which can be applied to all species and ecosystems. Molluscs represent a …
IceAGE
The international IceAGE (Icelandic marine Animals: Genetics and Ecology) project, initiated in 2008 and managed by Drs Saskia Brix and Karin Meißner from DZMB Hamburg, Germany, builds on data obtainedby …
CRiceS
Sea ice is an integral, changing part of the global Earth system. The polar climate system affects lives and livelihoods across the world by regulating climate and weather; providing ecosystem …
Wildfire
Wildfires are unplanned and uncontrolled combustion of vegetated areas which can damage property and human life, and may have negative effects on the ecosystems where they occur. Predicting wildfires is …
Sea Ice
Sea ice forms when the ocean freezes, forming a dynamic and seasonally variable layer of ice. This floating ice has a profound influence on the polar environment, influencing ocean circulation, …
AWERB
The BAS Animal Welfare & Ethics Review Body (AWERB) enforces British Antarctic Survey’s duty of care to protect animals. The AWERB review each and every application, from any project that …
SURFEIT
Surface Fluxes in Antarctica (SURFEIT) is a BAS National Capability International research programme. Its primary aims are to bring together relevant members of the international scientific community and increase our …
WWWARP
Sub-Antarctic South Georgia island is a really important feeding ground for whales: it was at the epicentre of commercial whaling in the early 20th century, with over 170,000 whales killed …
Fixed wing wildlife surveys at South Georgia
At South Georgia, the climate is changing. Further, species abundances are changing with the recovery of historically depleted species of seal, whale and finfish. In addition, the eradication of introduced …
Air Infrastructure
The Rothera Air Infrastructure project is part of the Antarctic Infrastructure Modernisation Programme (AIMP) future phases. The Dash 7 aircraft is due to be phased out and the British Antarctic …
Digital Twins of the Polar Regions
Digital Twinning is next generation technology for data fusion and computer modelling enabling us to rapidly get answers to “what-if” questions. Digital Twins (DTs) are already in operation in industry …
Sat Risk
Sat-Risk – Satellite Radiation Risk Forecasts – is a collaborative project between several academic institutions and stakeholders. The project is part of the Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk …
DEFIANT
Overview While climate models suggest Antarctic sea ice extent should also reduce in response to rising atmospheric CO2 concentraions, satellite observations reveal that during 1979-2015 the opposite was in fact …
BIOPOLE
Overview Climate change is proceeding faster at the poles than any other region, with sea-ice retreating, glaciers melting and biotic communities being invaded by sub-polar species. These changes are affecting …
Albatrosses from Space
Great (Diomedea) albatrosses face multiple threats to their long-term survival. Declines in albatross populations have been linked to incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries, predatory invasive species (including rats, mice and …
IceNet
IceNet is a probabilistic, deep learning sea ice forecasting system developed by an international team and led by British Antarctic Survey and The Alan Turing Institute [Andersson et al., 2021]. …
ParaKrill
Krill are essential components of Antarctic ecosystems – they are important prey for fish, seals, penguins, and whales, and they influence carbon and nutrient cycling. This keystone role of krill …
ACES
Renewable Energy within AIMP
The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) operates in the most remote places on earth including the Antarctic, the Southern Ocean and the Arctic. The challenges around logistics and extreme weather conditions …
AMOP – Autonomous Marine Operations Planning
AMOP is developing Artificial Intelligence methods that aim to optimise the efficiency of Antarctic field operations, while maximising science delivery
Bird Island Decarbonisation
In order to decarbonise our remote Bird Island Research Station on the sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia we will be installing a solar photovoltaic and energy storage system.
Cambridge HQ Decarbonisation
We are working on a raft of measures to reduce our carbon emissions at our Cambridge Headquarters, including installation of solar panels on the car park and roofs of buildings, and adding insulation to our Logistics building.
King Edward Point Decarbonisation
King Edward Point Research Station already meets 80% of its energy demands in electricity and heating by an existing hydropower system. Read more about our plans to decarbonise King Edward Point.
Renewable Energy at Rothera Research Station
Over the past 15 years we have been introducing renewable energy to buildings across the station in the form of solar thermal and solar photovoltaics (PV).
Winter Krill at South Georgia
The Winter Krill project is a Darwin Plus project, funded by Defra, and its activities are focussed on South Georgia (SG), which is part of the UK Overseas Territory (OT) …
Spatial Segregation of Seabirds at South Georgia
Seabirds are amongst the most globally threatened birds, often as a consequence of incidental mortality (bycatch) in fisheries [1] [2]. At South Georgia, wandering albatrosses have declined since the 1970s [3], and are listed …
WISE-ISODYN
The WISE-ISODYN (WISE: WIlkes Basin/Transantarctic Mountains System Exploration; ISODYN: Icehouse Earth: Stability Or DYNamism?) science programme was joint UK-Italian project between the British Antarctic Survey and the Italian Programma Nazionale …
GRADES-IMAGE
The GRADES-IMAGE science programme was a British Antarctic Survey-funded project over the Antarctic Peninsula and Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. The aim of the programme was to image englacial layering and bedrock …
BBAS
The BBAS science programme was a British Antarctic Survey-funded project, part of the wider BBAS-AGASEA collaboration between BAS, the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), and the U.S. National …
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 …
MesoS2D
In order to accurately predict impacts of space weather and climate variability on the whole atmosphere we need an accurate representation of the whole atmosphere. The mesosphere (~50-95 km altitude) …
Polar Zero – Ice core
A moment frozen in time Experience the sound of ancient air bubbles popping as an Antarctic Peninsula ice core emerges from an insulated tube. As it melts and drips away …
Polar Zero – 1765 ‘Air’
Polar Zero – 1765
Polar Zero – Ice Stories
Polar Zero forms a major part of British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) multi-media engagement plan for COP 26. Ice Stories draws on personal anecdotes, memories and oral testimonies from the national …
Polar Zero: climate science-art collaboration
The Polar Zero experience at Glasgow Science Centre is a fusion of science and art made for COP26 climate summit
Climate Code
This collaborative project is born from exploring novel ways of visualising environmental data and telling the climate change story. Read more about the project and the science behind it through the project page.
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 …
Water isotopes in UKESM2
We will add water tracers (including stable water isotopes) to the UK Earth System Model (UKESM2) which will track through the model’s hydrological cycle. This work started under the EU …
Black-browed Albatross Juvenile Tracking
Until the last decade, South Georgia held the third largest population of black-browed albatrosses at any island group (Phillips et al. 2016) [4]. However, assuming trends at surveyed sites are …
Biodiversity
Fragmentation occurs when parts of a habitat are lost due to for example change of land use, leaving behind smaller unconnected areas. This makes survival of the species of the …
Exposure
Exposure is one of the corners of the risk triangle, the other parameters being hazard and the vulnerability. In this context exposure is defined as the degree to which elements-at-risk …
AI4EOAccelerator
The AI4EO Accelerator is a collaboration between Φ-Lab of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in the Application of Artificial Intelligence to the …
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 …
Port Lockroy Data Portal
Port Lockroy is the site of the first permanent British Antarctic base, ‘Base A’. This historic station was designated Historic Site No. 61 under the Antarctic Treaty on the 19th …
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?
UK Polar Horizons 2021
We are exploring funding and resource options for running Polar Horizons again in the future. Keep an eye out on BAS socials for the latest updates on different activities and …
Antarctic Coastal Winds
Winds along the Antarctic coast are small scale but have global importance. Climate models must have a realistic representation of these winds as they influence ice shelves, sea ice and …
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 …