Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Thale Damm-Johnsen @thale.bsky.social · Aug 21

Excellent review on the rapidly changing state of Antarctic environments, and what that means for the rest of the globe - a must read!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Emerging evidence of abrupt changes in the Antarctic environment - Nature

Abrupt changes are developing across Antarctica’s ice, ocean and biological systems; some of these changes are intensifying faster than equivalent Arctic changes, potentially irreversibly, and their i...

www.nature.com

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Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social · Aug 21

New today: Critical research published in @nature.com on the abrupt and alarming changes being observed in #Antarctica and the surrounding Southern Ocean, led by Prof. @climatenerilie.bsky.social, with @profmattengland.bsky.social and colleagues ⬇️

theconversation.com/from-sea-ice...

From sea ice to ocean currents, Antarctica is now undergoing abrupt changes – and we’ll all feel them

The vast ice of Antarctica has long seemed impregnable. But sudden changes are arriving – from shrinking sea ice to melting ice sheets and slowing ocean currents.

theconversation.com

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Itai Yanai @itaiyanai.bsky.social · Aug 15

Why would anyone want to be a scientist? There are the pleasures of:
1. Having the initial idea or insight,
2. Watching the idea develop into new experiments or a new model, and
3. Telling others.
Martin A. Schwartz
Check out also his Night Science podcast episode: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/7...

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British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Aug 12

We’ve collected the oldest ice core, now it’s time to analyse it! 🔍 💻

The @newscientist.com have a new icy-cool video, speaking to BAS scientists about the Beyond EPICA project, highlighting why this work is so important in the face of climate change.

www.newscientist.com/video/249042...

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Emma Vogel @efvogel.bsky.social · Aug 9

Excited to share our new paper in #AnimalBiotelemetry @springernature.com!
We classified killer whale tracks into five movement modes using movement metrics and absolute space use, revealing finer-scale behaviour and insights into how they use space along the Norwegian coast 🐋🛰️🧪 tinyurl.com/y8a3wdmy

Characterizing movement patterns of killer whales along the Norwegian coast - Animal Biotelemetry

Background There has been ever-growing research fitting movement models to marine mammal satellite tracking data in recent years, yet little focus on methods attempting to go beyond individual restric...

tinyurl.com

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Prof. Rhiannon Stevens @nannonstevens.bsky.social · Aug 6

Now with correct link: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Geography at Durham @geogdurham.bsky.social · Jul 11

Great work by our colleagues Stewart Jamieson and Guy Paxman: "We have been using satellite data to map an ancient river landscape beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet:. The landscape has been frozen in time for up to 34 million years." ⚒️🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Extensive fluvial surfaces at the East Antarctic margin have modulated ice-sheet evolution - Nature Geoscience

Extensive flat surfaces observed beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet margin were formed by fluvial erosion and have modulated the ice-sheet response to climate change, according to an analysis of rad...

www.nature.com

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Kaihe Yamazaki 🌊❄️ @kaihezak.bsky.social · Jul 2

Stoked to share our Australian community’s voice on “impacts of #Antarctic #SeaIce extremes“ published in PNASNexus!

Massive kudos to Ed for spearheading this epic, super multidisciplinary work👏🥳 And so honoured to be a part of it.
doi.org/10.1093/pnas...

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Durham University @durham.ac.uk · Jun 18

We look forward to welcoming the @erc.europa.eu Scientific Council to Durham next week and showcasing amazing research, like Professor @erinmcclimate.bsky.social's study on Antarctic snow petrels and sea ice evolution. Read more: bit.ly/4nde2gE

@geogdurham.bsky.social ‪@leverhulme.ac.uk @bas.ac.uk

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Durham Glaciology @durhamglaciology.bsky.social · Jun 16

CONGRATULATIONS to our very own @mikebentley.bsky.social who has been awarded an OBE for his services to Antarctic Science! Mike has not only made an outstanding contribution to polar science, he is also a fantastic colleague and we are all delighted for him! ❄️🥳

www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

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Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) @scar-antarctic.bsky.social · Jun 8

🌊 Happy #WorldOceansDay from SCAR!

Today, we celebrate the mighty Southern Ocean—a climate hero that deserves the spotlight.

To mark the day, we’re sharing three stunning data visualisations from a past EG-ABI competition, showcasing the impacts of climate change on the Southern Ocean.

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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · Jun 7

🚨 Carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels set a new monthly *record high* in May 2025 - 430.51 ppm (seasonal maximum)

This is the second largest May-May increase in this dataset (3.6 ppm higher than 2024). This is not good... 🫣

Data from gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/

Red line graph time series of monthly carbon dioxide abundance from January 1959 through May 2025. There is a seasonal cycle and long-term increasing trend. Current levels of CO2 are at 431 ppm. This is the Keeling Curve graph. A line for CO2 10 years ago is also annotated.

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Erin McClymont @erinmcclimate.bsky.social · Jun 6

What do sea-ice associated seabirds do during a season with little sea ice? Results from GPS tracking on snow petrels is now published, led by @elliehonan.bsky.social funded by @erc.europa.eu @leverhulme.ac.uk details here: www.antsie.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/06/06/snow-petrel-tracking/ 🧪🐙

www.antsie.webspace.durham.ac.uk

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Thale Damm-Johnsen @thale.bsky.social · Jun 6

Hot off the press! A new study on snow petrel tracking from coastal Droninng Maud Land, Antarctica, by the wonderful @elliehonan.bsky.social!

Read the paper here:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
And a summary here(including an epic fieldwork video): antsie.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/06/06/s...

The foraging distribution and habitat use of chick-rearing snow petrels from two colonies in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica - Marine Biology

The polar sea-ice zones are highly productive and seasonal habitats that support large populations of vertebrate predators. In the Antarctic, snow petrels (Pagodroma nivea) are regarded as highly ice-...

link.springer.com

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Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · May 6

This is horrible. I don't even know what to say. Some of our most key polar data.

"As a result, the level of services for affected products below will be reduced to Basic—meaning they will remain accessible but may not be actively maintained, updated, or fully supported."

nsidc.org/data/user-re...

Effective May 5, 2025, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) will decommission its snow and ice data products from the Coasts, Oceans, and Geophysics Science Division (COGS). As a result, the level of services for affected products below will be reduced to Basic—meaning they will remain accessible but may not be actively maintained, updated, or fully supported. This includes Sea Ice Index, Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS) Data Products, Glacier Photograph Collection, U.S. National Ice Center Arctic Sea Ice Charts and Climatologies in Gridded Format Gridded Monthly Sea Ice Extent and Concentration, 1850 Onward World Glacier Inventory. If you rely on these products in your work, research, education, or planning, we invite you to share your story at nsidc@nsidc.org. Your input can help us demonstrate the importance of these data sets and advocate for future support.

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Klemens Weisleitner PhD @weisleitner.bsky.social · May 5

I took this image in Antarctica — a place of harsh beauty, sometimes colorful, and always deeper than expected. Share if you like it.

#Photography #Antarctica #Fieldwork
#PolarScience #GlacierLife #BlueIce #SciencePhotography
#VisualScience #IceStories #Earth #Expedition

blocks of ice and warm colored clouds in Antarctica

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British Antarctic Survey 🐧 @bas.ac.uk · Apr 22

Why is Antarctica so important?

Antarctica might feel very remote - until you look at the planet from a different perspective. It's actually central to our world's ocean currents.

🎁 Check the alt text to dig into this diagram

🌊 This is from a new book by BAS' @oceanandice.bsky.social (et al.)

The image shows a map of the world's currents, but looking at a projection of the world from the bottom of the globe, with Antarctica at its centre. The diagram shows all of the world's currents cycling through major oceans, all linked together by a central circular current that goes around the outside of the Antarctic continent.

"The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is central to global ocean circulation. It enables connectivity across the whole planet by linking the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean basins, and is the key site where waters are returned to the surface from depth and then converted into new water masses. The clockwise circulation of waters around Antarctica is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the strongest ocean current system in the world."

(Figure 1.1 from "Antarctica and the Earth System", edited By Michael P. Meredith, Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Marilyn Raphael)

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SAFE treeline @safe-treeline.bsky.social · Mar 18

Throwback to spending 3 weeks sampling around Kevo, Finland as part of my 1st field season for SAFE which was very kindly funded by INTERACT TA and helped by the lovely @thale.bsky.social

Also learnt that 30’C was possible at 70N! 😱😱

Green shrubby tree covered hill over looking border between Finland and Norway. Woman in blue coat is flying a drone.

Woman lying down in dwarf shrubs with GPS and tape measure on ground. Vibe is tired!

Woman walking out of Kevo Subarctic research station

Trying the famous Norwegian petrol station hot dogs in Karasjok. Woman smiling holding hot dog!

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Rob Larter @polarrobs.bsky.social · Mar 2

🧪🌊 🧵 As the minimum in Antarctic sea-ice extent has now dipped below 2 million km² for the third year in a row, it is looking increasingly like this is the new normal. In the 10 years up to 2015 the minimum extent averaged more than 3 million km².
Graph from @nsidc.bsky.social
1/n

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SETI Institute @setiinstitute.bsky.social · Feb 12

https://buff.ly/4gJqFeF
The Explorers Club recognizes SETI Institute Senior Research Scientist Dr. Dale Andersen with its Finn Ronne Memorial Award. Andersen has spent nearly five decades exploring Earth's most extreme environments.

Picture of scientist Dale Andersen, wearing a khaki button-down shirt and black undershirt, set against the background of a grey, cloudy sky.

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Tom Chudley @tomchudley.bsky.social · Feb 3

Our new paper is out in Nature Geoscience! In an ice-sheet-wide 3-D inventory of crevasses in 2016 and 2021, we find that crevasses are growing in response to ice acceleration on short timescales. @durham-university.bsky.social @byrdpolar.bsky.social @leverhulme.bsky.social

Increased crevassing across accelerating Greenland Ice Sheet margins - Nature Geoscience

Greenland-wide observations of crevasse volume and distribution suggest substantial increases in crevassing between 2016 and 2021 at marine-terminating sectors with accelerating ice flow.

www.nature.com

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NPI Glaciology @npiglaciology.bsky.social · Jan 28

New paper out from our team!

Satellite observations of subglacial lakes are much needed for improving knowledge of subglacial meltwater dynamics and evolution, and for improving simulating these processes in models.

#glaciology #Antarctic #remotesensing #hydrology 🛰 💧

Jenny Arthur @antarcticjenny.bsky.social · Jan 28

*New evidence of active subglacial lakes under the East #Antarctic Ice Sheet!*

We use #ICESat2 to show lakes fill and drain beneath slow-moving ice. Modelling likely meltwater routes suggests lakes discharge meltwater under ice shelves.

tiny.cc/wsu7001 @npiglaciology.bsky.social

Evidence of active subglacial lakes under a slowly moving coastal region of the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Abstract. Active subglacial lakes beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet provide insights into the dynamic subglacial environment, with implications for ice-sheet dynamics and mass balance. Most previously i...

tc.copernicus.org

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