Ruth Mottram
@ruthmottram.bsky.social
14K followers 5.7K following 1.8K posts
Climate scientist at DMI, Greenland, Antarctica, polar regions in general. Dipping a toe in yet another social media site. Mostly on mastodon though @[email protected] Blogging at sternaparadisaea.net
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ruthmottram.bsky.social
In case you were wondering why we're doing glaciology fieldwork in NW Greenland this year, here is (part of) the answer...
It's all to do with an early break up of sea ice.

❄️🧪🥼⚒️⛏️
Animated gif showing series of satellite images from early March to mid-May this year, the sea ice (white) gradually and then abruptly fractures and retreats.
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
cyrilpedia.bsky.social
'In many ways, Meta and OpenAI’s new platforms (AI-generated content is already rife on TikTok and YouTube) are a fitting endpoint for social media’s warped evolution from a place where people swapped updates with friends and family, to one with less and less human-to-human interaction.'
Have we passed peak social media?
As platforms degrade into outrage and slop, users are turning away
www.ft.com
ruthmottram.bsky.social
My Great Grandfather was born the year before the Wright Brothers first flight, drive the first tractor in South Lincolnshire and I watched the news of the Challenger shuttle explosion with him in 1986.

There's a reason we call the 20th century the Great Acceleration
raxkingisdead.bsky.social
you ever think about those real weird overlaps. like tennessee williams might have listened to the ramones
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
spavel.bsky.social
Flying cars are the perfect example of a point solution: trying to solve a systemic problem (traffic) with an individual product (fly over the traffic).

But traffic is not a technology problem; it's a social problem. Remote work, congestion fees, and dense transit-connected housing solve it better.
aelkus.bsky.social
which then begs the question of why you want flying cars instead of whatever mass transportation equivalent you imagine
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
miskaknapek.bsky.social
East European #humor can be a bit dark but fun
ruthmottram.bsky.social
Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of water vapour that bring very intense rain or snowfall over a short period. Pineapple express in California is probably best known feature - but they occur everywhere.

Because they can carry so much snow, they offset the loss of ice by other processes
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
copernicusecmwf.bsky.social
👀 Coming soon: CARRA2 with full Arctic coverage with new features!
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
troelschristensen.bsky.social
A high-res image taken from space on 2 October 2025 shows the ice tongue of #Thwaites #glacier and the newly calved ice fragments drifting nearby.

#Antarctica 🇦🇶 #CopernicusClimate

📸 by European Union, @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social Sentinel-1 🛰️ image 🔗 www.copernicus.eu/en/media/ima...
Spanning approximately 120 kilometres in width, Thwaites is one of the widest glaciers both in Antarctica and globally. The glacier flows into the Amundsen Sea and produces smaller calving events and occasional large tabular iceberg detachment from its ice tongue.

Scientists are particularly concerned about Thwaites because it is melting at an accelerating rate due to warming ocean waters beneath it, which weakens the ice from below and leads to iceberg calving processes. Current research shows the glacier loses approximately 50 billion tons of ice annually and contributes about 4% to global sea level rise. If Thwaites were to collapse entirely, it could raise global sea levels by 65 centimetres, with potential for even greater rises if it destabilises surrounding West Antarctic ice.

This Copernicus Sentinel-1 image, acquired on 2 October 2025, reveals the ice tongue of Thwaites Glacier, along with newly calved ice fragments drifting nearby.

The expansion of Copernicus Sentinel-1 with Sentinel-1D will support the mission in continuing to deliver key data for tracking glacier dynamics and calving events in remote areas. Today, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space announced that the Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite will lift off onboard an Ariane 6 launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on 4 November 2025.
ruthmottram.bsky.social
It's a good question - and one we try to answer in the paper...
ruthmottram.bsky.social
🚨 New @oceaniceeu.bsky.social preprint🚨 why has Antarctica stopped (net) losing mass, in spite of increased discharge?
Declining sea ice is part of the answer but increasingly heavy and frequent atmospheric rivers are most important factor.

Lots of important subtleties:
arxiv.org/abs/2510.03590
Screenshot of figures from the paper: Above a graph showing wiggly lines depicting the cumulative mass budget of Antarctica: a dark line swoops and wiggles downwards before stabilising at the end, colourful dashed lines (depicting snow fall) wiggle along constantly before sloping upwards at the same tme stabilisation occurs. 
Below 6 maps of Antarctica in blues and red depicting the mass change in different basins.
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
jmalumbresolarte.bsky.social
Great to finally see it out! I have to admit that I'm loving and excited to work with polar scientists! Congrats to the authors! Now, can I call myself a polar illustrator...? 🤔
ruthmottram.bsky.social
They were extremely rare to see and only woodland birds when I was a kid in 1980s England by we have them nesting near our garden in central Copenhagen - they are still shy but seem to become more common in cities than before. I'm not sure why.
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
meanwhileua.bsky.social
Fires are raging across Lviv after a combined Russian attack. Riasne and Levandivka are without power; the Sparrow industrial park is burning. No casualties have been reported.

All night, one-way attack drones hunted the city. At dawn—missiles.👇
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
aarnegranlund.bsky.social
"Cars from one company – Tesla – are largely responsible for the relatively high overall EV test-failure rate. For example, 49 percent of Tesla Model 3s failed their first inspections last year, along with 16 percent of Tesla Model S vehicles and 14 percent of Tesla Model Xs."

yle.fi/a/74-20186654
Electric cars fare worse in Finnish car inspections – up to half of Teslas flunk
EVs are gaining popularity in Finland – but perform significantly worse in inspections than petrol, diesel or hybrid cars of the same age. Teslas have by far the highest test failure rate.
yle.fi
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
alisonfisk.bsky.social
Something lovely for the weekend!

Ancient Egyptian gold headband decorated with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers. Second Intermediate (Hyksos) period, Dynasty 15, c. 1648–1540 BC. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology
Met Museum photo of an Ancient Egyptian gold head ornament viewed from the front against a grey background. The headband is made of hammered sheet gold, the ends of which have been tapered to a narrower width and rolled to form loops. A string would have threaded through the loops to fasten the band around the head at the back. The front of the band is decorated with a central head of an antlered stag, identified as the Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica). The stag has two large antlers, large ears and a triangular-shaped head. It is flanked on either side by two gazelle heads. The gazelle heads have long ears and long curved horns which point outwards at the tip. Between the animal heads are four 8-pointed flowers or stars. Dimensions: height of central stag 8.9, length of headband 49.5 cm. 

Dated to the Second Intermediate period (c. 1648-1540 BC) when northern Egypt was ruled by the Hyksos from the ancient Near East. Said to be part of a group of objects found in the Eastern Delta near Avaris, the Hyksos capital. The headband shows a mix of ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian artistic styles.
Reposted by Ruth Mottram
sthlmresilience.bsky.social
Centre partner Axfoundation has developed a Nordic two-day menu inspired by the EAT-Lancet report, illustrating how we can eat sustainably — close to today’s habits, yet in balance with the planet. The pictures show the menu for day 1.

Learn more: www.stockholmresilience.org/research/res...
Headline on top of image of legume pasta Oatmeal with apples, applesauce, hazelnuts and oat milk Pasta bolognese of legumes Fish stew
ruthmottram.bsky.social
Heh, I originally hated the word as well, it's rather ugly. But it *is* descriptive.