As the year comes to a close weโd like to thank our incredible supporters, researchers, and partners for helping to advance crucial Antarctic science.
We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we look forward to continuing our work in the year ahead!๐งโ๏ธ๐
#Subglacial sediment : key to reconstruction of #Cenozoic topography and #paleoenvironment ๐ฆ๐ถ
The first flight to our deep-field scientific drilling site at Crary Ice Rise has departed Ross Island. The approximately 700km journey over the Ross Ice Shelf took around 2 hrs on a Basler.ย On board were our hot water drillers, most of our AIDD team, and camp staffย ๐https://bit.ly/3KxwJgC
11/ Their computer modelling projects other changes in AABW such as meltwater, salinity and temperature by 2050 โ โessentially an intensification of the patterns of change observed since the 1990sโ, the review says.
10/ ๐๐๐๐ช ๐ถ๐ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด. Melting ice shelves make the waters fresher and more buoyant. Another study by some of the same authors simulated the future response of the ocean to meltwater input, projecting a slowdown of the Antarctic overturning by 40% by 2050.
โถ๏ธ aappartnership.org.au/antarctic-de...
9/ ๐๐๐๐ช ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด: since the mid-80s, at rates greater than 50โmetres per decade in the deep Antarctic basins, with more rapid thinning observed closer to the sources of AABW. Contraction of AABW may lead to increased exposure of Antarctic ice shelves to warm water and further melt.
7/ So any change in AABW properties has consequences for the strength of the deep overturning circulation โ and climatic patterns. We know that rapid change is already underway in the abyssal ocean.
Sea ice edge ๐ธ Todor Iolovski/AAD
8/ ๐๐๐๐ช ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ฟ๐บ๐ถ๐ป๐ด. Since the mid-80s, ocean heat content below 4,000m has increased at a rate of about 13 trillion watts โ about equal to the global energy consumption rate by humans each year.
6/ From these regions, AABW moves into the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans, driving many of the world's significant currents. This shows the fraction of water on the seafloor that is composed of AABW (dark blue is more than 90%, depths shallower than 3,500m not shown).
5/ AABW only forms in four locations: Weddell Sea, Cape Darnley, Ross Sea and Adelie Land. โSvโ is a Sverdrup, a measure of current flow rate (1 Sv = 1 million cubic metres per second). Any changes in these regions (like sea ice) may impact the 3-D structure of the global overturning circulation.
4/ To form AABW, cascades of dense water spill from the continental shelf and sink to the deep ocean: seawater freezes to form sea ice โก๏ธ rejects brine โก๏ธ dense cold salty oxygen-rich water sinks โก๏ธ pumps oxygen into the deep sea โก๏ธ โventilatesโ abyss
Watch โถ๏ธ vimeo.com/830053753
3/ How will this lifeline change on a warming planet? A new review in @natrevearthenviron.nature.com led by Steve Rintoul at CSIRO/AAPP examines the importance of AABW to ocean carbon and heat storage and oxygen supply to the deep sea โ and the impacts of global heating.
Review โถ๏ธ rdcu.be/eTWCD
2/ Driving the pump is Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), cold dense water that sinks from the continental shelf to the deep (dark purple) and fills 36% of the global ocean volume. The sinking of AABW is balanced by a return flow of lighter warmer water (yellow).
Pic: @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social
1/ The overturning circulation is a network of ocean currents transporting heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients around the world. At the heart of this circulatory system is the global pumphouse of #Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
Animation: NASA-SVS
Announcing โAntarctica as a Model for Global Peaceโ.
Chapter by Bruno Arpi & I: โThe resilience of the Antarctic Treaty System in the face of a changing global orderโ.
Great working with Agenda Antรกrtica and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung on this chapter.
www.kas.de/documents/d/...
๐ฆ "In effect, the Southern Ocean may be โsweatingโ more in response to climate change." โ @aunz.theconversation.com
โถ๏ธ theconversation.com/storms-in-th...
Here's something those travelling to Antarctica hope they won't need. If your flight 'boomerangs' and has to turn back around, you'll be reunited with your checked-in boomerang bag.We're sharing Antarctic terms and phrases so that you too can #TalklikeanAntarctican!
Adrift like Shackleton: Robot float survives #Antarctic ice. The Argo float disappeared under the ice and survived to send back the first-ever ocean transect beneath an East Antarctic ice shelf.
www.csiro.au/en/news/All/...
7/ Hats off to authors Steve Rintoul, Esmee van Wijk, Laura Herraiz-Borreguero and Madelaine Rosevear from CSIRO, AAPP, @utas.edu.au and @imas-utas.bsky.social โ with support from @imos-aus.bsky.social โ and the intrepid #Argo floats.
@euro-argo.eu
@soccomproject.bsky.social
@soosocean.bsky.social
6/ This work reveals the Shackleton ice shelf is, for now, not exposed to warm water capable of melting it from below. However the Denman Glacier is and therefore more vulnerable. Its ice volume holds a potential 1.5-metre contribution to global sea level rise.
5/ Thatโs where floats can help, bumping their heads on the underside of ice shelves, measuring melt where it happens. Deploying an array of floats around Antarctica's continental shelf would reduce the large uncertainties in estimating future sea level rise.
โถ๏ธ theconversation.com/what-our-mis...
4/ But measuring inside ice shelf cavities is very difficult to do. Ice shelves can be hundreds of metres thick. While you can drill a hole through and lower your sensors, this is expensive and rarely done, so very few observations have been made.
โถ๏ธ aapp.shorthandstories.com/how-to-drill...
3/ Ice shelves resist the flow of continental ice to the sea. If warm ocean waters weaken the ice shelves, more ice will reach the ocean and melt, causing sea level to rise. Ocean measurements are critical to determine how much and how fast.
โถ๏ธ aapp.shorthandstories.com/opening-the-...
2/ After eight months hidden away, profiling the ocean from the seafloor to the base of the ice every five days, the Argo float survived to deliver the first-ever oceanographic transect from beneath an East Antarctic ice shelf.
โถ๏ธ aappartnership.org.au/adrift-like-...
๐ 1/ A robotic float has measured temperature and salinity from parts of the Southern Ocean never sampled before โ underneath massive floating Denman and Shackleton ice shelves in East #Antarctica.
New in @science.org #ScienceAdvances: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Our November newsletter just went out, featuring
... Report of SCAR at 44th CCAMLR Meetings
... INSTANT workshop at CliC OSC 2026
... SCAR at #COP30 in Belรฉm, Brazil
... and more!
โถ๏ธ Read: mailchi.mp/scar/novembe...
โถ๏ธ Subscribe: scar.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=...
The smiles say it all - they've finally made it to the ice! After an extended stay in Christchurch due to weather delays, followed by an 8hr boomerang back to Christchurch, the first of our science team have landed in Antarctica.
At @imas-utas.bsky.social @utas.edu.au, we're celebrating Antarctica Day 2025 with a symposium themed โEncountering Antarcticaโ.
๐ง www.utas.edu.au/about/events...
Happy Antarctica Day! ๐
1 December is the anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959.
Australia was one of 12 original signatories to the Treaty, which established #Antarctica as a "natural reserve, devoted to peace and science".
Antarctica Day marks the anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, setting the foundation for international collaboration in Antarctic research. SWAIS2C brings together researchers from 10 countries, dedicated to understanding how Antarcticaโs ice sheets will respond in our warming world.
