AntPen_NSF_NERC
NSFGEO-NERC: Investigating the Direct Influence of Meltwater on Antarctic Ice Sheet Dynamics
A simple site for hosting information about the project. The GitHub repository behind the site is here.
About the project
This project is jointly funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). NSF hosts a page about the project here. It is inspired by a paper published by the UK members of the team, (Tuckett et al., 2019).
The current project team (in alphabetical order):
- Isabel Cordero, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia University, USA
- Sarah Crowsley, British Antarctic Survey, UK
- Ben Davison, University of Sheffield, UK
- Jeremy Ely, University of Sheffield, UK
- Nick Frearson, (LDEO), Columbia University, USA
- Jonathan Kingslake, LDEO, Columbia University, USA
- Stephen Livingstone, University of Sheffield, UK
- Ali Rose, British Antarctic Survey, UK
- Andrew Sole, University of Sheffield, UK
- Rohi Muthyala, LDEO, Columbia University, USA
- Kate Winter, Northumbria University, UK
The project will fund three field seasons on Flask Glacier on the Antarctic Peninsula, and continent wide remote sensing.
The field plan includes:
- Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements of ice flow
- Automatic weather station (AWS) measurements of surface melt
- Measurements of near surface temperatures with a thermistor string
- Uncrewed aerial system (UAS) measurements of ice flow
- Ice-penetrating radar measurements of ice flow (ApRES)
- Passive seismic detection of subglacial water flow
The field team for the first season is Rohi, Kate, Ben, Ali and Sarah and they are scheduled to be in Antarctica between Nov 2024 and Jan 2025.
News
December 7th 2024
We couldn’t have asked for better weather. We had 8 days of back to back low-winds, and roaring sunshine towards the end of our first week. In fact, it often felt too hot. We were having to apply sunscreen about once an hour, and pulk pulling in the heat was tough! Ali made us all nose guards to stop our noses from burning!
It was very interesting to watch the glacier change as the days went on. Melt pools developed, the ice around camp turned slushy and a river even formed along the shear margin of the glacier! These are the kind of summer melt events we’ve been observing in satellite data so it’s pretty cool to see the glacier responding in real time. We can’t wait to delve into our datasets to see how fast the ice is flowing, and the potential drivers of change very soon.
December 4th 2024 - great weather and lots of science.
The winds were low so we managed to get the UAV out on day 2. After a little problem solving it was soon off on its way – taking photos along pre-determined flight paths, so that we can compare photos taken at different times to analyse change. What a relief to see the drone flying back after an hour flight! All very happy in camp today.
We quickly got into the swing of working on the Flask Glacier. We set off in two parties most days, with Kate, Ben and a field guide setting up GNSS, ApRES and seismic stations, whilst Rohi flew the drone, or added instruments to the weather station. Getting to the GNSS rock site was an exciting adventure. We had to snowmobile to a safe site, before roping up and skiing over crevasses, pulling pulks of science kit we went. From the base of the mountain it was a steep scramble over very loose rock, and a hike up some bedrock to a super GNSS base station site. The views were terrific - when visibility allowed us to peak out onto the ice!
The Flask Glacier is heavily crevassed, so crevasse probing and crossing became quite an every-day occurrence, whilst getting to sites 2, 3 and 4. We counted 26 crevasses in the space of about 200 m. The best way to cross crevasses is by ski, to spread weight out over a larger area. It took us about 40 minutes to ski to the inland glacier sites. It’s quite a joy to ski in Antarctica because the scenery is just so beautiful!
December 2nd 2024 - The first day on-ice science
Our first morning on the ice was super – we got all our science kit tied onto sleds and snowmobiled out to site 1. It’s a very picturesque 10 minute drive down the tributary we camp on, to the margin of Flask Glacier. Rohi and Ali quickly got to work setting up the automatic weather station, whilst Kate, Ben and Sarah installed the first GNSS unit. Everything was up and running in no time, thanks largely to Sarah’s fast kovacs ice drilling skills and Ali’s expert guy rope tying!
December 1st 2024 - An update from the field!
The field team landed on a tributary of Flask Glacier on a rather cloudy day after looping around the Larsen Ice Shelf a few times to find a good break in the clouds to land. Once at camp, the team got to work unloading the planes with the help of the pilots and field guides. Many hands made light work and everyone was soon inside, enjoying a warm cup of tea in the science/communal tent.
Photo credit: Ali Rose
Photo credit: Ali Rose
The camp is super! Sarah and Ali, our BAS field guides, set it all up before we arrived. We have two sleeping tents, one toilet tent, one science/communal tent and one tent to house the generator and fragile science kit. They are all set up in a line to keep entrances out of the wind, and to ensure safety in the event of an emergency – like a fire. That’s why there’s a depot of food away from camp too. Just in case! It’s where out emergency stash of fresh cheese was kept too! We were well looked after by the chefs at Rothera who sent us out with a plethora of home-cooked meals and fresh food to liven up our standard ration boxes.
November 30th 2024 - the science team arrive at the field camp.
A huge moment! The science team have arrived at their field camp on Flask Glacier. Thanks again to everyone who has made this happen. Now for collecting some data! Here are some photos from the input day:
November 30th 2024 - the science team are heading to Flask!
November 27th 2024 - the science team are ready for the field!
The scientists on the team are all ready to go and will fly from Rothera to Flask in the next good weather window. All their science equipment is at Flask Glacier. There is a great sense of achievement, getting even this far! The team are poised to finally get on the ice and start making measurements!
The field guides and their pilot Dan have sent back some more incredible photos from Flask Glacier. Thank you to Pilot Dan for the photos!
Pilot Dan also sent this panoramic video of from the camp:
November 25th 2024 - training continues at Rothera and the field guides arrive at Flask Glacier.
The field guides, Ali and Sarah, have arrived at Flask Glacier. They have been setting up camp and inspecting surface conditions to ensure the team can get around safely. Here are a few shots from the input. The plane is a BAS Twin Otter. Thank you to Pilot Dan for these incredible photos!
The other members of the Flask field team (Rohi, Kate and Ben) have been practicing their cross-country skiing. Soon they will be out on Flask Glacier, pulling their science kit behind them on pulks. It’s going to be quite a physically demanding field campaign.
Rohi got this incredible video over Rothera shoing the ship the Sir David Attenborough just to the south of the station.
The Wingtra UAV has been tested in Antarctica for the first time too:
November 22nd 2024 - the UAV arrives at Rothera Research Station
Isabel and Jonny breath a sign of relief as they received the news that the UAVs got to Antarctica safely!
November 17th 2024 - training and equipment testing at Rothera Research Station
The team have been learning how to live and work in Antarctica. These are the stoves we’ll use when we’re camping at Flask Glacier to melt snow for drinking and to re-hydrate our evening meals.
This is our first cargo load for Flask Glacier. Our two field guides Sarah and Ali are going to fly in and find the best place to camp and look for some safe routes for us to get to our science sites. This is all the equipment they need for 2 weeks of camping.
We are enjoying base life. The food at Rothera is wonderful! This was our dinner on Saturday night - burritos and nachos. Yum! The chefs at Rothera are great.
Rothera Research Station. There are many buildings here - including 3 accommodation blocks, a cafeteria and leisure block, a carpenter shed, a boat shed, a building hosting science offices, a doctors surgery, a makeshift barbers and an aircraft/boating control tower and a recycling centre (amongst many other smaller buildings and shipping containers). BAS are constructing a new building too - their bright blue multipurpose ‘Discovery Building’ which is shortened to the Disco building down here! It looks great! Lots of people are working on the build so Rothera has lots of construction workers and construction vehicles on site at the moment. It’s very busy. There will soon be 160 people on station. All the beds will be full then.
Adelie Penguins next to the runway.
49 - We have spent most of the week unpacking boxes shipped by Isabel, Jonny and various other groups. Everything is exactly where we expected it to be thanks to Isabel’s incredible organisation and packing lists. Here’s a photo of Kate and Rohi setting up the weather station:
And finally, a team photo on the ice Adelaide Island:
November 13th 2024 - field team makes it to Punta Arenas, Chile
The field team (Ben, Rohi, Kate) have made it to Punta Arenas in Chile, which is one of the main gateways to the Antarctic Peninsula. The journey from the UK to the British Antarctic Survey Rothera Research Station takes a couple of days, with 28 hours of flying time 
The field team had quite the journey! Here is a Google Earth video showing their route:
September 9th 2024 - Full team science meeting
Today we are at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, courtesy of a fellow Antarctic scientist, Rebecca Dell. This place is steeped in history and it is a privilege to work here and to follow in the footsteps of great Antarctic researchers that have gone before us.
Each team member presented a different aspect of the project. Here’s Andrew outlining his GNSS deployment strategy for all of us to discuss as a team.
We spent the day coming up with detailed science plans, including lots of contingency plans for bad weather, or for cases where we can’t get to our ideal site because of meltwater or crevasses. The meeting was fueled by Ben’s epic mint chocolate tiffin. Thanks Ben!
The whole FRAM team
We also met with Keith Nicholls, at BAS who gave us some incredibly useful guidance on using the radar system ApRES:
September 5th 2024 - Pre-deployment training
We’ve arrived in Cambridge for our British Antarctic Survey (BAS) pre-deployment training. It’s our first time meeting as a team in person! The field team (Kate, Ben and Rohi) have lots of training to complete including: Working in Antarctica, Biosecurity, Health and Safety, Living at Rothera Research Station, BAS safety Culture and conflict management. We also need to complete remote-fieldwork specific training like crevasse rescue and roped glacier traversing.
Here’s a few photos from our training:
The field team - Ben, Kate and Rohi
Lectures about life and work in Antarctica
BAS provide all our polar clothing. We each have 18-20kg of clothing and accessories to carry south with us! This includes 3 pairs of gloves, 4 pairs of shoes, 2 sets of thermals, 2 hats, 2 jackets and the list goes on! We’ll get even more when we reach Rothera! That’s where they keep the big Mount Everest style down jackets and extreme polar hiking books.
All Ben’s clothing laid out on a table:
To rescue someone from a crevasse we need to learn how to stop them from falling any further (in the hope they can climb out themselves) but if they are injured then we need to set up a pulley system which will help us to pull them out of the crevasse safely.
One of our field guides, Sarah, showing us how to setup a 5:1 pulley system:
There’s about 120 people at pre-deployment training and that’s not even everyone going to Antarctica this year! Not everyone here will be going to Rothera, some people will be staying on the Sir David Attenborough ship and others will be going to other stations like Halley Research Station, or stations on Bird Island, Sidney, South Georgia.
In this photo there’s about 5-10 field scientists, almost everyone else is there to support the science. We couldn’t conduct our research without them!
It’s all getting quite real! We can’t wait to go to Antarctica.
Jun 13th 2024
Rohi is in Juneau, AK, testing out one of the Wingtra UAS. Everything is going well and she has sent back some incredible footage:
Jun 11th 2024
Our first major shipment has successfully left Lamont! Nine individual items were palletized and shipped out this afternoon! This includes one of the Wingtra UAS, the ApRES units, a kovacs ice drill, laptops, tools. The shipment is due to arrive in Port Hueneme on Friday where it will continue its journey by ship to Punta Arenas, Chile.
May-June 2024
Purchasing and packing!
Led my Rohi and Isabel, we have been frantically scoping equipment, getting quotes, signing up vendors to the Columbia system, purchasing equipment and eagerly unwrapping all science toys as they arrive. We’ve ordered all the components of the automatic weather station (including thermistor strings and an appropriately pre-programmed logger and customized logger enclosure), tools, zarge boxes, drills, pelican cases, laptops, SD cards, hard drives, stationary, chargers, batteries, and more. Thanks to Knut Christianson at The university of Washington, we also received four ApRES units back from Antarctica. Shipping delays meant that they arrived at LDEO roughly a week before they needed to be shipped south again, but we had time to test them and trouble shoot some issues.
This photo does a pretty good job of showing the chaos that happens when your trying to unpack, test, and repack several different instruments in a small space
We also purchased a new weather proof case for the Wingtra UAV:
May 2024
We are very excited to welcome Ben Davison to the project as a postdoctoral researcher based at the University of Sheffield. Ben did his PhD at Sheffield and did a PhD at Leeds before coming back to the Sheffield for this project. Ben will take part in the first Antarctic field season in Nov-Dec 2024. This completes the science side of field team: Rohi, Ben and Kate Winter. They will be joined by a BAS field assistant on Flask Glacier.
Apr 1st 2024
We are very excited to welcome Dr Rohi Muthyala to the project as a postdoctoral researcher based at LDEO. Rohi did her PhD at Rutgers and has many years experience working on and around the Greenland Ice Sheet. Rohi will take part in the first Antarctic field season in Nov-Dec 2024. We are so pleased to have her on board!
Feb 19th 2024
We tested one of WongtraOne UAVs for the first time on the soccer field at Lamont.
Here it is taking off:
…and landing vertically like a SpaceX rocket:
Jan 24th 2024
The UAS arrived and Jonny went through unpacking everything and checking what’s there. Looks like almost everything is present and correct! Next steps are to register it, assemble it, and start testing for (hopefully) a testing season in Alaska this summer.
Jan 23rd 2024
The UAS has arrived! Yesterday we received the WingtraOne uncrewed aerial system. More photos to follow.
Dec 15, 2023
We advertised a Sheffield-based postdoctoral research associate to work on the project. Details about the job and how to apply can be found here. Apologies for the incorrect closing date and typos at this link; the closing date is Monday 5th February and we anticipate interviewing for the post later in February.
Sep 21, 2023
We had Tom from Wingtra at LDEO today demonstrating their UAS.
Sep 19, 2023
Excited to hear that we will be getting a demo from a company called Wingtra of their vertical take off, fixed-wing uncrewed aerial system (UAS) tomorrow on the Lamont campus.
Sep 06, 2023
We advertised for an LDEO-based postdoctoral researcher to work on the project. The advert can be found here.
Aug 2023
The US side of the project kicks off!