Ice Sheet Mass Balance – a groundbreaking scientific discovery

Ice Sheet Mass Balance – a groundbreaking scientific discovery

Before we had satellites, it was very difficult to assess and monitor the Earth’s ice. We only had data collected by scientists visiting the polar regions, and the areas we study are so vast it would be impossible to monitor them manually. However, since the launch of Earth Observation satellites like ESA’s ERS-1 and CryoSat missions, and NASA’s IceSat missions, our understanding of these complex regions has been transformed.

To mark the European Space Agency’s (ESA) 50th anniversary, they have created this brochure detailing 12 groundbreaking scientific discoveries that have been made possible thanks to the ESA Earth Observation programmes. One of the successes that ESA have highlighted is the Mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets as assessed by The IMBIE Team, led by CPOM.

IMBIE is an international collaboration of 100 polar scientists, supported by ESA and NASA, who are working to chart the sea level contribution of the polar ice sheets. In their latest assessment report (published in 2023), led by CPOM’s Inès Otosaka (Northumbria University), the team revealed that ice loss had accelerated during the 29-year record of satellite observations and that this accounted for a ‘significant’ increase in the global sea level.

ESA released this animation in 2023, based on the data from this report, showing Ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica. 

UK parliamentary inquiry into ‘The UK and the Antarctic Environment’. Here is what we had to say:

In December 2024, the Environmental Audit Committee revived their Sub-Committee on Polar Research’s inquiry into The UK and the Antarctic Environment, which had been launched the previous year under the former government.

This inquiry is exploring the impacts of climate change in Antarctica and the role that UK science can play in understanding these changes and protecting the region.

Parliamentary inquiries offer direct routes for academics to inform the government about relevant scientific findings, provide research-led advice and influence policy decisions. Having taken part in the original call for evidence, the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) submitted a supplementary statement to summarise the information we provided in our initial written report and reiterate key advice. We highlighted, for example, that changes in the Antarctic will have global consequences for people and animals, that we will need to adapt to significant impacts from sea level rise in the coming years, and that the UK needs to commit to support for long-term international collaborations between modellers, climate scientists, and remote sensing specialists to ensure we are fully prepared for these changes.

We also added that, since the initial call, additional evidence of Antarctic sea ice decline has been observed, we highlighted the opportunity to improve observations through the United Nations Antarctica InSync programme, and also pointed to the requirement for governance of any future geoengineering schemes. You can read our report alongside other evidence on the Inquiry website: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/8689/the-uk-and-the-antarctic-environment-revived/publications/

For more information, you can watch CPOM’s Dr Inès Otosaka giving evidence in person for the initial inquiry (alongside other experts) on Parliament TV: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/01ec3440-450c-42de-970a-e6b762836d19

CPOM joins STEM Learning’s #POP24 Day

On Tuesday 12 November 2024, scientists from the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling took part in STEM Learning’s Protecting our Planet Day 2024, a fantastic day of live-streamed sessions from experts on what is being done to protect our planet from space, and on Earth.

More than 150,000 people, including classrooms full of interested teachers and pupils, joined to learn more about climate change and how they can pursue a career in STEM.

The event was presented by the UK Space Education Office (ESERO-UK) at STEM Learning, and in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the UK Space Agency

The full listings of sessions are available on STEM Learning’s Youtube Page.

Watch Professor Andy Shepherd and former CPOM Researcher Dr Anne Braakmann-Folgmann talk about Protecting the Ice…

Watch Dr Sammie Buzzard talking about Protecting our Planet with Maths…

Watch Dr Inès Otosaka talking about Protecting our Planet with Technology…