Using Creativity to Connect People with Space-Based Climate Science

Category: Ice sheets

Using Creativity to Connect People with Space-Based Climate Science

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Earth is losing more than a trillion tonnes of ice each year – enough to create an ice cube more than 10km high.

How do we know this?

Satellites like ESA’s CryoSat-2 mission collect crucial climate data from hundreds of miles above Earth.

Once of the challenges we face is how do we make data from space feel real for people on the ground.

Climate change and the research behind it can often feel distant and abstract, but the impacts are immediate and global.

That’s why researchers, space agencies and climate change organisations are getting creative, transforming complex information into experiences that resonate with people outside the scientific community and inspire action from Governments and government agencies.

This International Day of Climate Action, we’re sharing some of the ways that creativity has been used to share environmental science stories in 2025.

Visual storytelling from space

ESA, with Planetary Visions, have partnered to create videos that visualise the research carried out by the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling and other research groups.

Here are some examples:

This animation, featuring research led by CPOM PhD Researcher Nitin Ravinder, shows the thinning of the Greenland ice sheet between 2010 and 2023.

Video Credit: ESA / Planetary Visions / CPOM

And this animation shows something surprising discovered by CPOM Researchers from Lancaster University this year – a subglacial flood bursting through the ice sheet.

Video Credit: ESA/CPOM/Planetary Visions

Stepping inside a year’s worth of ice loss: The Giant Ice Cube

How much ice is a trillion tonnes? CPOM created a 3D, explorable model to help answer this question.

Dr Tom Slater’s research has been transformed into an interactive experience that has travelled across the country, letting school children ‘step into’ a year’s worth of ice loss.

Of those surveyed at our outreach events 85% said they learned something new and 56% said they would consider becoming polar scientists.

Watch this video about why science outreach work is inspiring the next generation of environmental scientists.

Video: CPOM

Using poetry and art to bring science to life

ESA collaborated with artist Jamie Perera to create a multi-sensory installation that transforms satellite data into art. Using poetry penned by ESA’s Peter Bickerton and sonification (turning data into sound) the installation at this year’s Living Planet Symposium shares the science behind the EarthCARE Earth Explorer satellite mission, which gathers data on clouds and aerosols.

Video: ESA

Hear more from Peter Bickerton on how ESA uses creativity to share their science and why this is important

In this short interview, Peter Bickerton, talks about how he uses creativity to tap into people’s imaginations while sharing crucial climate and environmental data derived from earth explorer satellites.

Video credit: CPOM

Bonus: We also have a video of Peter’s 15-year anniversary poem about one of our favourite satellites CryoSat-2!

Video credit: CPOM

Behind the scenes on scientific fieldwork

Some of the most compelling climate science happens in the world’s most remote places where most people will never visit.

That’s why CPOM and programmes like BIOPOLE, led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) bring the Arctic and Antarctic to audiences through video content.

In this video filmed aboard RSS Sir David Attenborough, viewers get to see the science in action.

National Capability science like this spans decades of monitoring and measuring, but these glimpses behind the scenes remind us that climate data comes from real people doing remarkable work in extreme conditions.

Video: CPOM

A castle becomes a canvas

This November, CPOM PhD researcher Diego Moral Pombo in partnership with photographer and media specialist James Hooton, will transform Lancaster Castle into a stunning polar science showcase.

Their light installation projected onto Lancaster Castle’s historic John O’Gaunt Gate will bring ice sheets and glaciers to life, visualizing the hidden dynamics happening deep beneath the ice.

By placing climate science in a public place, the installation will invite visitors to the Light Up Lancaster festival to consider how the Earth’s ice sheets are changing, and why.

From research to action

The satellite data shows that Earth’s ice is melting, but data alone rarely inspires action. By transforming complex satellite observations into giant ice cubes, poetry, art installations, and visual stories help people understand that climate change is happening now, is measurable from space, and is affecting communities worldwide.

This International Day of Climate Action, we’re reminded that inspiring climate action requires both science and imaginative communication.

When the science community makes space-based climate data tangible, accessible and engaging, we empower everyone, from schoolchildren to policymakers to understand the challenge, and be part of the solution.

Spotlight on Space: Inspiring the next generation of polar scientists with CPOM

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Video: CPOM

On Saturday 4 October 2025, the UK Centre for Polar Observation (CPOM) joined teams from other companies, universities and science centres at the International Centre for Life, in Newcastle upon Tyne, for their ‘Spotlight on…’ Day.

This year the focus was ‘Space’, one of our favourite topics.

Introducing polar science to young people

During the day we got the chance to meet more than 100 children and their families, all fascinated with space science and wanting to learn more. We had an array of activities ready for them, including polar science inspired puzzles and colouring activities to introduce them to the sort of animals that live in the Arctic and Antarctica. You can find these, and links to other educational resources, on this webpage.

We also introduced them to ESA’s CryoSat-2 and ESA’s ‘Paxi’ mascot, explaining how we use satellites like CryoSat-2 and NASA’s ICESat-2 to monitor the polar regions from space to see what’s happening there. We took along our ice cube tent, an incarnation of the giant ESA ice cube you can see in this video, to help the children understand how much of the ice is melting each year.

About the cube

The cube is a scale model of how much ice is lost on Earth every year if you put it all in one giant ice cube. In real life this cube of ice would be 10 cubic km in size and 1 trillion tonnes in weight! This version of the cube is only 1 cubic meter, so children can interact with it, climbing inside to meet some of the polar animals. We explained to them that the ‘real’ ice cube would be a billion times bigger than our model. The sides of the cube show exactly where the ice is melting and the volume in gigatonnes.

About the science behind the cube

CPOM is a lead partner on ESA’s Antarctic CCI (Climate Change Initiative) project which develops methods for producing long-term and reliable climate data records of Antarctica from satellite observations. CPOM also provides scientific leadership for the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE), a community effort to reconcile satellite estimates of sea level contribution due to ice loss from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. You can read more about these, and other CPOM projects, on our Projects page.

The importance of sharing our science

As Ben Rutherford-Orrock, Contemporary Science Manager, mentions in our case study video:

“Science is all about asking questions and trying to work out the answers. That could be in solving some of the biggest problems we have in the world. Some of these questions are going to take time. If we are looking at how to answer some of these questions we are going to need the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and maths professionals. By making science accessible we can encourage young people to think about science as a potential career for the future.”

CPOM Director for Knowledge Exchange Dr Sammie Buzzard (Northumbria University) continues:

“It’s really important for everyone to know about the science we do here at CPOM because it has implications for the whole planet. We are looking at how our polar regions are changing and where the ice is melting. This can have implications for sea level rise which is going to affect everywhere with a coast and beyond.”

This year we have met around 500 children through outreach events like this.

Of those surveyed at all of these events in 2025:

85% reported learning something new about polar science.

56% said they would consider becoming a polar scientist in the future.

We look forward to continuing to inspire the next generation of polar scientists in 2026 and beyond.

Subglacial flood bursts through Greenland ice sheet

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Video Credit: ESA/CPOM/Planetary Visions

Evidence of a flood bursting through the Greenland ice sheet has been detailed in research published today (30.7.2025) in the journal Nature Geoscience and further illustrated in this animation produced by Planetary Visions.

The team of researchers, led by CPOM PhD Researcher Jade Bowling and CPOM Co-Director for Science Professor Malcolm McMillan (Lancaster Environment Centre), studied the sudden draining of a recently detected lake under the Greenland ice sheet (subglacial lake), using European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA satellite data and 3D simulations from the ArcticDEM project.

Their studies revealed that 90 million cubic meters of water burst through the ice leaving a huge crater (85m deep) across a 2 km2 area of the ice sheet. Further downstream they found hundreds of thousands of square metres of fractured ice and 25m high ice blocks where the flood had drained.

This evidence of meltwater flowing upwards from base to surface has overturned previous assumptions that meltwater only flows in the opposite direction. This, combined with previous ice sheet model predictions that the ice bed in this region was frozen has led the team to propose that fracturing of the ice created the pressure to forge a path for the water to flow through.

These new mechanisms have not been incorporated into the models that we use to project future behaviour of ice sheets in a warming climate, further emphasising that better understanding of the complex hydrological processes beneath the ice surface is vital if we are to prepare for continued, increased melting of the ice sheets in the coming decades.

Information we derive from satellite missions, and the computer simulations of what is and might happen within and below the ice sheets, are hugely important in planning for sea level rise and other environmental and weather changes associated with an evolving climate, to protect people, infrastructure and habitats.

Lead author Dr Jade Bowling, who led this work as part of her PhD at Lancaster University, said:

“When we first saw this, because it was so unexpected, we thought there was an issue with our data. However, as we went deeper into our analysis, it became clear that what we were observing was the aftermath of a huge flood of water escaping from underneath the ice.

“The existence of subglacial lakes beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet is still a relatively recent discovery, and – as our study shows – there is still much we don’t know about how they evolve and how they can impact on the ice sheet system.

“Importantly, our work demonstrates the need to better understand how often they drain, and, critically, what the consequences are for the surrounding ice sheet.”

Professor Mal McMillan, Co-Director of the Centre of Excellence in Environmental Data Science at Lancaster University, and Co-Director of Science at the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, said:

“This research demonstrates the unique value of long-term satellite measurements of Earth’s polar ice sheets, which – due to their vast size – would otherwise be impossible to monitor.

“Satellites represent an essential tool for monitoring the impacts of climate change, and provide critical information to build realistic models of how our planet may change in the future. “This is something that all of us depend upon for building societal resilience and mitigating the impacts of climate change.”

Dr Amber Leeson, Reader in Glaciology at Lancaster University and an expert in ice sheet hydrology said:

“What we have found in this study surprised us in many ways. It has taught us new and unexpected things about the way that ice sheets can respond to extreme inputs of surface meltwater, and emphasised the need to better understand the ice sheet’s complex hydrological system, both now and in the future.

This research, led by Jade Bowling and Malcolm McMillan (Lancaster University) is a collaboration between:

Publication information

The research is detailed in the paper: ‘Outburst of a subglacial flood from the surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet’.

DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01746-9

Funding information

The research was primarily funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the European Space Agency (ESA).

Read more

Read more on the ESA website: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Greenland_subglacial_flood_bursts_through_ice_sheet_surface

Read more on the Lancaster University website: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/huge-hidden-flood-bursts-through-the-greenland-ice-sheet-surface

News Story Image Credit: Image of Greenland (Not the study area) taken from above. Amy Swiggs / CPOM

CPOM contributes to The European State of the Climate 2024 report

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

The European State of the Climate 2024 report, an annual report compiled by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the European Commission, has been released today, showing Europe to be the fastest-warming continent in what was the hottest year on record for Europe.

This year, the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) contributed to the section on Trends in climate indicators.

The polar ice sheets, in Greenland and Antarctica, store a significant proportion of the Earth’s freshwater. When they melt, they contribute this freshwater to the oceans, not only increasing sea levels, but also affecting ocean circulation. Estimates of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets mass balance produced by IMBIE, an international collaboration of polar scientists led by CPOM and supported by the space agencies ESA and NASA, are used in this report’s key climate indicator on Ice Sheets.

Since the 1970s, there has been a recorded ice loss of:

  • Greenland ice sheet: 6776 km3
  • Antarctic ice sheet: 5253 km3

Please see Figure 19.3 on page 89 of the report.

This report also includes an overview of the different components of The cryosphere, including glaciers, sea ice, and ice sheets and how they interact with each other and the Earth’s wider environment, impacting the climate. CPOM is part of C3S (the Copernicus Climate Services) Cryosphere Service, which is led by ENVEO IT GmbH (https://www.enveo.at).

The full report can be found on the Copernicus website.

New UK investment in an early warning system for climate tipping points

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

The UK’s Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) has announced £81m of funding for an ambitious programme of work focused on ‘Forecasting Tipping Points’.

Environmental tipping points occur when warming temperatures lead to changes in the climate system which pass a threshold and become irreversible. Passing these points will lead to changes to sea level, ocean circulation and our weather, something world leaders need to plan for in advance. That’s why it’s vital to monitor for signs we are coming close to and passing these tipping points.

Combining observation and modelling expertise with innovative sensing systems, the programme aims to develop sensing systems for monitoring the Earth’s ice and oceans and place these systems in locations such as the Greenland Ice Sheet and the Subpolar Gyres (ocean circulation systems which sit under an area of constant low atmospheric pressure); both of which have been identified as crucial climate tipping points.

The programme will also look at developing improved models (computer simulations) to produce more robust and accurate predictions of these tipping points and the potential impact on the planet.

The programme is made up of 27 international teams of experts in climate science, maths, computer science, statistics, optics, photonics, and nuclear physics – bringing together this expertise to develop the best possible early warning system for these climate tipping points.

CPOM members are supporting three of these teams:

CryoWatch: Aims to progress the development of affordable, solar-powered, High Altitude Pseudo Satellites (HAPS), to be stationed in the stratosphere for persistent monitoring of polar regions. Led by Steve Tate (Voltitude), the team includes CPOM Co-Director of Science, Professor Mal McMillan.

OptimISM: A Next-Generation Framework for Ice Sheet Modelling. Led by Trystan Surawy-Stepney (University of Leeds), the team includes CPOM Principal Investigator: Land Ice Modelling, Dr Steph Cornford (University of Bristol).

PROMOTE: Progressing Earth System Modelling for Tipping Point Early Warning Systems. Led by Reinhard Schiemann (University of Reading and National Centre for Atmospheric Science), the team includes CPOM Principal Investigator: Land Ice Modelling, Dr Steph Cornford (University of Bristol).

To read more about these innovative projects visit ARIA’s website: https://www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-spaces/scoping-our-planet/forecasting-tipping-points/

Observing and modelling the Greenland ice sheet with CPOM

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Greenland is a fascinating and beautiful country, with a population of more than 50,000 people. It has long been a key area of focus for polar scientists, due to the importance of observing and modelling of changes to the Greenland ice sheet. This huge expanse of ice, the second largest land ice mass in the world, is more than 2000km in length, 1000km wide and at its thickest point is over 3km thick.

And this ice sheet is melting.

Melting ice sheets directly contribute water to the oceans, leading to sea level rise. This influx of cooler water also affects the ocean circulation, with implications for global weather patterns. Accurately tracking melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is essential to ensure people all over the world can prepare for the effects of climate change.

As ice sheets are so huge they are incredibly difficult to fully measure in person. Satellite measurements are the only ways we can accurately measure these vast areas.

CPOM has provided assessments of the amount of ice stored in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets since 2018, via the IMBIE Project (Ice Sheet Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise) which uses three decades of satellite data to assess the ice sheets. You can read their most recent report in Earth System Science Data from 2023, which estimates ice losses from these regions since 1992.

Another recent study from December 2024, led by CPOM PhD Researcher, Nitin Ravinder, and published in Geophysical Research Letters, showed that the Greenland ice sheet lost 2347 km3 of ice during the period since 2010 – which has contributed roughly ‘the amount of water stored in Africa’s Lake Victoria’ to the Earth’s oceans. Here’s an animation from Planetary Visions based on this study showing these changes in the Greenland ice sheet.

As sea level rise will affect many millions of people around the world, as well as the numerous at-risk species in coastal habitats, it’s vital that Governments and international bodies are able to plan for this rise. Computer modelling (simulations) is the only way we can accurately predict how the ice sheets might behave in the future.

CPOM provides UK National Capability research in ice sheet modelling, developing the BISICLES model.

BISICLES is a numerical model (simulation) that works with high resolution simulations around the margins of ice sheets (the grounding line), where interactions between the ice sheet and the ocean and atmosphere are the most complex. This is particularly useful when looking at the Greenland ice sheet.

Scientists from CPOM recently worked on combining this system as the ice sheet component within the UKESM (The UK Earth System Model), allowing us to better explore and understand the interactions between the ice sheets and the global ocean and atmospheric circulations (and providing evidence for IPCC reporting).

BISICLES has also been integrated into large international projects such as ISMIP (Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project) to help project future changes to global sea levels, something that is particularly difficult to predict beyond the end of the century with one model alone.

The behaviour of the Greenland ice sheet is particularly difficult to predict, as over recent years we have seen points where melting has been more rapid than anticipated, but also points where it has been less than expected. We need to continually hone and improve computer simulations (or models) that can accurately predict how these ice sheets might behave in a rapidly warming planet to account for the complexity of the interactions between the ice sheets and the atmosphere in these regions.

Understanding this part of the world is vital for understanding how we might protect the rest of the Earth in the years to come. By combining expertise in land ice Earth observation with modelling simulations, like BISICLES, CPOM is continuing to increase the accuracy of future projections of sea level rise and weather changes, leading from the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

Image credit: Professor Andrew Shepherd

ESA and NASA satellites deliver first joint picture of Greenland Ice Sheet melting

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Story published by The European Space Agency

Global warming is driving the rapid melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, contributing to global sea level rise and disrupting weather patterns worldwide. Because of this, precise measurements of its changing shape are of critical importance for adapting to climate change.

Now, scientists from the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling have delivered the first measurements of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s changing shape using data from ESA’s CryoSat and NASA’s ICESat-2 ice missions.

Although both satellites carry altimeters as their primary sensor, they make use of different technologies to collect their measurements. CryoSat uses a radar system to determine Earth’s surface height, while ICESat-2 uses a laser system for the same task.

Although radar signals can pass through clouds, they also penetrate the ice sheet surface and have to be adjusted to compensate for this effect. Laser signals, on the other hand, reflect from the actual surface but cannot record when clouds are present. The missions are therefore highly complementary, and combining their measurements has been a holy grail for polar science.

A new study from scientists at the CPOM and published today in Geophysical Research Letters, shows that CryoSat and ICESat-2 measurements of Greenland Ice Sheet elevation change agree to within 3% of the changes taking place.

This confirms that both satellites can be combined to produce a more reliable estimate of ice loss than either could achieve alone. It also means that if one mission were to fail, the other could be relied upon to maintain our record of polar ice change.

Between 2010 and 2023, the Greenland Ice Sheet thinned by 1.2 m on average. However, much larger changes occurred across the ice sheet’s ablation zone where summer melting exceeds winter snowfall; there, the average thinning amounted to 6.4 m.

Image credit: Professor Andrew Shepherd (Northumbria University)

The most extreme thinning occurred at the ice sheets outlet glaciers. At Sermeq Kujalleq in west central Greenland (also known as Jakobshavn Isbræ), the peak thinning was 67 m, and Zachariae Isstrøm in the northeast the peak thinning was 75 m.

Altogether, the ice sheet shrank by 2347 cubic kilometres across the 13-year survey period – similar to the amount of water stored in Africa’s Lake Victoria. The biggest changes occurred in 2012 and 2019, when the ice sheet shrank by more than 400 cubic kilometres because of extreme melting in those years.

Greenland’s ice melting also has profound effects on global ocean circulation and weather patterns. These changes have far-reaching impacts on ecosystems and communities worldwide. The availability of accurate, up-to-date data on ice sheet changes will be critical in helping us to prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

“We are very excited to have discovered that CryoSat and ICESat-2 are in such close agreement,” says lead author and CPOM researcher Nitin Ravinder. “Their complementary nature provides a strong motivation to combine the data sets to produce improved estimates of ice sheet volume and mass changes. As ice sheet mass loss is a key contributor to global sea level rise, this is incredibly useful for the scientific community and policymakers.”

The study made use of four years of measurements from both missions, including those collected during the Cryo2ice campaign, a pioneering ESA-NASA partnership initiated in 2020. By adjusting CryoSat’s orbit to synchronise with ICESat-2, ESA enabled the near-simultaneous collection of radar and laser data over the same regions.

This alignment allows scientists to measure snow depth from space, offering unprecedented accuracy in tracking sea and land ice thickness.

Credit: ESA

Tommaso Parrinello, CryoSat Mission Manager at ESA, expressed optimism about the campaign’s impact: “CryoSat has provided an invaluable platform for understanding our planet’s ice coverage over the past 14 years, but by aligning our data with ICESat-2, we’ve opened new avenues for precision and insight.

CryoSat Image Credit: European Space Agency

“This collaboration represents an exciting step forward, not just in terms of technology but in how we can better serve scientists and policymakers who rely on our data to understand and mitigate climate impacts.”

“It is great to see that the data from ‘sister missions’ are providing a consistent picture of the changes going on in Greenland,” says Thorsten Markus, project scientist for the ICESat-2 mission at NASA.

“Understanding the similarities and differences between radar and lidar ice sheet height measurements allow us to fully exploit the complementary nature of those satellite missions. Studies like this are critical to put a comprehensive time series of the ICESat, CryoSat-2, ICESat-2, and, in the future, CRISTAL missions together.”

ESA’s CryoSat continues to be instrumental in our understanding of climate related changes in polar ice, working alongside NASA’s ICESat-2 to provide robust, accurate data on ice sheet changes. Together, these missions represent a significant step forward in monitoring polar ice loss and preparing for its global consequences.

For more information, contact the lead author: Nitin Ravinder (n.ravinder@northumbria.ac.uk)

Recent research using ISMIP6 Model Ensemble

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

Ice sheet models (scientific simulations which aim to predict future behaviour of ice sheets) often disagree on the timing and magnitude of sea level rise up until 2300. For example, projections of Antarctica’s contribution to sea level rise beyond 2100 remain highly uncertain due to processes such as Ice Sheet and Ice Cliff instability which could cause Antarctic melting to contribute more rapidly to sea level rise.

The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) is an international effort using different climate models to better understand how the Earth’s climate system responds to various factors. ISMIP6 (Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project for CMIP6), co-led by CPOM, is the part of CMIP6 project that examines the ice sheets, aiming to improve predictions of their future contribution to sea level rise, which is critical to assess the impact of melting ice on sea level rise, oceans currents, and weather patterns. By pulling together a range of different models, ISMIP6 supports the scientific community by producing more accurate, robust, multi-century projections of sea level rise and quantifying their associated uncertainties.

The most recent report using the ISMIP6 Model ensemble was released on Wednesday 4 September) in the AGU Earth’s Future journal. The new study (Seroussi et al). investigates the behaviour of the Antarctic Ice Sheet until 2300 using an ensemble of 16 ice-flow models and forcing from global climate models. This is the first multi-century, multi-model projections of the Antarctic Ice Sheet evolution and shows that ice flow models are relatively consistent in predicting a limited Antarctic sea-level rise up until 2100. However, beyond the end of this century, Antarctica’s ice losses increase rapidly thereafter with the choice of ice flow model and different potential influential factors such as carbon emissions (known as climate forcing scenarios) becoming sources of uncertainty.

This model ensemble shows that, under high carbon emission scenarios, some simulations show high levels of ice retreat after 2100 with potential sea level rise of up to 1.7m in 2200 and 4.4 m by 2300. In particular, key regions in West Antarctica, including the Bungenstock Ice Rise, the Siple Coast and the Amundsen Sea sector are predicted to undergo rapid retreat. Results saw strong variations between models on the onset of retreat but good agreement on the pattern of retreat.

In addition to the choice of ice sheet model, this study also highlights the importance of the emission scenario, as ice losses under both low and high emissions remain similar during the 21st century, the two scenarios produce significantly varied results post 2100. This highlights the importance of reducing emissions for the future stability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet as well as the importance of further work on developing and improving accurate and robust models of ice shelf retreat and potential collapse beyond 2100 so that policy makers and scientists can make decisions today which will protect the future of Antarctica beyond tomorrow.

Find out more about the 6th phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6)

New £8.4M investment continues support for long-term polar science, co-led by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM)

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

£8.4M has been awarded to the British Antarctic Survey and the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling to deliver the next 5 years of their long-term polar science activities. The UK Polar Research Expertise for Science and Society (PRESCIENT) programme provides UK national capability (science, such as ongoing datasets and models, which underpins wider scientific research) to understand the impacts of environmental stressors, such as rising global temperatures on polar marine ecosystems. PRESCIENT will also measure and predict polar ice sheet contributions to global sea level rise and extend and improve measurements of changes to polar sea ice.

Announced today the funding is part of £101 million investment by the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, in the UK’s network of leading environmental science research centres to support large-scale environmental observations, modelling and analysis, and research capabilities through innovations in platforms, sensors and data science. These data are crucial for managing natural resources, biodiversity, human health and building our understanding of and resilience to environmental hazards and climate change. It underpins science across the UK’s environmental research sector and supports critical scientific advice to government.

PRESCIENT will also aid the BAS transition to low carbon science delivery, by progressing delivery of airborne science using remotely piloted autonomous systems (RPAS), while delivering independent scientific advice and support to a range of stakeholders in government, business, and wider society, ensuring that our scientific activities and expertise is available to support solutions.

National capability is research funding which, unlike shorter term projects, can span decades and provides ongoing support for large-scale, complex scientific projects of national significance, informing strategic needs and decision-making of the country. Using techniques such as satellite altimetry to study ice motion and the polar oceans, CPOM incorporate the results into models used across the polar research community. CPOM’s data sets and models have been developed and maintained for almost a quarter of a century, and the long-term maintenance of this capability helps provide robust understanding and insights of the cryosphere.

CPOM also contribute to a range of interdisciplinary multi-centre National Capability research projects including CANARI, BIOPOLE, and TerraFIRMA, which have been running since 2022, offering satellite derived estimates of aspects of the cryosphere (such as ice thickness, floe size and sea height), as well as developing advanced simulations. The longevity of our datasets, and the accuracy of our models mean we have a broader view of past and possible future changes. By contributing to projects such as the previous multi-centre National Capability project UKESM (UK Earth System Model), integrating ice sheet model and advanced sea ice physics into the system, we can produce robust projections of ice sheet instability and Arctic sea ice loss, thereby informing sea level rise predictions. Our PRESCIENT programme with BAS continues this work into 2029.

This funding has been awarded from NERC’s National Capability Single Centre Science initiative, one of the UK’s largest environmental science investment programmes.

Read more on the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) website.

European satellite ERS-2 returns to earth after almost 30 years

Posted on by Nicola Bortun

(First published: 22 Feb 2024)

This week we watched along with many across the globe, as pioneer European satellite ERS-2 finally made its journey back to earth after almost 30 years monitoring earth from the sky.

For many current and former CPOM scientists, this was an emotional moment, as the data from this satellite has made (and continues to make) an integral contribution to understanding the cryosphere. In fact, CPOM Director Professor Andrew Shepherd used ERS-2 data for his first paper 23 years ago ‘Inland Thinning of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica’ which used satellite altimetry and interferometry to show that the glacier ‘had thinned by up to 1.6 meters per year between 1992 and 1999’.

Part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) earth observation programme, the revolutionary satellite was launched in April 1995 into a sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of around 800 km, and was one of the most powerful and sophisticated satellites of its time.

Due to its three-axis stabilization it was able to point directly towards our planet and could observe most areas of the earth, using SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) to view land surfaces, polar ice and oceans, measuring ocean-surface temperature, sea winds and sea level changes via Radar Altimetry. On top of this it could also monitor ozone levels.

The data this satellite collected has been crucial in monitoring land surface changes, warming oceans, natural disasters, and importantly for the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling – monitoring diminishing polar ice and sea-level rise. ERS-2 (and it’s twin ERS-1 launched a few years prior) paved the way for other programmes including the EU Space program’s Copernicus Sentinels and ESA’s CryoSat Earth Explore Mission, both of which continue to provide vital data for CPOM’s research. In fact, we are using ERS-2 data to extend our datasets further back in time, in order to create a fuller view of the evolution of the cryosphere over the last 30 years.

It was retired in 2011 and has been de-orbiting since then. Now it’s 16-year journey home is complete, broken and burned up in the atmosphere with the remaining parts landing safely in the ocean yesterday but even though the physical entity is gone, the data it produced, having been used for thousands of scientific papers, continues to provide information for scientists at ESA, CPOM and beyond.

Image credit: ESA-SJM Photography esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/02/Saying_goodbye_to_ERS-2