The summer of 2016 saw the joint second lowest Arctic sea ice extent. But in the middle of October unusual Arctic weather has led to it becoming the lowest extent. At the same time, Antarctic sea ice extent has also reached record lows. Tamino has a simple and clear post about what a surprising thing […]
Mark Brandon • January 28, 2015 The South West Atlantic is a very productive part of the global ocean. This MODIS image from the Terra satellite shows the east coast of Argentina and the Falkland Islands. The ocean between is filled with swirls of lighter colour which are a plankton bloom along the continental shelf […]
[This is a post bringing together things I have done elsewhere whilst learning how to use this platform.] Back in July 2012 the global news media went very big on a story on the Melting of Greenland. The original BBC Greenland Melting story I got involved in a discussion on twitter about it, with lots […]
With three of my Open University colleagues: Dr Phil Sexton, Dr Pallavi Anand, and Dr Mandy Dyson, I have been working in the background on a new landmark TV series called Blue Planet 2. This incredible series has been made by the BBC Natural History Unit with the Open University as co-producers. It has seven […]
British Pathé News was a British institution that produced news reels and documentaries from 1910 to 1970. Their website is full of news clips of polar interest such as Shackleton’s death in 1922. But here is something wonderful and obscure. Gambling with the Gulf Stream made in 1936! © British Pathe screengrab from online preview. […]
Mark Brandon • October 11, 2016 The Amundsen Sea currently has some very large polynya. In front of the Dotson, Getz and Pine Island ice shelves they are clear in the satellite data. The sea ice extent along the Antarctic Peninsula 9 October 2016. Data from DMSP SSMI. A polynya is an area of open water in the […]
Mark Brandon • January 19, 2015 Captain Robert Falcon Scott “England knows Scott as a hero; she has little idea of him as a man. He was certainly the most dominating character in our not uninteresting community: indeed, there is no doubt that he would carry weight in any gathering of human beings. But few […]
Mark Brandon • December 8, 2016 I was asked “what is an easy way to get a satellite image into Google Earth?”. Once I explained how I do it I thought it may be of interest to others. NASA have provided a really excellent web interface to some of their visual data called Worldview. The […]
In March 2013 I was delighted to be asked to give a talk at TEDx Southampton. This is what I talked about: What the poles are telling us about our world https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SJNqBe2mUo It was brilliant to be asked to speak, and really enjoyed the fantastically well organized day. Many thanks to the hardworking large team […]
Mark Brandon • October 26, 2017 As daylight has returned to Antarctica it is straightforward to pick out polynya forming on the edge of the Antarctic continent. This one by the Stange Ice Shelf and Rydberg Peninsula caught my eye. It is a latent heat polynya formed as the winds push the sea ice away […]
The time sequence from the EllsworthLIVE site It is a fantastic time to be interested in polar science. Right now at Lake Ellsworth in Antarctica a team of British scientists and engineers are drilling through 3 km of ice to reach the Lake Windermere sized Lake Ellsworth. This picture was posted on their www site […]
Mark Brandon • February 17, 2017 I noticed yesterday that a polynya had formed in front of the Ronne Ice Shelf over the last 2 weeks. Screengrab from NASA Worldview 17 February 2017 In that image it is about 27,000 km2 in area. I mapped the opening of the polynya from MODIS imagery over the last two […]
Trying to understand the geographic nature of the very low Antarctic sea ice extent I made the following animation: Antarctic sea ice extent on 1 March for the years 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 and 2017. Data from DMSP SMMI. The highlight issues in the graphic are the clear lack of sea ice in […]
The sea ice in the Arctic is at maximum extent in February and retreats through to mid September. This movie shows the Arctic sea ice extent from 1 Feb to 25 July 2017. The data come from the DMSP SMMI sensor, and it shows the retreat of the sea ice as summer progresses. You can […]