British Antarctic Survey | Mallemaroking
Mark Brandon • November 28, 2016
RRS James Clark Ross is on route to Rothera, the largest British Antarctic Survey research Station. In the next few hours to get to the base she will have to pass what looks like a continuous sea ice band about 15 km wide, before she enters some looser pack. To get their she will have to do some icebreaking. The band of ice has been stationary for over a week.
If you want to follow the action the ship has a webcam, or you can check the Radio Office Mike Gloistein’s update page. The web cam is as I write this but I’m sure it will be switched on soon.
The MODIS satellite image off Adelaide Island 25 Nov 2016, with the location of the RRS James Clark Ross 0000 28 November 2016.
The satellite image is from 25 November 2016, but the sea ice doesn’t look like it has changed significantly since then. I chose that date simply because it is relatively cloud free.
The ship has about 130 km to run so could dock later today – but it could be tomorrow given the sea ice. The path I have shown in red looks quite a long way south of the Island – but close in it gets quite shallow. If your interested in your polar history the ship RRS John Biscoe was actually abandoned in this region for a while before being rescued by the German ship Polarstern.
This is as The Antarctic Report points out, quite early for the ship to reach the base.
Sea ice girds Adelaide Island; earliest RRS James Clark Ross has attempted to reach Rothera Station in 15 years @BAS_News @NERCscience https://t.co/mH1Y82hmua
— The Antarctic Report (@AntarcticReport) November 28, 2016
The track of the ship is online along with the weather conditions it is experiencing. At at about 0°C it is currently warmer than a lot of the UK.
Dr Helen Jones is the doctor on the James Clark Ross and she is writing a blog Baby it’s cold down here.
–UPDATE 1050z —
You can see James Clark Ross is now in the ice and heading for the band of relatively open water at the southern tip of Adelaide Island.
This is an image from the webcam.
A great day for #Antarctic ship navigation. Low clouds to lead the way https://t.co/Jmf3gLD404 water sky -> https://t.co/UJLBScTv2d pic.twitter.com/9lXDDWUW0V
— Mark Brandon (@icey_mark) November 28, 2016
I wrote about what a water sky is a while ago.
–UPDATE 0650z 29 November —
It was too early and the RRS James Clark Ross didn’t make Rothera.
To quote the radio officer Mike Gloistein:
The sea-ice around the bottom of Adelaide Island has been heavy and whilst (for those of you who look at the satellite pictures) there are some leads and areas of open water, they are close to land and if we took that route (which also includes shallow water and rocks) and the weather then pushed the ice inland, the ship could easily become stuck between a rock and a hard place.
And get stuck just like the John Biscoe…
Posted in Science. Tags: antarctica, British Antarctic Survey, James Clark Ross, Rothera, sea ice on November 28, 2016 by Mark Brandon. Mark Brandon • January 19, 2016
This just on twitter from the UK Ministry of Defence about the recent magnificent voyage of HMS Protector.
The Tweet posted by MOD on 18th Jan 2016
On the web page in the link it says
By visiting this region Protector achieved a latitude of 77 Degrees 56 Minutes South – the very edge of the vast Ross Ice Shelf, named for James Clark Ross who led the exploration of the area.
No official British ship has been this far south since 1936 and it is believed not since James Clark Ross’s own expedition in 1842.
I don’t think this is true. The British Antarctic Survey Ship RRS Bransfield reached likely a little further south. According to this note from the Second Officer Chris Elliot which is published on the website The LOFTSMAN which is about the shipyards of Leith.
Furthest South of the RRS Bransield was 77 56′ 44”
RRS Bransfield reached 77°56′ 44″S.
So 44 seconds further south than HMS Protector.
Which is what? 1.3 km?
I know it’s not much further south and Protector likely matched it (they don’t give their decimal). I just wanted to make the point that it is close. Very close.
The second officer in the note – Chris Elliot went on to become the Captain of the RRS John Biscoe, and then he was a member of the team that built the RRS James Clark Ross for many years, before becoming one of the Captains of that great ship.
UPDATE See comment below by Radio Officer of the RRS James Clark Ross Mike Gloistein.
Posted in History, Science. Tags: Antarctic, British Antarctic Survey, HMS Protector, James Clark Ross, trivial on January 19, 2016 by Mark Brandon. Mark Brandon • January 31, 2014
In the previous post I made a plot of Antarctica and compared it to the size of Europe. I made the throwaway point that it was unreasonable to imagine Antarctica as being characterized with one climatic zone. It is not all the “coldest and windiest place” on Earth.
I thought a simple example would show what I mean:
I got the mean monthly temperatures at two Antarctic Stations from the NOAA NCDC GCPS MONTHLY STATION data available from IRI/LDEO Climate Data Library.
I chose Adelaide Island and Vostok, and picked monthly data from December 1964 to December 1966.
The mean monthly temperature at Adelaide Island and Vostok station
Adelaide island is on the coast and it astonishingly beautiful. The data I used were collected at the British Antarctic Survey BASE T.
In contrast Vostok station is quite literally an icy waste in the middle of nowhere (* but see below).
This plot shows their relative locations in relation to the South Pole.
The locations of Adelaide Island, Vostok, and South Pole
You can see that at Adelaide Island – which is at sea level and coastal – the seasonal cycle is relatively narrow and only about 11°C. Temperatures are above 0°C in the summer.
At Vostok – which is on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and at an altitude of about 3700m – the seasonal cycle is vast. In the Antarctic summer the temperatures are about -30°C, whereas in winter the temperatures fall and it is scarily cold (monthly mean -71.4°C in August 1966!).
If you want to know why Adelaide Island has a relatively small seasonal cycle, whereas Vostok seems to have a squashed “U” shape temperature cycle, then you have to understand something about the basic meteorology of the Antarctic Regions. (As an aside then you would understand why this happens in winter).
In a later post I may say something about how the climate is changing across Antarctica over the last 50-60 years. The spoiler on that is at on the Antarctic Peninsula it has changed a lot – in the range “4-5°C”,and the changes are impacting the ocean system, whereas at Vostok it has not.
* – of course Vostok isn’t really in the middle of “nowhere”. It is over the vast and hugely significant under ice Lake Vostok, and is the location of the first great Antarctic ice core – the Vostok Ice Core.
Posted in Science. Tags: antarctica, British Antarctic Survey, temperature, Vostok on January 31, 2014 by Mark Brandon. Mark Brandon • October 2, 2013
This is a storify of a discussion meeting at the Royal Society.
http://storify.com/icey_mark/professor-david-vaughan-at-the-royal-society
Posted in Science, Storify, twitter. Tags: Antarctic, Arctic, British Antarctic Survey, sea level on October 2, 2013 by Mark Brandon. Mark Brandon • December 21, 2012
On twitter this pm is a not unexpected, but rather interesting looking opportunity for those who are confident about their leadership abilities.
[news] NERC seeks new Director for BAS: NERC is looking for a new BAS director; full details are available on th… http://t.co/eCHWDIsv
— British Antarctic Survey 🐧 (@BAS_News) December 21, 2012
Follow a couple of links and you end up at a dedicated website called http://www.basdirector.co.uk/index.html
It does have a nice header: 
I know what you are thinking, £95k sounds pretty good, but what would you have to do for it?
…continue reading →
Posted in Science. Tags: BAS, British Antarctic Survey, Dream job, Natural Environment Research Council, NERC, polar on December 21, 2012 by Mark Brandon. icey_mark • December 7, 2012
[This is a post bringing together things I have done elsewhere whilst learning how to use this platform.]
I am a huge fan of the Natural Environment Research Council, and used to work for the British Antarctic Survey. It is a fact that in the UK at the moment the community has some very tough funding decisions to make.
NERC decided to investigate saving money through a possible merger of the National Oceanography Centre and BAS. It is fair to say that this was not so well recieved.
The story in the Observer
…continue reading →
Posted in Science, Storify, twitter. Tags: Antarctic, BAS, British Antarctic Survey, National Oceanography Centre, NERC, NOC, polar, policy on December 7, 2012 by icey_mark.