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 from the land to reveal the […]
The sea ice in the Antarctic is at minimum extent in February and expands through to mid September. This movie shows the Antarctic sea ice extent from 1 Feb to 25 July 2017. The data come from the DMSP SMMI sensor, and it shows the expansion of the sea ice as winter progresses. For me […]
Sea ice continues to be very low in the Arctic this winter. A geographical perspective always helps so here is the status of the sea ice concentration 18 January 2017 compared with the 1989-1993 mean on the 18 January. RED shades = less sea ice than the 1989-93 mean on 18 January. BLUE shades = more sea ice than […]
Greenland’s ice sheet suffered major melting in July 2019, dumping billions of tons of meltwater into the Atlantic Ocena. Jennifer Latuperisa-Andresen/Unsplash, CC BY-SA Mark Brandon, The Open University The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – the UN body responsible for communicating the science of climate breakdown – has released its long-awaited Special Report on […]
On 25th April 2019, the Arctic sea ice extent was 1.2 million km² below the 1981-2010 mean. Sea ice in the Arctic currently ~1.2 million km² below the 1981-2010 mean. 25 April 2019. If we compare the sea ice extent today, with the mean sea ice extent for the period 1989-93, the red colours show […]
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 […]
This is the the full years data to 21 November for the anomalies of the sea ice extent in 2016. See my blog post Antarctic sea ice 2016: Historic lows for full context. The plot shows the difference between the daily ice extent, in each grid cell, for the year to 21 November 2016, and the […]
I love watching the opening of a polynya in satellite data. This is North Water at the NW tip of Greenland expanding over 6 days. You can see the wind is to the SW and it is both pushing the mobile sea ice away from the fast ice of Nares Strait (the strait is named for […]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has made more than a third of a million images both public domain and searchable online. This is one of my current favourites: An Arctic Summer: Boring Through the Pack in Melville Bay by William Bradford and painted in 1871. An Arctic Summer: Boring Through the Pack in Melville Bay […]
I was interviewed by two great people last week, Dave Powell and Ollie Hayes for the sustainababble podcast: Advert for the Sustainababble Arctic podcast You can find the podcast over at the Sustainababble site or using the player below.
A recent interaction with a scientist left me both bemused, and if I am honest a little bruised. He described twitter as “that rather infantile social network system.” Co-incidently Peter Gibbs, an ex-Antarctican, BBC broadcaster and weather forecaster asked me about media work as a scientist – but given my recent interactions I flunked the […]
A recent interaction with a scientist left me both bemused, and if I am honest a little bruised. He described twitter as “that rather infantile social network system.” Co-incidently Peter Gibbs, an ex-Antarctican, BBC broadcaster and weather forecaster asked me about media work as a scientist – but given my recent interactions I flunked the […]
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 winter pack ice. These are likely latent […]
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 […]