Mark Brandon • February 4, 2014 In a previous post I showed the temperature cycle on the Antarctic Peninsula, and pointed out that the monthly mean atmospheric temperatures show that it is actually surprisingly moderate. Whether you consider the temperature cycle moderate or not, the cold temperatures and strong winds drive an amazing amount of […]
Just over a year ago in July 2017 iceberg A68 calved from the Larsen C Ice Shelf. I appeared on BBC News before it actually calved explaining what was happening. At first A68 was slow to move and as I predicted back then, it likely got stuck on the sea bed (we say “grounded”). It has […]
Mark Brandon • February 25, 2015 Last week I enjoyed an Inaugural lecture by Professor Martin Siegert of Imperial College. Inaugural Lectures are a big deal: Imperial’s Inaugural Lecture series provides a platform to showcase and celebrate the College’s new professors. The inaugural lecture provides official recognition and celebration of the academic’s promotion to professor. […]
Mark Brandon • August 23, 2018 A story on the BBC Business News website about the Northern Sea Route caught my eye: BBC Business News “Container ship to break the ice on Russian Arctic route”. 21 August 2018. The Danish ship Venta Maersk, (Maersk Line, ice-class Baltic feeder vessel of 3,600 containers) is going to attempt to […]
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 […]
Project MIDAS publicised on Friday that a huge iceberg is going to calve from the Larsen C Ice Shelf. This was written up a a great story on the BBC news website Huge Antarctic iceberg poised to break away. I understand a little about this stuff so got drawn into the media around it. Here is […]
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 […]
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 🐧 […]
Mark Brandon • April 25, 2013 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 […]
Mark Brandon • June 23, 2015 The MODIS sensor satellite imagery is showing a beautiful and evolving large plankton bloom in the Chukchi Sea at the moment. Plankton bloom in the Chukchi Sea, as seen in the MODIS sensor on 23 June 2015. Alaska is on the LEFT and Russia the RIGHT. The image is […]
Mark Brandon • February 25, 2015 Last week I enjoyed an Inaugural lecture by Professor Martin Siegert of Imperial College. Inaugural Lectures are a big deal: Imperial’s Inaugural Lecture series provides a platform to showcase and celebrate the College’s new professors. The inaugural lecture provides official recognition and celebration of the academic’s promotion to professor. […]
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 […]
Mark Brandon • February 14, 2017 Watching the sea ice extent this summer in Antarctica has been a bit surprising. The Antarctic sea ice extent has been tracking at record lows virtually the whole austral summer. We are very close now to the expected sea ice minimum, and this is where we are: Antarctic sea […]
Mark Brandon • November 29, 2016 The sea Ice is too heavy for the RRS James Clark Ross to make Rothera base right now. You may have thought the sea ice on the satellite images didn’t look too bad, but it’s all about how thick the sea ice is, and where the open water is. To […]
