Gateway Antarctica

We were flown down to the ice in a USAF ski modified Hercules aircraft (LC130), or ski-herc for short. The flight time was about 9 hours, and an hour and a half before landing we began passing over the Transantarctic Mountains!   After landing, we were driven to Scott Base and given an orientation tour, dinner, and a warm bed. The...

Emperor penguins depend on sea ice for their survival. Arek Aspinwall describes the impact of global warming on this sensitive Antarctic habitat.

The Postgraduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies (PCAS) is an internationally unique programme jointly developed by the University of Canterbury and Antarctica New Zealand. PCAS is a 14-week, in‐depth, multi‐disciplinary programme of study that critically examines contemporary scientific, environmental, social and political debates focused on Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. Every year, PCAS attracts graduate students from a diverse...

The Southern Ocean south of the Antarctic Polar Front is managed by an international agreement analogous to the Antarctic Treaty, the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).  This area accounts for 10% of the world’s oceans and includes some of the most pristine marine habitats on Earth. CCAMLR allows fishing but aims to balance conservation with rational...

Public science communication is fundamental to science today. I believe that as scientists we have a duty to communicate our research to the public. Mainly because the public must be able to understand the basics of science to make informed decisions – perhaps the most vivid example of the negative consequences of insufficient communication by scientists and/or the mistrust...

Christchurch is justifiably proud of its strong relationship to the southernmost continent, and punches above its weight in communicating research about Antarctic history to the public, says Dr Ursula Rack. UC polar historian Dr Rack travelled to Washington DC, Columbus in Ohio (USA), Bremerhaven (Germany), Cambridge and London (UK), all cities with strong connections to the Antarctic, thanks to a...

Geospatial technician, Paul Bealing, has spent countless hours constructing, calibrating, testing and fine tuning these customised drones in preparation for an epic trip to Antarctic waters. Paul will be joining Dr Wolfgang Rack as they participate in a fully funded, multinational voyage departing from South Africa in December in hopes of finding the Endurance, Ernest Shackleton’s legendary ship, crushed...

Melting mountain glaciers all around our world are poster children for present-day climate change. But how do climate scientists monitor glaciers ? By doing fieldwork! They go up there after winter to measure how much snow was falling onto the glacier surface (aka accumulation, a positive number), and return after summer to measure how much ice was melting (aka ablation, a negative...

Since the early days of polar exploration, public outreach has been an important duty of the few ones who could report from the icy world. Logbooks from whalers, diaries from individual expedition members and even their published work sold like hot cakes. Visitors of the polar regions thereby used the latest technology that was available to them to best describe...