Source: The Conversation – UK
Scientists could ski in the mountains to have a break from research but that’s no longer possible during the Antarctic summers for safety reasons because the ice is melting so quickly. Katherine Hendry, CC BY-NC-ND When you think of Antarctica, you might imagine a stark, other-worldly continent of endless, white ice.
The only sound being the wind, punctuated by the crack of a glacier calving in the distance. This image may have been true more than 30 years ago but is certainly not the case anymore. In January, I met online with colleagues who are working on a science project at the UK’s Rothera research station.
Rothera is on the West Antarctic peninsula, one of the many front lines of climate change. It had been raining. Again. I carried out my PhD research at Rothera, spending three southern hemisphere summers there from 2004-06, and I don’t remember it ever raining properly while I was there.
Certainly not for days on end. Now it’s becoming a regular occurrence. Over the past few years, Antarctica has been experiencing more extreme warm weather, often triggered by “atmospheric rivers” of warm air from nearer the equator.
These extreme environmental events are associated with anomalies in precipitation (rainfall and snow) as well as melting at the surface of the ice sheet and floating ice shelves. These changes have knock-on effects for marine ecosystems, from shifting the timing and nature of algal blooms that support food webs to the disruption of breeding cycles of zooplankton, seabirds and marine mammals.
Katharine Hendry carried out her PhD research at Rothera research station on the West Antarctic peninsula. K Hendry, CC BY-NC-ND Extreme events can be short and sharp, or – more concerningly – could result in persistent or irreversible changes to a system that is already under stress.
Those distant glaciers that calved, booming into the sea could retreat so far that they form rivers, fundamentally and irreversibly changing the interaction between ice and ocean. And they are now breaking records: in March 2022, the French-Italian station at Concordia, near the South Pole, recorded temperatures of -11.5°C; cold, yes, but almost 40°C warmer than expected.
Read more: Rain is coming to Antarctica – here’s how it will change the frozen continent There’s a greater need than ever to understand how climate change in Antarctica will have global consequences. We urgently need more data with better coverage in order to make more robust predictions of sea-level rise and risks to natural resources, which will impact societies globally.
On the plus side, there are ongoing international efforts to bring together polar scientists over the next few years to decide how best to work together to help protect Antarctica. However, as a new paper published by my colleagues and I in Nature Communications Earth & Environment discusses, the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather makes Antarctic research more important but also more challenging.
As part of her training, Hendry learnt to abseil into secure crevasses. That’s no longer possible for safety reasons. K Hendry, CC BY-NC-ND The impact of extreme environmental events in Antarctica is leading to severe consequences for those who are trying to carry out and support the scientific studies we need.
It’s only going to get harder to transport people and equipment to Antarctica, as warming and surface melt cause airstrips to collapse or subside, and shifting ice dynamics will play havoc with shipping routes.
Research stations will also increasingly suffer from subsidence, putting both peoples lives and laboratories at risk. Remote stations and camps out on the ice sheet will be challenging and potentially dangerous to access, because rainfall and melting ice will get harder to predict.
Access issues will affect the health and safety of Antarctic scientists, as medical evacuations will take longer. Extreme weather will add pressure to the wellbeing and mental health of scientists and support staff. Looking to the future Where will this leave us in the scientific research community?
One fortunate and timely aspect is that emerging technologies will be able to support research into the future. We have new autonomous systems such as gliders, floats and submarines that operate underwater, plus uncrewed aerial vehicles and drones on the surface of the ocean and in the air.
Ice is melting quickly in the West Antarctic and making research more dangerous. K Hendry, CC BY-NC-ND These robots are not only safer in uncertain and changing conditions but also lower carbon, because they are light and can run on batteries.
They can provide us with the measurements and samples needed for us to address key scientific questions ahead of us. We are also experiencing a revolution in how we combine together our observations, large-scale information from satellites, and models.
Near real-time models of the ocean, called digital twins, allow us to upscale observations to the global scale as well as support more efficient field observations. Antarctica remains a fundamental component of Earth’s system.
Scientists need to work together internationally to unlock its secrets to understand how and when it will change in the future.
Katharine Hendry receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society, is a deputy science leader at the British Antarctic Survey, and is a Bye-Fellow at Queens’ College, Cambridge.
Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/06/02/extreme-weather-is-making-antarctic-research-harder-but-new-technology-is-providing-some-answers-new-study/