Accessing the Data Science Virtual Machine Once the virtual machine is set up and started (by clicking “start” on the appropriate VM in the Azure portal) there are several ways to interface with it. The first is via the terminal (I am running Ubuntu 16.04 on both my local machine and the virtual machine). To … Continue reading AI Adventures in Azure: Accessing the VM via terminal or remote desktop
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AI Adventures in Azure
A lot of my work at the moment requires quite computationally heavy geospatial analysis that stretches the processing capabilities of my laptop. I invested in a pretty powerful machine – i7-7700GHz processor, 32GB RAM – and sped things up by spreading the load across cores and threads, but it can still be locked up for … Continue reading AI Adventures in Azure
AI for Earth
I'm delighted to report that I have been awarded a Microsoft and National Geographic AI for Earth Innovation Grant! With over a billion people relying on glaciers for freshwater for drinking, irrigating crops and hydropower, and Arctic ice dynamics influencing global weather and exacerbating natural hazards over major population centres, melting glaciers affect us all. … Continue reading AI for Earth
Machine Learning: An unexplored horizon for Polar science
I recently published an article in Open Access Government about the potential for machine learning technologies to revolutionise Polar science, with focus on optical remote sensing data from drones and satellites. You can read it online or download it from OAGov_Oct18
Upernavik Field Work 2018
2018 saw the Black & Bloom postdocs exploring a new field site in the north western sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet. After two seasons working in the south west near Kangerlussuaq, the team migrated north to investigate dark ice where the melt seasons are shorter and the temperatures lower. We soon learned that there … Continue reading Upernavik Field Work 2018
Monocle24 Podcast
The importance of communicating science, the value of art-science collaborations and the vulnerability of the Greenland Ice Sheet are the main topics of my radio interview at Monocle24 - listen to it here...
Bio-co-albedo?
At EGU I had the pleasure of talking about BioSNICAR and biological albedo reduction with two of the big-names in albedo research. A very interesting point they raised was that the term ‘bioalbedo’ does not precisely describe the concept that it is attached to. This is true. The term bioalbedo was not coined by spectroscopy … Continue reading Bio-co-albedo?
ASD spectra processing with Linux & Python
I’m sharing my workflow for processing and analysing spectra obtained using the ASD Field Spec Pro, partly as a resource and partly to see whether others have refinements or suggestions for improving the protocols. I'm specifically using Python rather than any proprietary software to keep it all open source, transparent and to keep control over … Continue reading ASD spectra processing with Linux & Python
CASPA at EGU 2018
The EGU annual meeting in Vienna is one of the major events in the earth science calendar, where the latest ideas are aired and discussed and new collaborations forged. My talk this year was in the "Remote Sensing of the Cryosphere" session. Here's an overview: Albedo is a primary driver of snow melt. For clean … Continue reading CASPA at EGU 2018
Ice Alive: Uncovering the secrets of Earth’s Ice
In collaboration with Rolex Awards for Enterprise, Proudfoot Media and I have produced a documentary film explaining the latest research into the surprising hidden biology shaping Earth's ice. The story is told by young UK Arctic scientists with contributions from guests including astronaut Chris Hadfield and biologist Jim Al-Khalili. We went to great lengths to … Continue reading Ice Alive: Uncovering the secrets of Earth’s Ice
To The Poles 