The Western Park Museum recently got in touch to talk about their excellent Arctic World exhibition. I know the museum well as it is a two-minute stroll across the park from my office in Sheffield, so I was really pleased to offer some thoughts. The idea was to produce a new book ('Everyday Wonders: 50 … Continue reading Weston Park Museum: Everyday Wonders
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Arctic Deeply Article
I had the pleasure of talking to science journalist Rhiannon Russell about life on ice, and she wrote an article about it... Link here This follows on from another article on the same site by Black and Bloom PI Martyn Tranter, link here Thanks Rhiannon!
Video: Alive and Well: Microbes Add to Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet
Peter Sinclair and Yale Climate Connections have released an excellent video detailing the role of microbial life in driving Greenland Ice Sheet melt, featuring several researchers from the Dark Snow Project and Black and Bloom. We were lucky enough to have Peter with us for a couple of days at the beginning of our trip in … Continue reading Video: Alive and Well: Microbes Add to Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet
Svalbard UAV: Lessons learned
Here are a few things I learned after ten days of field testing the UAV multispectral data acquisition in Svalbard... Video showing take off in stabilize mode, switch to loiter mode at about 5 m, quick control test then into automatic mission. 1. The UAV is surprisingly robust. The aircraft was transported to the sites … Continue reading Svalbard UAV: Lessons learned
Svalbard UAV tests
Having made successful UAV test flights at home in the Peak District, we have relocated to Svalbard for a week to test the equipment in the most challenging possible conditions. We are flying in temperatures as low as -10 C, in gusty wind and after pulling the UAV to the field site in its flight … Continue reading Svalbard UAV tests
High bradfield: UAV test flights
The past few weeks have been spent working down in the robotics department at the University of Sheffield building a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle, a.k.a drone). Ultimately, it will be used to make measurements of spectral reflectance of the ice surface in Greenland. It's been great fun working in robotics - entering the lab is like … Continue reading High bradfield: UAV test flights
Challenges in quantifying ‘bioalbedo’
On Wednesday last week I traveled to the University of Bristol to give a seminar at the Centre for Glaciology. I presented a new physical model for the spectral albedo of ice with algal growth, along with some field data from 2016. Preparing for the talk, discussions with fellow researchers and insightful questions in the … Continue reading Challenges in quantifying ‘bioalbedo’
Diverse microbial habitats on the GRIS
We are now well into planning 2017 field work so I revisited some archive footage from previous trips. The short clip below provides a good summary of the great diversity of microbial habitats that exist, even within a very small area of ice. These include cryoconite holes, a cryo-pond (the big cryoconite and water filled pool), algal … Continue reading Diverse microbial habitats on the GRIS
JGR Paper: Predictive model for bioalbedo of snow
Online Early version here. The 'bioalbedo effect' is the accelerated melting of snow and ice due to living organisms growing on it. Life can change the colour of the snow or ice, increasing its efficiency as an absorber of solar energy and causing it to heat up. Our new paper, just accepted by Journal of Geophysical … Continue reading JGR Paper: Predictive model for bioalbedo of snow
BBC Radio 4: Midweek
Yesterday I visited the BBC to talk about life on ice with Libby Purves on Midweek on Radio 4. It was the first time I'd been to Broadcasting House and that in itself was a real experience. I was whisked upstairs to the recording studio with the other guests - author Ken Follett and musicians … Continue reading BBC Radio 4: Midweek
To The Poles 