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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership

@antarctic.bsky.social
9K followers 995 following 587 posts

To protect Antarctica and the Southern Ocean is to protect our future on this planet. In this critical decade for action, our science explores the role of the Antarctic region in the global climate system. Led by @utas.edu.au. 🔗 aappartnership.org.au

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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The Southern Ocean connects all the world's oceans and plays an outsized role in taking up human carbon emissions. This essential service as a climate shock absorber may change with global heating. BRIEFING ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/wp-content/u...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Sea-level rise is an existential threat for many Pacific nations. We bring information to #COP31 about the growing contribution of melting ice from #Antarctica. As seas rise and continue to rise, we have the power to choose how far and how fast. BRIEFING ▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/opening-the-...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
🌊 Professors Nathan Bindoff and Delphine Lannuzel from AAPP are at the pre- #COP31 in Fiji, bringing #Antarctic and Southern Ocean #science to the centre of #climate action talks. @utas.edu.au @imas-utas.bsky.social @thesouthernocean.bsky.social
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Two years of daily sea surface temperature – with #Antarctica at the centre of the world
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
With scientists from @utas.edu.au, @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social, @arcsaef.bsky.social, @vicuniwgtn.bsky.social ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/internationa...
aappartnership.org.au
International scientists call for urgent research into Antarctica’s last great unknown - AAPP
Ice basin with one of the greatest potential contributions to reshape the world is also the least understood and explored
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
🌊 For an essential pre- #COP31 briefing on the risks of ignoring the potential sea-level rise risks from East #Antarctica's ice sheet to the Pacific and the world, check out this comprehensive presentation from @aussmc.bsky.social ▶️ www.scimex.org/newsfeed/new...
scimex.org
NEWS BRIEFING: What we don't know might hurt us - Antarctica's unexplo
NEWS BRIEFING: What we don't know might hurt us - Antarctica's unexplored threat ***RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE*** A region of Antarctica with enough ice to raise sea levels by three to four m
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Watch Tasmanian #climate scientists discuss the importance of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the outsized role of Hobart in bringing #Antarctic science to climate policy. ▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8PE...
youtube.com
Protecting Antarctica and the Southern Ocean: the role of the IPCC...and Hobart
YouTube video by Australian Antarctic Program Partnership
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Nathan's citation: "a world-leading ocean and climate scientist (who) has made significant contributions to the detection, attribution and impact of climate change." All ATSE Fellows at atse.org.au/news/aussie-...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Congratulations to our physical oceanographer Prof Nathan Bindoff @utas.edu.au on his election as one of 34 new Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering.
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
🌊 “For those of us living in low-lying islands, atolls, coastal communities and delta regions, sea level rise is not a future threat or mere speculation. It is our present reality.” — Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo ▶️ pmn.co.nz/read/environ...
pmn.co.nz
Antarctic 'blind spot' raises fresh sea-level concerns for Pacific
Scientists say a vast, little-studied ice basin could hold clues to how quickly sea levels could rise as the planet warms.
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Of course, less #Antarctic winter sea ice means less sea ice in summer too. And that brings knock-on impacts to the global #climate system. aapp.shorthandstories.com/a-world-with...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🌊 Antarctic winter sea ice at 3rd-lowest level on record. “How sensitive is the global climate system to this loss of sea ice? We're still working to put numbers on that. But the system is changing faster than we are understanding it.” — Will Hobbs @utas.edu.au ▶️ www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
theguardian.com
Antarctic winter sea ice falls to third-lowest level on record as scientists warn of ‘now problem’
Coverage levels fall a million square kilometres short of the long-term average, with global heating likely driving losses
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
“Despite this region being a large part of Australian Antarctic Territory, I don’t know anyone who’s ever been there." — Prof Matt King @deformedearth.bsky.social More than a century after Mawson, it's time to go back. ▶️ theconversation.com/tragedy-stop...
theconversation.com
Tragedy stopped Mawson exploring this remote Antarctic region. We must get there to study its melting ice
If all the ice in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin melted, it would raise global sea levels 3 to 4 metres. It happened before – at temperatures we’re heading towards
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Research needed includes sediment core drilling, detailed mapping of the seafloor, monitoring ocean temperatures, improved observations of glaciers and new field campaigns across the region.
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The review by 39 scientists from 14 countries – led by @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social @utas.edu.au, along with authors from @arcsaef.bsky.social and AAPP – calls for an urgent multinational research effort to fill the knowledge gaps. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/internationa...
aappartnership.org.au
International scientists call for urgent research into Antarctica’s last great unknown - AAPP
Ice basin with one of the greatest potential contributions to reshape the world is also the least understood and explored
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Models agree that ice loss is possible, but disagree about when it begins and how far it ultimately goes. Because most of the basin is below sea level, ice loss could be rapid and self-sustaining if warmer oceans melt from underneath the ice sheet. But gaps in the map make projections difficult.
Map of bedrock elevation in Wilkes Subglacial Basin, showing areas in blue below sea level and 'gaps in the map' where there is no data
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A major review in @natrevearthenviron.nature.com sets out what we know, what we don’t know, and what we need to do to find out. We know that the Wilkes region is changing, and that it has changed dramatically in the past, due to temperatures we're heading towards now. REVIEW ▶️ rdcu.be/6Y7f7GNsv5qa
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
An enormous area of #Antarctic ice covering 1,400km by 400km, more than 4km thick in places, holds an estimated 3-4m of global sea-level rise, if melted. But for something so consequential for the natural world and human society, the Wilkes Subglacial Basin in #East Antarctica is largely unknown.
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
🌊 “The seven-metre craft, which looks like a large kayak in hi-vis orange, is expected to travel about 22,000km through inhospitable waters, propelled by powerful westerly winds and energy from the sun.” — @theguardian.com ▶️ www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
‘Robust little’ vessel begins treacherous 22,000km journey around Antarctica in the name of climate science
Powered by sun and wind, the uncrewed vehicle will collect data to help Australian scientists better understand how oceans absorb emissions
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
🌬️ Saildrone 1092 was released in Storm Bay off Tasmania on a very windy day – a view from one of its cameras shows wind speeds more than 35kn with 6m+ waves. There'll be plenty more days like that in its travels around the Southern Ocean! Three days later SD1092 is about 500km southeast of Tasmania.
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
🫧 The Southern Ocean has an outsized role in the global ocean #carbon budget and the #climate system. So by adding observations from places that are difficult to get to, we'll gain greater certainty about much carbon the Southern Ocean is taking up. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/ocean-drones...
aappartnership.org.au
Ocean drones set to brave the Southern Ocean for science - AAPP
The first of a new fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles heads south from Hobart to circumnavigate Antarctica
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
🌊 We've released a #Saildrone into the wild! Seven metres long, the solar-powered autonomous uncrewed vessel will circumnavigate #Antarctica to collect data on carbon dioxide absorbed by the Southern Ocean – crucial for predicting climate change. SD1092 is the first of four over the next few years.
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“Traditionally, iceberg monitoring relied heavily on manual analysis of satellite imagery. The aim of my project was to develop accurate, continent-wide automated mapping of grounded iceberg distribution and size – and that’s what we did."— Kaihong Jiao, AAPP @utas.edu.au ▶️ doi.org/10.5194/essd...
doi.org
Grounded icebergs around Antarctica: a high-resolution dataset derived from deep learning and Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar
Abstract. Icebergs frequently run aground on shoals on the continental shelf around Antarctica. Once rendered immobile, they can anchor landfast sea ice (fast ice) and their supply of limiting trace n...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
For the first time, crucially important features of the #Antarctic coastal zone have been mapped in high resolution right around the continent, by training an artificial intelligence tool to accurately recognise grounded icebergs from satellite radar images. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/picket-fence...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
🚨 PhD project in Hobart @utas.edu.au 🌊 Using Deep Argo floats, investigate variability and change in #Antarctic Bottom Water and the deep overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean 🎓 Scholarships available ✍️ Applications close 1 October ▶️ More info at www.utas.edu.au/research/deg...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The findings highlight how changing sea ice could reshape krill populations, ecosystem connectivity and fisheries management across the Southern Ocean. Co-authored by a team from AAPP @utas.edu.au, @imas-utas.bsky.social, @bas.ac.uk and Australian Antarctic Division Paper ▶️ doi.org/10.1002/gcb4...
Adult and larval Antarctic krill under sea ice (photo: Ulrich Freier, Alfred-Wegener-Institut)
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The life cycle of Antarctic krill is an incredible shape-shifting journey from egg to adult – and sea ice is an important part of it, providing shelter, food and transport for the larvae over winter. 👀 www.youtube.com/watch?v=QruX...
youtube.com
Life of Krill
YouTube video by @AusAntarctic
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Modelling shows that sea ice significantly alters krill transport between regions of the south-west Atlantic sector where the krill fishery is concentrated. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/sea-ice-crea...
aappartnership.org.au
Sea ice creates hidden highways for young Antarctic krill - AAPP
Antarctic krill larvae can travel much farther by hitching a ride with drifting sea ice, rather than with ocean currents alone
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
New research shows #Antarctic krill larvae can travel much farther across the Southern Ocean by hitching a ride with drifting sea ice than with ocean currents alone. ↔️ “Year to year, the same starting population of krill can experience very different transport pathways” — Aditya Sharma
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
⭕ #AntarcticRINGS proposes geophysical surveys of the entire Antarctic coastal zone with three circumpolar rings around the icy continent – tracking inland ice flow, grounding zones and ice shelves to capture the critical processes driving ice loss. ▶️ Full review doi.org/10.1029/2022... @agu.org
Airborne surveys targeting the coastal zone of Antarctica in three circumpolar surveys, including ice‐sheet terminus (landward ring), the vicinity of the grounding zone (primary ring), ice shelves, and open or sea‐ice‐covered ocean (seaward ring). (source: Reviews of Geophysics)
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
🌏 Understanding the interactions between the atmosphere, ocean, ice and the solid Earth is key to predicting how far and how fast the seas will rise in a warming world. ▶️ scar.org/scar-news/cr... Led by @scar-antarctic.bsky.social RINGS Action Group
Key elements and physical processes in ice mass change in the coastal zones of Antarctica (source: Reviews of Geophysics)
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
🌊 Australian scientists are part of a bold international plan to target the knowledge gaps that prevent reliable predictions about the contributions of #Antarctic ice loss to global sea-level rise. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/rings-around... 📸 F McCormack, @arcsaef.bsky.social
Totten Glacier Ice Shelf, East Antarctica, from an ICECAP flight measuring land beneath the ice (photo: Dr Felicity McCormack/Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future)
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
🌊 6 plenaries, 7 keynotes, 22 parallel sessions, 123 presentations, 121 posters, 29 lightning talks: many thanks to the 400 delegates from Tasmania, Australia and beyond who made #AARC2026 @utas.edu.au such a resounding success! ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/antarctic-sc... 📸 PW Allen, G Moss
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Antarctic science, Australia's future #AARC2026 📸 Peter W Allen @utas.edu.au
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
The Australian #Antarctic Research Conference #AARC2026 is well under way with more than 400 people sharing posters, presentations, panels, and planning sessions — from humanities to glaciology, atmospheric science to technology, tourism to tipping points. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/antarctic-sc...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
More than 400 polar experts gather @utas.edu.au next week for the Australian Antarctic Research Conference. The event brings together our #Antarctic research community at a time of rapid and extreme climate-related changes on and around the icy continent. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/antarctic-sc...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Rapid changes are reshaping #Antarctica, with consequences for our global #climate. This year's Philip Law Lecture 'Dispatches from the Far South' will be delivered by Dr Ed Doddridge @imas-utas.bsky.social, 6pm AEST on 20 August. Reserve your free seats now! ▶️ www.utas.edu.au/events/2026/...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
🌊 In recent years #Antarctica has seen an explosion of climate-related change, with major implications for our planet. New extremes are emerging, including heatwaves, record-low sea ice and ice shelf collapses. These are the alarm bells from the south... ▶️ aapp.shorthandstories.com/alarm-bells-...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
🌊 "A robot is cruising beneath #Antarctic sea ice. Another is bolted to the face of a collapsing Greenland glacier. A third is silently counting penguins on a remote, windswept beach. None of them has a human operator nearby." — @bas.ac.uk ▶️ www.bas.ac.uk/news/the-ris...
bas.ac.uk
The rise of the robots: how autonomous vehicles are transforming polar science - British Antarctic Survey
Underwater, on the surface and in the air, robots are gathering data about our frozen planet – changing what is possible for polar science.
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Reposted by Australian Antarctic Program Partnership
PIK_climate @pik-potsdam.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The Holocene (the past 12,000 years) has been a uniquely stable period for the climate, with global average temperatures at 14 degrees celsius, varying by only 0.5 degrees. Johan Rockström explains how today, human activity is the dominant force for change on Earth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rphp...
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
It was reposted by accident!
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
New study of Antarctic landfast ice charts dramatic crash The first-ever broad review of Antarctic ‘landfast’ ice highlights its far-reaching importance in the Earth system while documenting a recent...
aappartnership.org.au
New study of Antarctic landfast ice charts dramatic crash
The first-ever broad review of Antarctic ‘landfast’ ice highlights its far-reaching importance in the Earth system while documenting a recent dramatic crash in its extent.
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The Australian #Antarctic Research Conference is brought to you by the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @utas.edu.au, @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social, @arcsaef.bsky.social, and the Australian Antarctic Division 📸 Pete Harmsen/AAD
Wave breaks on iceberg
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
🌊 ANTARCTIC SCIENCE, AUSTRALIA'S FUTURE The exciting program for #AARC26 is out, with more than 300 people coming to our national conference in August. There are still places available if you'd like to attend. Registrations close 28 July. Program ▶️ leishman-aarc-2026.eventsairsite.com/program
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Our @agu.org paper led by @utas.edu.au shows a circumpolar decline in AABW volume since 2002, accelerating in the last decade to coincide with a rapid decline in sea ice since 2016. Anomalies in AABW volume are strongly correlated with variability in sea ice extent. ▶️ doi.org/10.1029/2025...
Monthly Antarctic sea ice extent (SIE; black) and circumpolar Antarctic Bottom Water volume anomalies (blue) from 2002 to 2024 (source: Wyatt et al. Geophysical Research Letters)
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
As the ocean’s surface freezes and sea ice forms, the salt is left behind, making the surrounding seawater extremely dense. This sinks to form AABW. There are four main source regions around #Antarctica: Ross Sea, Adélie Coast, Cape Darnley, and the largest producer, Weddell Sea.
Satellite image of windblown sea ice in Weddell Sea (photo: NASA)
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
AABW is the densest water mass on Earth. As it sinks from the Antarctic continental shelf to the abyss it fills up 40% of the global ocean volume. This flow is a crucial driver of ocean circulation which regulates the global climate system.
source: Rintoul et al. (2026) Antarctic Bottom Water in a changing climate. Nat Rev Earth Environ 7, 86–102 
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-025-00750-2
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
🌊 New Antarctic research shows the deepest layer of the Southern Ocean – Antarctic Bottom Water, or AABW – is shrinking faster than scientists realised, with the rate of change accelerating over the past decade. This is important because we all depend on it. ▶️ aappartnership.org.au/antarctic-ch...
aappartnership.org.au
Antarctic change drives slowdown of global ocean circulation - AAPP
Deepest layer of the Southern Ocean is shrinking faster with accelerated change
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
5️⃣ Winds over the ocean push warm surface water towards the coast, strengthening the Antarctic Coastal Current and transporting that heat underneath the ice shelf, where it drives melting. www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2vE... (animation is based on the MIT general circulation model used in this study)
youtube.com
Sea Ice and Ocean Dynamics in the Denman Glacier Region of Antarctica
YouTube video by NCI Australia
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Australian Antarctic Program Partnership @antarctic.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
4️⃣ Summer-warmed surface water is the main heat source. Instead of warm deep ocean water being the dominant driver, surface waters heated by the atmosphere during summer provide most of the heat responsible for melting.
RSV Nuyina off Shackleton ice shelf (photo: Pete Harmsen/AAD)
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