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James Lea

@jamesmlea.bsky.social
1.6K followers 585 following 104 posts

Glaciological magpie. Ice, mud and satellite botherer at Liverpool Uni. He/him ❄️🛰️🏳️‍🌈

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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
GEEDiT helping understand how emperor penguins will respond to climate change! Really cool study by @geogeordie.bsky.social out now in Antarctic Science 🐧🐧🐧
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
New year, new data for GEEClimT and all your climate reanalysis needs! Now giving easy access to: - ERA5 Hourly (1940-present, 292 variables!) - New *Palaeoclimate* datasets (back to 800k BP!) - 27 other climate and ocean datasets (>400Tb of data!) Links and user guide: github.com/jmlea16/GEEC...
Picture of the GEEClimT user interface
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 17/12/2025
🚨POSTDOC JOB ALERT🚨 We have an exciting opportunity for a 2 year postdoc on remote sensing of icebergs and marine terminating glaciers. See the link below for more info! Please spread widely, and feel free to email me with any Q's :) tinyurl.com/2jjcmea9
Photo of a marine terminating glacier in Greenland with icebergs in front of it
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Geography at Durham @geogdurham.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Great work by our colleagues Stewart Jamieson and Guy Paxman: "We have been using satellite data to map an ancient river landscape beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet:. The landscape has been frozen in time for up to 34 million years." ⚒️🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Extensive fluvial surfaces at the East Antarctic margin have modulated ice-sheet evolution - Nature Geoscience
Extensive flat surfaces observed beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet margin were formed by fluvial erosion and have modulated the ice-sheet response to climate change, according to an analysis of rad...
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Harold Lovell @hazlovell.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Inspired by many, many viewings with my kids, I wrote something for @uk.theconversation.com that imagines how the Arendelle glacier in Disney's Frozen might look after 200 years of climate change: theconversation.com/frozen-thawe...
theconversation.com
Frozen, thawed: how Arendelle’s glacier would fare under modern climate change
A glaciologist investigates a Disney classic.
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Billy Armstrong @app-glaciers.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Excited that Noah Caldwell's work is officially out in @igsoc.bsky.social Journal of Glaciology! Noah used satellite remote sensing to estimate how much ice is being lost to iceberg calving and subaqueous melt on 55 Alaska lake-terminating glaciers. Read more: doi.org/10.1017/jog....
Schematic illustrating estimation of frontal ablation on lake-terminating glaciers
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Not the bio from #wikipedia I was expecting of new #pope...
Wikipedia page giving the entire biography of the new pope as "poopbutt"
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Finished Danish Duolingo! Slightly disappointed the owl seems indifferent, though to be fair I did systematically skip all the spoken exercises after resigning myself to never getting the pronunciation right 😅
Screenshot showing all levels completed of Danish Duolingo!
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Unfortunately not at EGU as planned this year, but Steve Brough is stepping in for me this afternoon to tell you how many glaciers globally have disappeared or fragmented since 2000. CW: it's a *lot*
Title slide of presentation
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Penny How @snowhow.bsky.social · 23/03/2025
I should probably re-introduce myself here to new and old connections… - Hi my name is Penny and I am a data scientist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland 🇬🇱 🇩🇰 - I have a Ph.D. in glaciology but have moved away from academia a little with my data scientist role ❄️
Penny in Iceland last week. She is taking a selfie on Sólheimajökull, wearing a helmet, sunglasses, and gear for being on a glacier and learning some rescue training. It is very sunny and warm, so smiles all round!
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Movies Silently @moviessilently.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
Please enjoy a moment of Norwegian-Penguin diplomacy taken during Roald Amundsen's successful attempt to reach the South Pole.
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Well worth a read for all glacios, and that Karl Schimper (amongst others) should be much better known!
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Christopher Darvill @chrisdarvill.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Job Alert! Permanent Lecturer in Physical Geography (Teaching & Research), specialising in peatland science. Come join our Department of Geography at The University of Manchester! Deadline 27 March 2025 www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
jobs.manchester.ac.uk
Lecturer in Physical Geography :Oxford Road
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Bethan Davies @iceybethan.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
28 people have added their names already. If you'd like to join us in solidarity and to emphasise the importance of EDI in polar science, then let me know. www.antarcticglaciers.org/2025/02/pola...
antarcticglaciers.org
Polar science needs diversity - AntarcticGlaciers.org
We write in solidarity with our colleagues in the USA and internationally, who are suffering as efforts to increase equality, diversity and inclusion are systematically eroded and destroyed. It is imp...
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Tom Chudley @tomchudley.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
Our new paper is out in Nature Geoscience! In an ice-sheet-wide 3-D inventory of crevasses in 2016 and 2021, we find that crevasses are growing in response to ice acceleration on short timescales. @durham-university.bsky.social @byrdpolar.bsky.social @leverhulme.bsky.social
nature.com
Increased crevassing across accelerating Greenland Ice Sheet margins - Nature Geoscience
Greenland-wide observations of crevasse volume and distribution suggest substantial increases in crevassing between 2016 and 2021 at marine-terminating sectors with accelerating ice flow.
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
No aurora flying south from Tromsø, though did manage to get a slightly shaky photo of Venus and Mars just above the Manchester clouds
Photo from an aeroplane window of Venus (top left) and Mars (bottom right) above clouds illuminated from below by the lights of Manchester
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Looks like my flight to Oslo picked up the jet stream on way across the North Sea. According to @flightradar24.com we hit about 930kph!
Screenshot of flight radar website showing Manchester to Oslo flight with a top ground speed of 504 knots!
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Just implemented a bug fix highlighted by a GEECE user that was stopping them generating a daily resolution CMIP6 ensemble. Periodic reminder to let me know when things don't work and I'll fix them!
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
"The Vikings" might not be what you think they are... Really nice (and accessibly written) piece on why "The Viking Age" may only be historically useful as a term if you're looking at English history, and applying it more broadly doesn't make sense. [1/3]
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Bethan Davies @iceybethan.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
I’m thrilled to bits to have been awarded the Richardson Medal by @igsoc.bsky.social. Thanks so much to all my wonderful colleagues and especially to those who nominated me! You’re all so kind. www.igsoc.org/about/awards...
igsoc.org
Bethan Davies (2024) | IGS
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Super happy to say congratulations to @iceybethan.bsky.social on being awarded the @igsoc.bsky.social Richardson Medal! Hugely well deserved and really couldn't have happened to a nicer person 🥳🥳🥳 www.igsoc.org/about/awards...
igsoc.org
Bethan Davies (2024) | IGS
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Last week before Christmas - perfect time to come down with flu 🤒😭
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Chokoladbollar!
Tub of Swedish style chokoladbollar rolled in coconut. Slight misjudgment of ingredients means now have excellent problem of 5 boxes to get through!
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
TIL that you do occasionally get TWELVE-sided snowflakes, when two six-sided ones collide in the right way and stick together. They seem to stick at a suspiciously perfect angle! Photos from Ken Libbrecht's brilliant website here: www.snowcrystals.com...
Two twelve-sided snowflakes
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Looks like I've drawn the Avanti "window seat" sort straw again
Solid wall on a train where there should be a window
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Harold Lovell @hazlovell.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Two glacier-themed PhD projects available at the University of Portsmouth as part of @treesdla.bsky.social: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/projects/mou... with Clare Boston and me, plus...
trees-dla.ac.uk
Mountain glacier response to climate change | UCL Trees
Mountain glaciers are sensitive indicators of climate change. In recent decades retreat and thinning of these glaciers has accelerated and many are predicted to have disappeared by the end of the 21st...
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Cathartic update to my #GoogleEarthEngine tools replacing socials link to the *other place* with Bluesky. As a quick reminder of the tools: GEEDiT - digitising from satellite imagery GEEClimT - easy access to loads of climate reanalysis products GEECE - easy and customisable CMIP6 data access tool
GEEDiT user interfaceGEECE user interfaceGEEClimT user interface
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Today has involved: - sitting on the train in the middle of AFC Wimbledon's squad on the way to London - chatting with lovely people at an event hosted by the Norwegian Embassy - being gifted the Finnish Ambassador's Finland/UK badge - late train back watching L'pool/RM match on crappy internet
Small pinbadge with Finnish and UK flags
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Tim Lane @glaciologytim.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Happy #PolarPride to everyone! Excellent post by @jamesmlea.bsky.social about being LGBTQ+ in Polar Science here: www.polarregions.co.uk/post/why-pri...
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Huw Griffiths @huwiceandstuff.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Happy #PolarPride day to everyone! #PolarPrideDay #LGBTSTEMDay #LGBTQSTEMDay
A penguin in the ice with a progress pride flag photoshopped onto its chest
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Polar Jane @jfrumble.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Changes in the #PolarRegions will affect everyone. Understanding and predicting this change needs commitment and talent; and that needs a supportive and inclusive community. Wishing everyone a happy #PolarPride as part of a wider celebration of #DiversityInPolarScience 🐻‍❄️🐧🥶🏳️‍🌈
#PolarPride pin and sticker
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Rocking my #PolarPride badge ahead of an exciting day of science in Copenhagen! If you want to find out more about why Pride matters for polar research, last year I wrote a blog post about being LGBTQ+ in polar science and the progress that is yet to be made www.polarregions.co.uk/post/why-pri...
Selfie of me wearing Polar Pride pin badge
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
*Goes into Copenhagen restaurant determined to try and speak some simple Danish* Waiter: *speaks to me in Danish* Me: 😳
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Always nice to see this view on the flight in 😁
Picture of the Øresund Bridge on the approach into Copenhagen Airport
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Hello new, wonderful Blueskyers! In case you're wondering who I am, I spend most of my time thinking about glaciers and ice sheets past, present and future, currently mainly through satellite and field based remote sensing. Also very interested in how to get the science that we do communicated to...
Picture of me and David Ashmore installing a weather station and time lapse camera next to a marine terminating glacier in Greenland
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
Hello new, wonderful Blueskyers! In case you're wondering who I am, I spend most of my time thinking about glaciers and ice sheets past, present and future, currently mainly through satellite and field based remote sensing. Also very interested in how to get the science that we do communicated to...
Picture of me and David Ashmore installing a weather station and time lapse camera next to a marine terminating glacier in Greenland
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Millicent Harding @millicentharding.bsky.social · 09/11/2024
It’s nearly Polar Pride 2024! I’m no longer EDI Officer for UKPN but Polar Pride is always one of my favourite events of the year and I am really looking forward to seeing everyone celebrate on here as well 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ #PolarPride #PolarPrideDay #PolarPride2024 #PolarPrideDay2024 #DiversityInUKPolarScience
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 09/11/2024
Back here from the*other place* now more often. Big shout out to @watershedlab.bsky.social for his glacial list for helping my feed be full of fun ice stuff!
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Niels Korsgaard @nielskorsgaard.bsky.social · 05/03/2024
New paper out from GEUS and others. Oksman et al. (2024): Climate Variability and Glacier Dynamics Linked to Fjord Productivity Changes Over the Last ca. 3300 Years in Nuup Kangerlua, Southwest Greenland. @christofpearce.bsky.social @jamesmlea.bsky.social doi.org/10.1029/2023...
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 14/12/2023
University travel agents strike again...
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 03/12/2023
Funny what you can get done when you're trying to concentrate on not being full of cold
Starting weaving a red and white shoelace 4 hours agoFinished 1.5m shoelace wrapped around my hand
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 24/11/2023
Shoelaces done! Brighter threads for next lot I think...
Hand woven dark green and grey patterned shoelaces threaded onto converse
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 16/11/2023
First shoelace done! Now just need to do the other 😭
Front design of the shoelaceBack design of the shoelaceLoom before I cut the threadsZoom in of the design still on the loom
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 11/11/2023
Sundog over Old Nuuk this morning!
Halo of whitish light (like a white rainbow) over the old Nuuk harbour
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 10/11/2023
Not a bad late night stroll around Nuuk...
AuroraAuroraAuroraAurora
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 02/11/2023
Lots of mistakes made and lots of stuff to improve, but feel like vaguely getting the hang of it...
Tablet woven "bookmarks"
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 30/10/2023
Accepted a review invite, not even had chance to open the file and already been told by the journal I'm Reviewer 2 😬
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 28/10/2023
Spotted in @LovelocksC, Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors says gay rights ✊🏻🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
Model of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors in a plant pot with a progress pride flag!
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James Lea @jamesmlea.bsky.social · 27/10/2023
No idea what's going on, but you and me both Duo. You and me both...
Duolingo app logo where Duo's face appears like it's melted 😬
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Cathy Delaney @mudswoman.bsky.social · 27/10/2023
Delighted to announce that the QRA Annual Discussion Meeting (4-7 Jan 2024) will be in Manchester! The ADM is being organised jointly by Manchester Met Uni and Uni of Manchester. The theme is "Changing Resolutions in Quaternary Science". Looking forward to bad jokes abt New Year's resolutions...
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