Antarctica

• Thursday, January 19th 2023 - 10:10 UTC

  HMS Protector play football at the most southerly and rugged pitch: South Georgia

  

  Sailors from the Royal Navy went head to head with British Antarctic Survey staff during a game of football on the most southerly – and arguably the worst – pitch in the world. The playing field, at Grytviken, the largest settlement of South Georgia Island, in the South Atlantic, is billed as the most southerly in the world, some 2,476 miles from the South Pole, to be precise.

• Tuesday, January 17th 2023 - 10:31 UTC

  BAS and WWF “Walrus Detectives” project with satellite surveying to understand the Arctic marine mammals

  

  This week British Antarctic Survey and World Wide Fund, WWF, are inviting the public to become ‘walrus detectives’ and get involved in the Walrus from Space project to help with vital research to enable a better understanding of these Arctic marine mammals.

• Saturday, January 14th 2023 - 10:45 UTC

  HMS Protector scans active underwater volcanoes on Antarctic edge for tsunami research

  

  Royal Navy personnel are helping scientists warn of potentially catastrophic tsunamis by researching huge underwater volcanoes on the edge of Antarctica. Navy icebreaker HMS Protector has used her state-of-the-art sensors to scan peaks in the South Sandwich Islands – one of the world’s most remote territories.

• Tuesday, January 10th 2023 - 10:17 UTC

  Is Mass Cruise Tourism Safe for Antarctic Ecosystems?

  

  By Elizabeth Leane, Anne Hardy, Can Seng Ooi, Carolyn Philpott, Hanne E.F. Nielsen and Katie Marx – As the summer sun finally arrives for people in the Southern Hemisphere, more than 100,000 tourists will head for the ice. Traveling on one of more than 50 cruise ships, they will brave the two-day trip across the notoriously rough Drake Passage below Patagonia, destined for the polar continent of Antarctica.

• Monday, January 9th 2023 - 10:39 UTC

  Captain Polar Preet ready to break another record in the South Pole

  

  British Army officer Captain Preet Chandi has made it to the last degree, which means she is just under 60 nautical miles from the South Pole. Capt Chandi, also known as Polar Preet, has completed day 51, (January 5th), of her 1,100-mile solo trek – a challenge that will see her become the first woman to cross the continent alone with nothing but a 120kg pulk (a sledge used to carry equipment across the snow).

• Monday, January 9th 2023 - 10:36 UTC

  The Inspire 22 Antarctic research expedition has almost reached the South Pole goal

  

  The Inspire 22 Antarctic research expedition has less than 100km to go until they reach the South Pole. The team, sponsored in part by BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting System) made up of guides, doctors and physiologists –with a teacher and engineer also joining the expedition, set off in November.

• Wednesday, January 4th 2023 - 10:17 UTC

  Irízar's Antarctic campaign reported on schedule

  

  Argentine icebreaker ARA Almirante Irízar has been reported to have completed a successful call at the Orcadas base, after which supplies were delivered to the Petrel base, as part of the 119th Antarctic Summer Campaign.

• Monday, January 2nd 2023 - 08:57 UTC

  Antarctica returning to pre pandemic capacity levels, Cruise Industry Annual Report

  

  Antarctica is returning to pre-pandemic capacity levels in the 2022-2023 season following a disrupted 2021-2022 season and no cruise traffic in 2020-2021. According to the latest edition of the Cruise Industry News Annual Report, Antarctica will receive a total of 55 ships from several different brands, including Hurtigruten, Ponant, Viking, and Seabourn

• Monday, December 26th 2022 - 09:01 UTC

  Chile launches the first icebreaker made in South America

  

  The first icebreaker built in Latin America, Almirante Oscar Viel, was launched last week from the state-run naval ASMAR shipyard in Talcahuano, Chile after five years of construction

• Thursday, December 22nd 2022 - 10:14 UTC

  EU and US satellites together with BAS calibrating ice at Weddell Sea

  

  An ambitious flying campaign out of British Antarctic Survey’s Rothera Research Station over the Weddell Sea this month (December) aims to calibrate the data collected from two important satellites that monitor Antarctic sea ice.