Antarctic Sea Ice

NIWA Marine Physicist Dr. Natalie Robinson on why sea ice around Antarctica is expanding, despite it being formed in an ocean that is getting warmer.

View of cloud layers from the camp on the sea ice. Photo: Gabby O’Connor.

Growth of ice on a rope suspended overnight in supercooled water. Photo: Gabby O’Connor.

Preparing to drag the science container (which has a hole in the floor) over the hole drilled in the sea ice. Photo: Gabby O’Connor.

Tent camp on the sea ice. Photo: Gabby O’Connor.

Images of platelet ice taken by Gabby O’Connor.

Drilling through sea ice to access the ocean underneath (Courtesy Brett Grant, NIWA)

Natalie Robinson holding a very large platelet crystal (Brett Grant, NIWA)

View of K131 container camp from the air (Craig Stevens, NIWA)

Our instruments are suspended in the ocean from a tripod is set up over a hole in the sea ice (Craig Stevens, NIWA)

Dragging a sled full of gear back to Scott Base behind a ‘Hagglunds’ all-terrain vehicle (Craig Stevens, NIWA)

The set up inside the ‘science’ container – a bank of various laptops for controlling a multitude of oceanographic instruments (Craig Stevens, NIWA)

Me scooping platelets out of our sea ice hole inside the container (Craig Stevens, NIWA)

Collecting a water sample in windy conditions (Craig Stevens, NIWA)

The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.