@antarcticsciaus
A $25M+ program dedicated to understanding East Antarctica's future. Supported by the Australian Research Council. Headquartered at the University of Tasmania and co-led by the University of NSW and The Australian National University.
It's always a celebration when a PhD student publishes their first paper! Congratulations John Bright Ayabilah, who came from Ghana to @imas-utas.bsky.social @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social to work on how modes of climate variability affect the mass of the Antarctic Ice Sheet 1/2 ❄️🧪
🌊 New paper in @natclimate.nature.com: 'Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming', by @pik-potsdam.bsky.social
"Marine-based sectors in East Antarctica, representing ~5 m of potential sea-level rise, are at risk of losing stability at 2–5 °C."
▶️ rdcu.be/e5bQS
Read our special edition of the COOKIES blog dedicated to the powerhouse team of women on the voyage ♀️💪❄️🚢🌏
The COOKIES voyage is led by @imas-utas.bsky.social at @utas.edu.au. The research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.
“The future of Antarctic science is already on board. And it is being led, confidently and collaboratively by women."
– ACEAS Chief Investigator and COOKIES Chief Scientist Dr Linda Armbrecht (IMAS/UTAS) and Joline Lalime, Sea2SchoolAU.
Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2026!
Sea spray off an iceberg in the Southern Ocean near the Denman Glacier in East Antarctica. Image credit: Pete Harmsen/AAD.
The results also have implications for proposed ocean‑based carbon dioxide removal strategies, such as iron fertilisation.
The research team includes Annika Oetjens, Prof Zanna Chase, Prof Peter Strutton and Dr Tyler Rohr.
@imas-utas.bsky.social | @utas.edu.au | @antarctic.bsky.social
Improved representation of particle attenuation using the broken power law.
To reflect this behaviour, the team developed a ‘broken power law’ model, treating the surface and deep ocean as two different regimes rather than one uniform system.
This will help reduce uncertainty around ocean–climate feedbacks in one of Earth’s most dynamic climate regions.
Photo of an Argo float being deployed in the Southern Ocean. Argo floats are robotic instruments that drift through the ocean, diving down to depths of up to 2,000 metres and returning to the surface roughly every ten days to transmit their data via satellite. The research team used Argo float data to track how sinking carbon particles weaken with depth – a process known as particle attenuation. Image credit: Pete Harmsen/AAD.
Instead, the data revealed two distinct layers in the ocean:
🔹 Near the surface: carbon particles are rapidly broken down as bacteria and zooplankton feast on fresh food.
🔹 Deeper down: fewer organisms are present, and some particles sink faster and survive for longer.
Broken power law representation of particle attenuation from BGC-Argo observations in the Southern Ocean.
Using a decade of biogeochemical Argo float data, the team examined how carbon‑rich particles break down as they sink. They found that the long‑used rule of thumb for estimating this breakdown – called a ‘simple power law’ – doesn’t match what is actually happening in the ocean.
🌊 An important new study led by ACEAS PhD researcher Annika Oetjens from @imas-utas.bsky.social at @utas.edu.au shows the Southern Ocean may be storing 40 to 60 per cent less carbon at certain depths than many climate models assume.
Learn more ▶️ antarctic.org.au/southern-oce...
The global science and outreach team aboard the CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator. Image credit: E. Pietraroia.
🤝 The COOKIES voyage is led by @imas-utas.bsky.social at @utas.edu.au The research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.
Schematic of AIS and AABW formation along parts of the Antarctic coast. Source: https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/disrupting-deep-ocean-warming-reaches-abyss/
🚢 These measurements can’t be observed by satellites – they require being on the ocean, often in tough conditions. As the COOKIES voyage studies summer conditions near the Cook Ice Shelf, these measurements will help us understand how climate change is reshaping Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.
A CTD after it has been deployed – ready to be sampled by scientists. Each bottle/Niskin has been closed at a specific depth. Credit: Joline Lalime.
📏 To understand these hidden dynamics, scientists need direct measurements. That’s why the COOKIES team aboard RV Investigator use a specialised ocean‑measurement instrument – a CTD – to capture temperature, salinity and depth, and reveal each water mass's unique ‘fingerprint’.
Diagram of the major ocean basins and their gyres. Source: https://oceaninfo.com/list/ocean-currents/
🌏 From giant gyres to deep overturning currents, the ocean connects every basin on Earth. Around Antarctica, dense water sinks, warm water rises and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current mixes it all together – shaping ice, ecosystems and global climate patterns.
Photo of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica with sea birds flying in the sky. Image Credit: Pete Harmsen/AAD.
🌊 The ocean may look calm, but beneath the surface moves a powerful engine that redistributes heat, carbon and nutrients around the world. Our new COOKIES blog article breaks down how global ocean dynamics work – and why they matter for our climate.
Learn more ➡️ antarctic.org.au/cookies-blog...
It sure is! Thanks for the tip, we'll look into it 😊
Hi @thisfoxhere.bsky.social, thanks for asking! It's a view from Currumbin Beach looking back at the Gold Coast in Queensland ☀️
🎬 Learn more about ACEAS's work to improve projections in physical climate and ecosystems in our video featuring one of the paper's co-authors Dr @adele-morrison.bsky.social (ANU).
▶️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us2a...
🏠 Approximately 85% of Australia’s population lives in coastal areas, exposed to risks from sea level rise driven by ice loss from Antarctica. This new work helps ensure decision makers have the best available science at their fingertips.
🌏 Better models = better climate predictions.
A new paper led by ACEAS PhD researcher Claire Yung (ANU) shows how a refined equation used in ocean models can significantly improve the accuracy of Antarctic ice shelf melt predictions.
➡️ antarctic.org.au/new-model-co...
The COOKIES voyage is led by @imas-utas.bsky.social at @utas.edu.au. The research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.
📸 ACEAS CI Dr Linda Armbrecht with the first section of the 20.5m piston core. Image credit: L. De Santis.
This exceptional sample provides a rare window into past environmental change in the Cook Ice Shelf region, offering researchers the chance to investigate long‑term climate and ecosystem dynamics.
👏 Congratulations to the science team and crew whose expertise made this achievement possible.
🚢 COOKIES voyage delivers record‑breaking core for RV Investigator
A huge milestone for the RV Investigator COOKIES voyage – the successful recovery of a whopping 20.5‑metre sediment core, now officially the longest core ever retrieved in the vessel’s history.
➡️ antarctic.org.au/cookies-blog...
New paper: we show that variability in the Zonal Wave-3 mode - an atmospheric pattern made up of three pairs of cyclones and anticyclones circling the Southern Hemisphere - does influence the formation and export of dense waters around Antarctica over multiple years.
🧊 A great new feature piece in @physicstoday.bsky.social by ACEAS CIs Dr Catherine Vreugdenhil and Dr Bishakhdatta Gayen from @unimelb.bsky.social that unravels the mysteries of Antarctic ice‑shelf melting.
Read it now: physicstoday.aip.org/features/unr...
We're still working out some of the basics of how Antarctica works and ice and ocean interact
The Zonal Wave-3 Mode Impacts Antarctic Dense Water Formation
New from team @antarcticsciaus.bsky.social
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...
The COOKIES voyage is led by @imas-utas.bsky.social at @utas.edu.au. The research is supported by a grant of sea time on RV Investigator from the CSIRO Marine National Facility.
Mud doesn’t look exciting – until you realise it holds ancient DNA 🧬
Learn how researchers aboard the RV Investigator COOKIES voyage are analysing sediment cores to trace how marine ecosystems responded to climate change thousands – even millions – of years ago.
🔗 antarctic.org.au/cookies-blog...
The findings reveal the deep complexity of Earth’s climate system and will help improve models predicting future climate change.
Congratulations to the research team led by Dr Samuel Toucanne (@ifremer.bsky.social), including ACEAS Chief Investigator A/Prof Laurie Menviel (@ccrc.bsky.social).
For decades, scientists believed the hemispheres acted in opposition during ice ages – when the North cooled, the South warmed, and vice versa – a pattern called the ‘bipolar seesaw.’
This study shows that’s not the full story.
🌍 New research challenges the ‘bipolar seesaw’ theory of past climate change.
A global team of researchers has discovered that glaciers in both hemispheres retreated at the same time during the last ice age.
Read the paper in @natgeosci.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...