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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en-GB"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"><title>Cryospheric Sciences | Cryoscientist life stories: Experiences of an ‘office glaciologist’</title> <link rel="profile" href="https://gmpg.org/xfn/11" /> <link rel="pingback" href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/xmlrpc.php" /> <meta name='robots' content='max-image-preview:large' /> <style>img:is([sizes="auto" i], [sizes^="auto," i]) { contain-intrinsic-size: 3000px 1500px }</style> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Cryospheric Sciences » Feed" href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/feed/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Cryospheric Sciences » Comments Feed" href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/comments/feed/" /> <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Cryospheric Sciences » Cryoscientist life stories: Experiences of an ‘office glaciologist’ Comments Feed" href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/08/29/cryoscientist-life-stories-experiences-of-an-office-glaciologist/feed/" /> <link rel='stylesheet' id='gp-font-awesome-css' href='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/wp-content/themes/vivacity-egu/lib/fonts/font-awesome/css/font-awesome.min.css?ver=6.7.2' type='text/css' media='all' /> <link rel='stylesheet' id='gp-open-sans-default-css' href='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/wp-content/themes/vivacity-egu/lib/fonts/open-sans/css/open-sans.min.css?ver=6.7.2' type='text/css' media='all' /> <style id='co-authors-plus-coauthors-style-inline-css' type='text/css'> .wp-block-co-authors-plus-coauthors.is-layout-flow [class*=wp-block-co-authors-plus]{display:inline} </style> <style id='co-authors-plus-avatar-style-inline-css' type='text/css'> .wp-block-co-authors-plus-avatar :where(img){height:auto;max-width:100%;vertical-align:bottom}.wp-block-co-authors-plus-coauthors.is-layout-flow .wp-block-co-authors-plus-avatar :where(img){vertical-align:middle}.wp-block-co-authors-plus-avatar:is(.alignleft,.alignright){display:table}.wp-block-co-authors-plus-avatar.aligncenter{display:table;margin-inline:auto} </style> <style id='co-authors-plus-image-style-inline-css' type='text/css'> .wp-block-co-authors-plus-image{margin-bottom:0}.wp-block-co-authors-plus-image :where(img){height:auto;max-width:100%;vertical-align:bottom}.wp-block-co-authors-plus-coauthors.is-layout-flow .wp-block-co-authors-plus-image :where(img){vertical-align:middle}.wp-block-co-authors-plus-image:is(.alignfull,.alignwide) :where(img){width:100%}.wp-block-co-authors-plus-image:is(.alignleft,.alignright){display:table}.wp-block-co-authors-plus-image.aligncenter{display:table;margin-inline:auto} </style> <style id='classic-theme-styles-inline-css' type='text/css'> /*! 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stories: Experiences of an ‘office glaciologist’" /> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_GB" /> <meta property="og:type" content="article" /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.44.jpeg" /> <meta property="og:image:url" content="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.44.jpeg" /> <meta property="og:image:secure_url" content="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.44.jpeg" /> <meta property="og:image:width" content="1600" /> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1200" /> <meta property="og:image:alt" content="The view of a glacier from a scientific cruise to the Arctic. Alex has never visited the glaciers he models, but he gets to understand and see them in a different way. Image credit: Bryony Freer" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/08/29/cryoscientist-life-stories-experiences-of-an-office-glaciologist/" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Cryospheric Sciences" /> <meta property="og:description" content="Both glaciological research conducted in the field, and in the office, are vital — and ‘count’ as glaciology. Often, however, those of us who remain in our cozy offices can be forgotten, or thought to lead a ‘boring’ job. Alex Bradley, a modeller of glaciers, is here to remind you why the office glaciologist is fundamental to the Cryosphere, and why glaciology from a distance is key to the future.   I’ve never been to the field, but I am a glaciologist I have never been to Antarctica. Nor Greenland. Or anywhere north of Scotland, for that matter. Only last year, did I first set foot on a glacier, and even that was during vacation. But I am a glaciologist, and the fact that I have never visited glaciers or ice sheets in the field doesn’t change that. I’ve never ridden a skidoo. Nor have I instrumented a crack to see how fast it’s growing. I wouldn’t even know where to begin measuring the temperature of the sea from a boat. But the work that I do is important and vital.   Alex stood next to the Raikot Glacier in the Karakoram. Image credit: Alex Bradley   I work at the British Antarctic Survey , the UK’s national logistics provider for fieldwork to the Antarctic. Each September, the place becomes alive with ‘pre-deployment training’ – when those heading “South” for the (austral) Spring receive necessary training and information about the upcoming season. The place is a buzz, the excitement of fieldwork palpable. I pass through the concourse like an apparition, curious, but feeling like an outsider – and return to my desk to do glaciology my way: through screens and computers, crunching numbers and solving equations. When my friends and colleagues return the following (boreal) Spring, I receive first-hand reports of their day-to-day routines. Night shifts on deck measuring the ocean, weeks camped on the ice listening out for icequakes, flights over the continent taking samples from clouds: to anyone outside this field, it might sound like science fiction. My day-to-day routine is far more quotidian: today, for example, my morning consisted of checking in on my simulations, checking over some code written by a colleague, and starting a review of a modeling paper.   Left: The view from Alex’s desk as he runs models on glaciers and how they change. Right: The view from a field glaciologists desk as they collect geophysical data on the Ross Ice Shelf. Image Credit: Alex Bradley, Emma Pearce   “No, I’ve never been to Antarctica!” The dinner party exchange is always the same: if occupations come up in conversation, the response is usually “Oh, cool! Do you get to go to Antarctica?” “No”, I respond, “I make models of the ice sheets and use them to make predictions about the future”. The response of my friends generally reflects a sense that studying Antarctica takes place on the ground, in the cold. This image is the result of a century of exploration which provided narratives and stories about the continent. The race between Scott and Amundsen to the South Pole is as compelling as any fiction story, the epic voyages of James Clark Ross cast our minds to a time of discovery. (These stories also – problematically – frame Antarctica as a place only for men, only for those not disabled by our systems.) These stories are epic for a reason: humans are not designed to be in Antarctica. The average temperature there, for example, is -43 degrees Celsius, almost 20 degrees colder than the coldest ever temperature recorded in the UK. That, combined with the sheer scale of this vast continent, means that even the best-organised fieldwork can’t hope to assess more than a small patch of this place (and even then, that’s when everything goes to plan, which rarely happens!).     A New Age of Glaciology This is where technology, and my job, comes in. Advances in satellite technology, machine learning, and computational power are ushering in a new age of glaciology: that which takes place in the office. Satellites are now able to track the motion of ice sheets at extremely high spatial resolution, providing an ever more detailed picture of how they are responding to climate change. Projections of sea level rise – probably the greatest threat from the World’s ice sheets – come from models built from thousands of lines of computer code. These technologies have allowed us to do really important work, and to understand the World’s ice sheets in a way that we never could from fieldwork alone. We know almost exactly how fast ice sheets have flowed in recent decades, providing a compelling picture of how ice sheets respond to climate change – and thus a call to action. We can provide policymakers with the information they need to make informed decisions about adaption to sea level rise in the future. In my opinion, these are some of the biggest questions in glaciology, and being able to inform on them makes my job really rewarding. With the ongoing revolution in artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies such as drones, the importance of the office glaciological will continue to grow. There are added benefits to shifting toward glaciology in the office. Fieldwork naturally takes place in remote regions, making it extremely carbon intensive. Fifty percent of the entire carbon emission of the British Antarctic Survey is from the fuel used to power its ship, the RRS Sir David Attenborough. It’s also extremely expensive.   Glaciologists on the KANG-GLAC cruise to the Arctic on board the RSS Sir David Attenborough. Image Credit: Bryony Freer   The Importance of Collaboration But, we can’t do everything from afar. Fieldwork remains extremely important. Satellites can only give us a broad view of the continent’s skin; lots of details can only be figured out by diving deep beneath the surface of an ice sheet. The ICEFIN project , for example, has revolutionised our understanding of what happens underneath ice shelves, providing an incredibly detailed picture of melting beneath over a kilometer of ice – impossible using satellites. Our models are also informed by, and validated against, observations made in the field. Field surveys tell us things like how ice is sliding over the Earth beneath it, which are then incorporated into models. The future lies in a relationship between field and office glaciology. An excellent example of this is the Bedmachine project , which draws observations of the topography beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, with physical modelling, to provide our best estimate of what the undulations beneath these continents truly look like. When I tell people that I haven’t been to Antarctica, there is a pang of sadness. It’s only a pang, but it’s there, an element of FOMO (the ‘Fear Of Missing Out’). Every day at the moment, when I check Instagram, I am confronted by beautiful images from friends on the KANG-GLAC cruise currently taking place around Greenland and wish, for a moment, that I was witnessing with my own eyes what I see in another form on my screen every day. But, it’s only for a moment. I’m quickly reminded that the work I do is vital, fulfilling, and interesting, and can only be done from the comfort of my office.   Further Reading Find out more about Alex’s research by reading his latest paper here or checking out his website ! You can also see some of the media coverage of Alex’s work and why it’s so important in the following news articles! The Guardian – Newly identified tipping point for ice sheets could mean greater sea level rise British Antarctic Survey – New tipping point discovered beneath the Antarctic ice Sheet Edited by Emma Pearce" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/wp-content/themes/vivacity-egu/images/favicon.ico" /><link rel="icon" href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/wp-content/themes/vivacity-egu/images/favicon.ico" type="image/vnd.microsoft.icon" /><style>#logo {margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;} #logo img {width: 220px; height: 62px;} #header {height: 64px;} #header .menu > li > a,#search-button,#cart-button,.mobile-button {line-height: 62px;} #fixed-header-padding {padding-top: 62px;} @media only screen and (max-width: 982px) { #logo {margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px!important; width: 146.66666666667px; height: 41.333333333333px;} #logo img {width: 146.66666666667px; height: 41.333333333333px;} #header {height: 43.333333333333px !important;} #header .menu > li > 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url(https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/cropped-cr.jpg)"> <div id="headerimage" class="container"> <div id="headerimage-title" style="left: auto; right: 8.3%; bottom: 13.65%;"> <div id="headerimage-abbr" style="background-color: rgb(0, 125, 184);">CR</div> <div id="headerimage-name" style="color: #333; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8)">Cryospheric Sciences</div> </div> </div></header> <nav id="breadcrumb"><div class="container"><a href="/">EGU Blogs</a> » <a href="/divisions/">Divisions</a> » <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr">Cryospheric Sciences</a> » Cryoscientist life stories: Experiences of an ‘office glaciologist’</div></nav> <div id="content-wrapper" class="container"> <div id="content"> <article class="post-15921 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-cryoscientist-life-stories tag-dayinthelife tag-glaciology tag-jobs"> <header class="entry-header post-header"> <h1 class="entry-title">Cryoscientist life stories: Experiences of an ‘office glaciologist’</h1> <div class="entry-meta"> <span class="meta-author"><a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/author/alex-bradley/" title="Posts by Alex Bradley" class="author url fn" rel="author">Alex Bradley</a></span> <span class="meta-date">August 29, 2024</span> <span class="meta-cats"><a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/category/cryoscientist-life-stories/" rel="category tag">Cryoscientist life stories</a></span> <span class="meta-comments"><a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/08/29/cryoscientist-life-stories-experiences-of-an-office-glaciologist/#respond" class="comments-link" >No Comments</a></span> </div>  </header>  <div class="entry-content"> <div class="post-thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter"> <img src="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.44-700x400.jpeg" data-rel="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.44-1400x800.jpeg" width="700" height="400" alt="The view of a glacier from a scientific cruise to the Arctic. Alex has never visited the glaciers he models, but he gets to understand and see them in a different way. Image credit: Bryony Freer" class="wp-post-image" /> <div class="featured_caption">The view of a glacier from a scientific cruise to the Arctic. Alex has never visited the glaciers he models, but he gets to understand and see them in a different way. Image credit: Bryony Freer</div> </div> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400">Both glaciological research conducted in the field, and in the office, are vital — and ‘count’ as glaciology. Often, however, those of us who remain in our cozy offices can be forgotten, or thought to lead a ‘boring’ job. Alex Bradley, a modeller of glaciers, is here to remind you why the office glaciologist is fundamental to the Cryosphere, and why glaciology from a distance is key to the future. </span></em></p> <hr /> <p> </p> <h2>I’ve never been to the field, but I am a glaciologist</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">I have never been to Antarctica. Nor Greenland. Or anywhere north of Scotland, for that matter. Only last year, did I first set foot on a glacier, and even that was during vacation. But I am a glaciologist, and the fact that I have never visited glaciers or ice sheets in the field doesn’t change that. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">I’ve never ridden a skidoo. Nor have I</span><a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/04/02/did-you-know-we-can-see-whats-going-on-inside-an-ice-shelf-using-geophysics/"><span style="font-weight: 400"><strong> instrumented a crack to see how fast it’s growing</strong>.</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400"> I wouldn’t even know where to begin measuring the temperature of the sea from a boat. But the work that I do is important and vital.</span></p> <p> </p> <div id="attachment_15927" style="width: 1610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15927" class="wp-image-15927 size-full" src="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/IMG_8108-1.jpg" alt="Alex stood next to a glacier in the Karakoram region. The glacier is debris coloured and in the background there are mountains covered in snow. " width="1600" height="1200" srcset="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/IMG_8108-1.jpg 1600w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/IMG_8108-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/IMG_8108-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/IMG_8108-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/IMG_8108-1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/IMG_8108-1-100x75.jpg 100w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/IMG_8108-1-533x400.jpg 533w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><p id="caption-attachment-15927" class="wp-caption-text">Alex stood next to the Raikot Glacier in the Karakoram. Image credit: Alex Bradley</p></div> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">I work at the</span><strong><a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/"> British Antarctic Survey</a></strong><span style="font-weight: 400">, the UK’s national logistics provider for fieldwork to the Antarctic. Each September, the place becomes alive with ‘pre-deployment training’ – when those heading “South” for the (austral) Spring receive necessary training and information about the upcoming season. The place is a buzz, the excitement of fieldwork palpable. I pass through the concourse like an apparition, curious, but feeling like an outsider – and return to my desk to do glaciology my way: through screens and computers, crunching numbers and solving equations.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">When my friends and colleagues return the following (boreal) Spring, I receive first-hand reports of their day-to-day routines. Night shifts on deck measuring the ocean, weeks camped on the ice listening out for icequakes, flights over the continent taking samples from clouds: to anyone outside this field, it might sound like science fiction. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">My day-to-day routine is far more quotidian: today, for example, my morning consisted of checking in on my simulations, checking over some code written by a colleague, and starting a review of a modeling paper.</span></p> <p> </p> <div id="attachment_15933" style="width: 1610px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15933" class="wp-image-15933 size-full" src="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/comparison.png" alt="Left: The view from Alex's desk as he runs models on glaciers and how they change. Right: The view from a field glaciologists desk as they collect geophysical data on the Ross Ice Shelf. " width="1600" height="598" srcset="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/comparison.png 1600w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/comparison-300x112.png 300w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/comparison-1024x383.png 1024w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/comparison-768x287.png 768w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/comparison-1536x574.png 1536w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/comparison-100x37.png 100w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/comparison-1070x400.png 1070w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /><p id="caption-attachment-15933" class="wp-caption-text">Left: The view from Alex’s desk as he runs models on glaciers and how they change. Right: The view from a field glaciologists desk as they collect geophysical data on the Ross Ice Shelf. Image Credit: Alex Bradley, Emma Pearce</p></div> <p> </p> <h2>“No, I’ve never been to Antarctica!”</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The dinner party exchange is always the same: if occupations come up in conversation, the response is usually “Oh, cool! Do you get to go to Antarctica?” “No”, I respond, “I make models of the ice sheets and use them to make predictions about the future”.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">The response of my friends generally reflects a sense that studying Antarctica takes place on the ground, in the cold. This image is the result of a century of exploration which provided narratives and stories about the continent. The race between Scott and Amundsen to the South Pole is as compelling as any fiction story, the epic voyages of James Clark Ross cast our minds to a time of discovery. (These stories also – problematically – frame Antarctica as a place only for men, only for those not disabled by our systems.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">These stories are epic for a reason: humans are not designed to be in Antarctica. The average temperature there, for example, is -43 degrees Celsius, almost 20 degrees colder than the coldest ever temperature recorded in the UK. That, combined with the sheer scale of this vast continent, means that even the best-organised fieldwork can’t hope to assess more than a small patch of this place (and even then, that’s when everything goes to plan, which rarely happens!). </span></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <h2>A New Age of Glaciology</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">This is where technology, and my job, comes in. Advances in satellite technology, machine learning, and computational power are ushering in a new age of glaciology: that which takes place in the office.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Satellites are now able to track the motion of ice sheets at extremely high spatial resolution, providing an ever more detailed picture of how they are responding to climate change. Projections of sea level rise – probably the greatest threat from the World’s ice sheets – come from models built from thousands of lines of computer code. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">These technologies have allowed us to do really important work, and to understand the World’s ice sheets in a way that we never could from fieldwork alone. We know almost exactly how fast ice sheets have flowed in recent decades, providing a compelling picture of how ice sheets respond to climate change – and thus a call to action. We can provide policymakers with the information they need to make informed decisions about adaption to sea level rise in the future. In my opinion, these are some of the biggest questions in glaciology, and being able to inform on them makes my job really rewarding.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">With the ongoing revolution in artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies such as drones, the importance of the office glaciological will continue to grow. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">There are added benefits to shifting toward glaciology in the office. Fieldwork naturally takes place in remote regions, making it extremely carbon intensive. </span><strong><a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/carbon-footprint-2023-2024/">Fifty percent of the entire carbon emission</a></strong><span style="font-weight: 400"> of the British Antarctic Survey is from the fuel used to power its ship, the RRS Sir David Attenborough. It’s also extremely expensive.</span></p> <p> </p> <div id="attachment_15926" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-15926" class="wp-image-15926 size-full" src="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.45.jpeg" alt="Glaciologists stood on the deck of the RSS Sir David Attenborough on a cruise to the Arctic with the sun setting in the background and glaciers in the ocean. " width="1200" height="1600" srcset="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.45.jpeg 1200w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.45-225x300.jpeg 225w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.45-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.45-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.45-75x100.jpeg 75w, https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-27-at-18.10.45-300x400.jpeg 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><p id="caption-attachment-15926" class="wp-caption-text">Glaciologists on the KANG-GLAC cruise to the Arctic on board the RSS Sir David Attenborough. Image Credit: Bryony Freer</p></div> <p> </p> <h2>The Importance of Collaboration</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">But, we can’t do everything from afar. Fieldwork remains extremely important. Satellites can only give us a broad view of the continent’s skin; lots of details can only be figured out by diving deep beneath the surface of an ice sheet. </span><strong><a href="https://schmidt.astro.cornell.edu/icefin/">The ICEFIN project</a></strong><span style="font-weight: 400">, for example, has revolutionised our understanding of what happens underneath ice shelves, providing an incredibly detailed picture of melting beneath over a kilometer of ice – impossible using satellites.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">Our models are also informed by, and validated against, observations made in the field. Field surveys tell us things like how ice is sliding over the Earth beneath it, which are then incorporated into models. The future lies in a relationship between field and office glaciology. An excellent example of this is the</span><strong><a href="https://nsidc.org/data/nsidc-0756/versions/3"> Bedmachine project</a></strong><span style="font-weight: 400">, which draws observations of the topography beneath the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, with physical modelling, to provide our best estimate of what the undulations beneath these continents truly look like.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">When I tell people that I haven’t been to Antarctica, there is a pang of sadness. It’s only a pang, but it’s there, an element of FOMO (the ‘Fear Of Missing Out’). Every day at the moment, when I check Instagram, I am confronted by beautiful images from friends on the </span><strong><a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/project/kang-glac/">KANG-GLAC</a></strong><span style="font-weight: 400"> cruise currently taking place around Greenland and wish, for a moment, that I was witnessing with my own eyes what I see in another form on my screen every day. But, it’s only for a moment. I’m quickly reminded that the work I do is vital, fulfilling, and interesting, and can only be done from the comfort of my office.</span></p> <p> </p> <h4>Further Reading</h4> <p>Find out more about Alex’s research by reading his latest paper <strong><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01465-7">here </a></strong>or checking out his<strong> <a href="http://alextbradley.github.io">website</a></strong>!<br /> You can also see some of the media coverage of Alex’s work and why it’s so important in the following news articles!</p> <ul> <li>The Guardian – <strong><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/25/newly-identified-tipping-point-for-ice-sheets-could-mean-greater-sea-level-rise">Newly identified tipping point for ice sheets could mean greater sea level rise</a></strong></li> <li>British Antarctic Survey – <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/new-tipping-point-discovered-beneath-the-antarctic-ice-sheet/"><strong>New tipping point discovered beneath the Antarctic ice Sheet</strong></a></li> </ul> <p style="text-align: right"><strong><em>Edited by Emma Pearce</em></strong><br style="font-weight: 400" /><br style="font-weight: 400" /></p> </div> <div class="meta-tags"><a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/tag/dayinthelife/" rel="tag">dayinthelife</a> <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/tag/glaciology/" rel="tag">glaciology</a> <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/tag/jobs/" rel="tag">jobs</a></div> <div class="author-info"> <span class="border-triangle"></span> <img width="80" height="80" src="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/files/2024/08/WhatsApp-Image-2024-08-29-at-10.10.05-150x150.jpeg" class="avatar avatar-80 photo wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" loading="lazy" /><div class="author-name">By <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/author/alex-bradley/" class="author-link" rel="author">Alex Bradley</a></div><div class="author-desc">Alex is a postdoc at the British Antarctic Survey, working on making models of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. 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href="/divisions/st/">ST</a> <a title="Tectonics and Structural Geology" class="divisionabbr" style="background-color:rgb(190, 84, 9);" href="/divisions/ts/">TS</a> </p></div><div id="egu_network_blogs_widget-2" class="widget widget_egu_network_blogs_widget"><h3 class="widgettitle">EGU Network Blogs</h3><div id="networkblogswidget"><figure class="networkpreview"><a title="Geology for Global Development" href="/network/gfgd/"> <img height="63" width="147" src="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/wp-content/themes/vivacity-egu/images/network/gfgd-thumb.jpg" class="preview_Geology for Global Development" alt="Geology for Global Development"/> <figcaption>Geology for Global Development</figcaption></a></figure><figure class="networkpreview"><a title="VolcanicDegassing" href="/network/volcanicdegassing/"> <img height="63" width="147" src="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/wp-content/themes/vivacity-egu/images/network/volcanicdegassing-thumb.jpg" class="preview_VolcanicDegassing" alt="VolcanicDegassing"/> <figcaption>VolcanicDegassing</figcaption></a></figure><figure class="networkpreview"><a title="WaterUnderground" href="/network/water-underground/"><div class="box"> <img height="63" width="147" src="https://blogs.egu.eu/network/water-underground/wp-content/blogs.dir/31/files/2016/08/cropped-1-1-147x63.jpg" class="preview_WaterUnderground" alt="WaterUnderground"/><div class="ribbon"><span>AGU</span></div></div> <figcaption>WaterUnderground</figcaption></a></figure></div></div> <div id="recent-posts-2" class="widget widget_recent_entries"> <h3 class="widgettitle">Recent Posts</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2025/01/10/field-notes-from-the-chhota-shigri-glacier-a-journey-of-science-and-survival-in-the-himalaya/">Field notes from the Chhota Shigri Glacier: A journey of science and survival in the Himalaya</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/12/16/uncovering-antarcticas-hidden-subglacial-lake-network-with-satellite-altimetry/">Uncovering Antarctica’s hidden subglacial lake network with satellite altimetry</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/12/06/happy-birthday-to-the-cryoblog/">Happy birthday to the Cryoblog!</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/11/22/crossing-borders/">Crossing borders – Glacier fieldwork at Sulitjelma/Salajekna</a> </li> <li> <a href="https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/11/08/did-you-know-machine-learning-can-help-us-understand-the-cryosphere/">Did you know? Machine learning can help us understand the cryosphere!</a> </li> </ul> </div><div id="archives-2" class="widget widget_archive"><h3 class="widgettitle">Archives</h3> <label class="screen-reader-text" for="archives-dropdown-2">Archives</label> <select id="archives-dropdown-2" name="archive-dropdown"> <option value="">Select Month</option> <option value='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2025/01/'> January 2025 </option> <option value='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/12/'> December 2024 </option> <option value='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/11/'> November 2024 </option> <option value='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/10/'> October 2024 </option> <option value='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/09/'> September 2024 </option> <option value='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/08/'> August 2024 </option> <option value='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/07/'> July 2024 </option> <option value='https://blogs.egu.eu/divisions/cr/2024/06/'> June 2024 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