On the morning of November 19, 2025, a special kind of magic lay over the Yokosuka Naval Base. The Japanese observation vessel Shirase was preparing to embark on its journey to Antarctica. More than 500 relatives and friends came to bid farewell. (Photo: JARE67 Miho Ikeda)On the morning of 19 Novemb
Eddies of varying sizes form in all oceans. They have a significant influence on how heat and energy are transported within the ocean. (Image: NASA)Deep beneath the glassy surface of the oceans, a fascinating yet threatening spectacle unfolds. In the silent, dark depths where humans cannot reach, sw
Sampling from a gentoo penguin colony. (Photo: INACH)In a globally unprecedented event for polar science and virology, a team of researchers from the University of Chile and the Chilean Antarctic Institute (INACH) has, for the first time, successfully sequenced the complete genomes of the highly pat
The Rothera Research Station is a base of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on the Antarctic Peninsula, located on Adelaide Island. (Photo: BAM)The Antarctic season 2025/26 marks a milestone for the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and its Antarctic Infrastructure Modernisation Project (AIMP), as the
Handover of the “Memorandum of Arrangement.” Photo: New Zealand EmbassyBern – This week, New Zealand’s Ambassador to Switzerland, Craig Hawke, handed over the Memorandum of Arrangement between Antarctica New Zealand and the Swiss Polar Institute to the President of the Swiss Polar Institute, Prof. F
The emperor penguin colony at Taylor Glacier has remained stable over the last 20 years, with a population of 2,500 birds. (Photo: Scott Crabbe)A lucky handful of Mawson expeditioners visited the Taylor Glacier emperor penguin colony in July, to collect photos for the annual population census. No mo
The second-generation Metop satellites are proof of European innovation and technical excellence in the field of space and Earth observation. (Image: ESA)A new addition to the weather satellite family of the European Organisations for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. Metop-SGA1 was suc
The whales are returning to Antarctica earlier than before. (Photo: Zoia Shvydka)Ukrainian scientists have recorded the early return of humpback whales to the Antarctic Peninsula region — the area where the Ukrainian Vernadsky Station is located. This observation has also been confirmed by the inter
Russia and China will train Specialists for Maritime Navigation in Polar RegionsHangzhou, November 4, 2025 – Russia and China will jointly train specialists for navigation in polar waters, according to a memorandum signed during Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s visit to China, the Russian
As part of this expedition, China plans to drill into deep lakes beneath the Antarctic ice sheet for the first time. Using hot water and melt drilling systems, boreholes will be drilled through more than 3,000 metres of ice. Departure ceremony for the Chinese polar research icebreakers Xuelong and X
Never before have such ancient ice cores been recovered. (Photo: BAS)Ancient ice from Antarctica, obtained as part of the Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice project, contains unique climate records spanning at least the last 1.2 million years. The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) team in Cambridge, together wi
The Endurance was unable to withstand the pressure of the ice and sank.When polar explorer Ernest Shackleton wrote in his diary on 27 October 1915: ‘She was doomed, no man-made ship could have withstood the strain,’ his dreams of reaching Antarctica had already been shattered. The HMS Endurance had
The tongue of the Hektoria Glacier in February 2024. The glacier continues to calve huge icebergs into the sea. (Photo: Naomi Ochwat)Glaciers around the world are losing mass due to climate change, and Antarctica is also affected. The process at the Hektor Glacier was tracked via satellite for the f
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at new regulations on subantarctic islands for visitors, the solution to a 66-year old Antarctic mystery, and a grim outlook for reindeer populations due to the changing climate.The changi
From September to December, a research team from Australian Antarctic Programs will be deployed on the sub-Antarctic island at 53 degrees south to assess the health of animal populations.King penguins on Heard Island. Image: Stephen Brown / Australian Antarctic Program Australia is bracing itself fo
Revealing a surprising diversity of ancient species just after the mass extinction that ended the age of dinosaurs, new fossil discoveries from North Canterbury in New Zealand show how early penguins developed powerful underwater adaptations and long, spear-like beaks. The findings affirm New Zealan
The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands had planned to implement a new ETA system for visitors but had to delay these plans now. The Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands (GSGSSI) has announced a last-minute postponement of its new Electronic Entry Permit sy
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at a new map of Alexander Island, a new Canadian inuit-owned fishing vessel, and a new viral threat for Arctic foxes on Svalbard. The Polar Retrospective is a collaborative effort by the e
Male leopard seals sing for hours each day over many weeks and their patterned trills resemble the structure of human nursery rhymes. A new study reveals that these underwater love songs may be deliberately simple and repetitive, helping the seals stand out and be heard across vast icy waters.Restin
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at a hidden lake flood beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, the end of another icebreaker era in Antarctica, and traces of an ancient rift between America and Greenland.The Polar Retrospective
For nearly 30 years, an Australian observatory in the Southern Ocean has delivered crucial long-term data on carbon uptake, ecosystem change and climate trends, and its role is becoming more important than ever. A long-running observatory in the Southern Ocean has been collecting data for nearly 30
New research shows that the success of Marine Protected Areas hinges on strict enforcement, a principle facing major geopolitical and ecological challenges in the planned sanctuaries of the Arctic and Antarctic. Two major studies arrive at seemingly opposite conclusions about the effectiveness of Ma
Mila Zinkova, an independent atmospheric scientist, has just published a study in the journal Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research that pays tribute to the Terra Nova expedition. She suggests that the captain and his crew, returning from the South Pole, may well have been caught in a nine-day snow
The Polar Retrospective looks at recent stories from around the world’s polar regions. This week we take a look at a $17 million contract between the Norwegian Polar Institute and Prinoth, at new insights into the role of ocean tides in triggering iceberg calving in Antarctica, and consequences of w
