There are lakes buried deep beneath the Greenland ice sheet we can’t see called subglacial lakes.
📽️ In this video CPOM's Professor Mal McMillan @lancasteruni.bsky.social explains how researchers working on the GLOBE project aim to track them 👇
🔗 youtu.be/ECv9FnnQf1k
🌍These are just some examples of how satellite technology has helped us better understand the Earth's ice.
You can find out more on our website 👇
🔗 cpom.org.uk/news
In 2025, a CPOM study from Lancaster University investigated the sudden draining of a recently detected lake under the Greenland ice sheet (subglacial lake), using European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA satellite data and 3D simulations from the ArcticDEM project.
cpom.org.uk/subglacial-f...
In 2024, a study led by CPOM researcher Nitin Ravinder delivered the first measurements of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s changing shape using data from ESA’s CryoSat and NASA’s ICESat-2 ice missions.
cpom.org.uk/esa-and-nasa...
The GLAMBIE team (Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise), co-led by Prof Noel Gourmelen, produced updated figures on glacier loss showing that from 2000 – 2023 glaciers across the globe lost 6542 billion tonnes of ice, contributing 18 mm to global sea level rise.
cpom.org.uk/earths-glaci...
The IMBIE (Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise) team, led by Dr Inès Otosaka, have reconciled three decades of satellite measurements to provide the world’s most authoritative estimates of ice sheet mass balance and sea level rise contributions.
cpom.org.uk/ice-sheets-a...
Using using data from ESA and NASA satellite missions, including CryoSat-2, and Copernicus, research led by CPOM's Dr Tom Slater found that the Earth was losing more than a trillion tonnes of ice a year.
cpom.org.uk/cpom-researc...
🛰️Sunday is #HumanSpaceFlightDay - 65 years since humans first reached orbit.
Satellite technology has transformed what we know about the cryosphere.
Scroll down to read about just some of the CPOM science the space age made possible in recent years 👇
#HumanSpaceFlightDay #PolarScience
Black‑and‑white close‑up of the Moon showing craters and surface details.
To the Moon (and back)🌖
A routine calibration by Copernicus Sentinel‑2 captured this image of the Moon.
And now, with Artemis II on its way there, Europe is part of the journey — powering Orion with the European Service Module and supporting the mission from the ground across the continent.
One week to go until the 5th ECMWF-ESA Machine Learning workshop in Bologna, Italy.
The workshop takes place from 13-17 April and will explore the opportunities and challenges of using ML for Earth Observation and Prediction (ESOP).
➡️ events.ecmwf.int/event/488/
@esaearth.esa.int
#MachineLearning
🌍It's #WorldHealthDay and the WHO is calling on everyone to celebrate the power of scientific collaboration to protect the health of people, animals, plants, and the planet.
🧊Understanding the cryosphere and how it is changing is a vital part of that story.
#StandWithScience #WorldHealthDay
Read the full article, which includes Github link to the animation code (credit Dr Joe Phillips)
🔗cpom.org.uk/new-cpom-research-uses-r...
CRISTAL, ESA's next polar altimeter launching in 2027 will have a a 256 m window. The research provides evidence that wider windows significantly improve performance over dynamic ice sheet margins.
Implementing a 240 m window, like ESA's CryoSat-2 Earth Explorer mission, achieves near-complete coverage, even over complex terrain.
Analysis of 8 million+ radar echoes showed that Sentinel-3's 60 m measurement window captured 89.2% of the maximum topographic signal that could be recorded within its range window.
🛰️New CPOM research assessing Sentinel-3 radar altimetry over Antarctica from Dr Joe Phillips & Prof Mal McMillan @lancasteruni.bsky.social.
Thread on what they found 👇
📽️ Clips from a Sentinel-3 flyover over Mertz Glacier, East Antarctica, showing the echoes recorded by the altimeter.
Michela Savignano’s first PhD paper is now online as a preprint in The Cryosphere:
"Temporal evolution of the Petermann Ice Shelf estuary constrained by remote sensing observations"
egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20... 🛰️❄️🧪
@cires.colorado.edu @cpom-uk.bsky.social @northumbriauni.bsky.social
🛰️What if we could improve older @esaearth.esa.int heritage satellite measurements with new techniques?
Researchers from CPOM @lancasteruni.bsky.social have been doing just that 👇
🔗earth.esa.int/eogateway/success-story/...
🛰️ How satellite altimetry is improving projections of Antarctic ice loss
New research shows satellite altimetry data confirms high mass loss from Thwaites glacier over next 50 years 👇
🔗 eo4society.esa.int/2026/03/19/s...
For Dr Tom Slater (@northumbriauni.bsky.social) the journey into polar science was far from linear.
Always interested in climate science, Tom hadn't got the A-levels needed to pursue it at degree level.
But there was another route 👇
📹 www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMMt...
Our new study discussing the future of the Antarctic Peninsula, led by @iceybethan.bsky.social, is featured in @agu.org’s Eos magazine today 🇦🇶 ❄️ 🛰️ 🧪
@cpom-uk.bsky.social @northumbriauni.bsky.social @cires.colorado.edu @nsidc.bsky.social
🆕 New Blog: How a love of physics at school led Alicia to the Arctic Circle.
Stories like Alicia's is a reminder why it's so important to encourage all children and young people to engage with science.
🔗 cpom.org.uk/internationa...
Image: Alicia on fieldwork in the Arctic Circle
❄️ From equations to ice sheets: how an interest in maths and physics can lead you to Antarctica and Greenland.
Dr Inès Otosaka (@northumbriauni.bsky.social) shared her journey into polar science at @stemlearning.bsky.social's Mars Day 2026 yesterday 👇
cpom.org.uk/from-equatio...
Great to see CPOM's Inès Otosaka (@northumbriauni.bsky.social) explaining how she went from studying maths at school in France to studying the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, as part of @stemlearning.bsky.social's Mars Day 2026 👇
🔗 www.stem.org.uk/primary/enri...
"Polar science at the moment is a great opportunity to use new technologies and new techniques to answer some really interesting questions."
📽️In this video, Dr Tom Mitcham talks about his career and why now is a great time to forge a career in polar science...⏰
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOy3...
Exciting Research Fellow position at @northumbriauni.bsky.social working on the @esaearth.esa.int -funded CryoTipping project.
Find out more and apply 👇
work4.northumbria.ac.uk#en/sites/CX_...
Exciting Research Fellow position at @northumbriauni.bsky.social working on the @esaearth.esa.int -funded CryoTipping project.
Find out more and apply 👇
work4.northumbria.ac.uk#en/sites/CX_...
What can a PhD in polar science look like? 🧊
We followed CPOM PhD researcher Marlena Holloway (@northumbriauni.bsky.social) during the first year of her PhD to find out 👇
youtu.be/m5d7wYl5hRo
