Antarctic Fieldwork

Scientific expeditions to Antarctica provide essential in-situ data, to help researchers to better understand how the coldest and driest region on Earth responds to a warming world. Expeditions to this remote area thus contribute to improve our understanding of ice-sheet dynamics, atmospheric processes, and the cryosphere’s role in global environmental change.

In January 2026, Dr. Felicity McCormack from Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future, an Australian Antarctic research program, and Monash University together with Prof. Dr Ricarda Winkelmann and Lena Nicola from MPI-GEA and PIK will jointly conduct fieldwork in East Antarctica to better understand a central question in climate science: That is, to what extent the melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet will contribute to global sea-level rise and over what timescales. The planned field campaign will be supported by the White Desert Science Foundation Grant, valued at a maximum of US $200,000 in logistical support.

This first pilot study aims to generate new insights into the refreezing of surface meltwater within the snowpack of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. By examining the structure and physical characteristics of melt layers, the team wants to refine the parameters used in models of Antarctic mass balance—how the continent gains and loses ice. Field measurements will be conducted along a transect in Dronning Maud Land, complemented by data from two automated weather stations. Ultimately, the project intends to improve how models simulate surface mass balance processes, and in consequence, Antarctica’s future contribution to global sea-level rise.

The team will also collect snow samples from the study area, which will be analyzed for microplastic contamination in the laboratories in Jena.