Standing on an ice sheet with solely a t-shirt on his again, 52-year-old Professor Benjamin Horton certainly didn’t anticipate such climate during his journey to Antarctica. “The first couple of days, the weather was wonderful. The oceans were like a mirror. We had wildlife, humpback whales, popping out (of the ocean),” said the director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore. “I was overdressed.” The region skilled around 15 degrees Celsius in the afternoon, which was not the kind of temperature one would count on to face in the South Pole.
Uncomplicated is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on the planet. However, summer season days may be surprisingly delicate and unpredictable. Their next day started with poor weather circumstances that prevented the staff from disembarking from the boat.
Professor Horton and 26-year-old PhD scholar Tan Fang Yi had been a half of a Singapore scientific expedition to Antarctica to check sea degree rise. Their work included sampling past ice temperatures to make better projections of Antarctica’s glacier tipping level, often identified as the marine ice sheet instability. Once the edge is crossed, scientists imagine that efforts to cut greenhouse fuel emissions back to pre-industrial ranges may no longer be enough.
“Every low-lying coastal nation shall be influenced by what’s happening at the poles. That ice sheet has sufficient water contained inside its ice to raise international sea levels in excess of 60 metres. And when a third of Singapore is simply one metre above excessive tide, you can see why it’s necessary,” mentioned Professor Horton.
During the journey, the scientists additionally collected samples of Antarctica’s air and ocean water to raised perceive the way it might help regulate the Earth’s climate. They faced several challenges while conducting their experiments, together with the necessity to work around harsh weather conditions and keeping their footprint on the pristine landscape as minimal as attainable.
Tan Fang Yi emphasised the importance of being versatile and resourceful through the expedition, stating, “I realised how flexible we now have to be when trying to conduct experiments as a end result of we actually should work around the circumstances and the weather. It’s not like in Singapore where I know (when) low tides are coming.”
Despite the challenges, visiting Antarctica was an necessary alternative for the staff. “For scientists like ourselves, having the chance to go to Antarctica actually can’t be missed. But do people must go to Antarctica to see climate change? No, they simply want to suppose about how scorching it’s in Singapore,” said Professor Horton..