Record-breaking drilling under the Ross Ice Shelf
Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI)
Published: 17 February 2026
An international SWAIS2C team drilled the longest sediment core (228 m) ever obtained from beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, piercing 523 m of ice to access 23 million years of climate history.
Keywords: Antarctica, Ross Ice Shelf, sediment core, SWAIS2C, ice sheet, paleoclimate, polar research, West Antarctic
How bubbles may speed up CO2 uptake by the ocean
Plymouth Marine Laboratory
Published: 6 January 2026
Analysis of 4,082 hours of sea-air CO2 flux measurements across 17 cruises found clear evidence of asymmetric bubble-mediated CO2 transfer, increasing global ocean CO2 uptake estimates by about 15%.
Keywords: ocean carbon uptake, CO2 flux, bubble-mediated transfer, Southern Ocean, air-sea gas exchange, climate science
Can spores transported from distant terrestrial regions act as cloud seeds over the Arctic Ocean?
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)
Published: 18 February 2026
R/V Mirai observations reveal that land-emitted spores travel over 100 km to the Arctic Ocean and may seed cloud ice crystals, though mixing with sea-salt particles during transport reduces their effectiveness.
Keywords: Arctic Ocean, bioaerosols, cloud formation, ice-nucleating particles, R/V Mirai, spores, ocean-atmosphere interaction
