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A high-resolution update of Antarctic bed topography using mass conservation reveals broad stabilizing ridges for glaciers flowing across the Transantarctic Mountains, and stabilizing slopes beneath Moscow University, Totten and Lambert glacier system.

The snow surrounding research facilities and shore tourist-landing sites in Antarctica was found to be darker than elsewhere in the continent, which suggests that local emissions of black carbon are accelerating seasonal snowmelt in impacted regions.

Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is losing mass and has the potential to cause substantial sea level rise. New seabed imagery indicates that the glacier previously retreated at double its current rate, implying that mass loss could accelerate in the near future.

Thinning ice in West Antarctica is currently contributing about 10% of the observed rise in global sea level. Observations obtained from an autonomous underwater vehicle operating beneath Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, reveal that the glacier was recently grounded on a transverse ridge in the sea floor, but now warm sea water flows through the widening gap above the ridge.

Data from multiple satellite sensors show that Antarctica lost almost 37,000 km² of ice-shelf area from 1997 to 2021, and that calving losses are as important as ice-shelf thinning.

Efficient statistical emulation of melting land ice under various climate scenarios to 2100 indicates a contribution from melting land ice to sea level increase of at least 13 centimetres sea level equivalent.

The precise contribution of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) melt to global sea-level rise remains enigmatic. Here, the authors generate an ice sheet thinning history for the Weddell Sea embayment and propose that this sector of the WAIS contributed to mid-Holocene, rather than late-glacial sea-level rise.

The front of the Getz Ice Shelf in West Antarctica creates an abrupt topographic step that deflects ocean currents, suppressing 70% of the heat delivery to the ice sheet.

Melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is projected to impose severe costs on Small Island Developing States, and increase the worldwide social cost of carbon emissions, but costs could be reduced dramatically by efficient, proactive coastal planning.

The future of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean by 2070 is described under two scenarios, one in which action is taken to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and one in which no action is taken.

Concurrent observations at multiple locations indicate that storm-generated ocean waves propagating through Antarctic sea ice can transport enough energy to break first-year sea ice hundreds of kilometres from the ice edge, which is much farther than would be predicted by the commonly assumed exponential wave decay.

In the Arctic Ocean, a salinity gradient separates a shallow layer of cold, relatively fresh water from the warmer, saltier Atlantic water below. A reconstruction of intermediate water temperatures in the Arctic during the last glacial period shows the presence of relatively warm water that may reflect a deepening of the halocline.

Polarella glacialis DNA in sediments can provide a record of past sea-ice cover as inferred gene copy numbers increase with sea-ice concentration between 20 and 80%, suggest analysis of sedimentary DNA from Arctic marine and fjord environments.

This study explores the 90-year collapse of the Midgaard Glacier, one of the greatest mass losers in the entire Greenland ice sheet. The study reveals complex ice flow piracy and demonstrates the impact of Midgaard’s collapse on the dynamics of glaciers at a regional scale.

North Greenland ice shelves have lost more than a third of their masses, thinning dramatically from below due to increased ocean temperatures. In response, grounding lines have retreated and the amount of ice discharged into the ocean has increased.

Satellite-based mapping of vegetation shows that photosynthetic life occupies a total area of 44.2 km² across Antarctica.

The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission, launched in 2002, allows monitoring of changes in hydrology and the cryosphere with terrestrial and ocean applications. This Review Article focuses on its contribution to the detection and quantification of climate change signals.

Geothermal heat flow, a driver of tectonic processes, must be inferred by indirect means in Antarctica. This Review probes variations in Antarctic heat flow maps, discusses the corresponding tectonic insights and provides recommendations for the use of such maps in ice sheet modelling.

An estimate of the mass balance components for all ice shelves in Antarctica indicates that about half of the ice-sheet surface mass gain is lost through oceanic erosion before reaching the ice front, and that the loss due to iceberg calving is about 34 per cent less than previously thought.

The climatic impact of ammonia emissions from Arctic seabird-colony guano is poorly understood. Here, using observations and a chemical transport model, Croftet al. illustrate that guano-associated particles promote cloud-droplet formation, resulting in a pan-Arctic cooling tendency of approximately −0.5 W m⁻².

Physical and biogeochemical changes in the Southern Ocean over the past decade are largely due to growing meltwater input and intensifying poleward winds, according to observations from ships and floats and model simulations.

Quantum condensates may penetrate from one material to another due to the proximity effect. Here, Stolyarov et al. report the spatial evolution of quantum vortices from a superconducting Nb layer to a 50 nanometer thick diffusive metallic Cu-film, which is quite thick away from the interface.

This study reveals that air-sea heat exchange plays differing roles in the transformation of Atlantic Water along the two northward-flowing warm currents in the Nordic Seas, which needs to be considered to understand high-latitude response to climate change.

Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf observations from a new underwater vehicle show that high melt rates occur where ice is sharply sloped at the ocean interface, with lower melt where the ice is comparatively flat.

In contrast to the significant retreat of Arctic sea-ice, Antarctic sea-ice has exhibited a modest expansion in recent decades. Here, the authors employ model simulations to investigate the drivers of this unexpected trend.

Antarctic sea ice extent declined dramatically in austral spring 2016. This study shows the decline was initially driven by tropical convection resulting in a wave-3 circulation pattern, followed by weakened circumpolar surface westerlies initialised in the polar stratospheric vortex.

Predicting the West Antarctic Ice Sheet's response to future warming is hindered by a lack of historical evidence. Here, based on geomorphological evidence from and cosmogenic dating of Ellsworth Mountains' deposits, the authors show that at least a regional ice sheet survived Pleistocene interglacial cycles.

New particles can form rapidly in Antarctica through the reactions of sulfuric acid and amines, suggest ship and station measurements around the Antarctic Peninsula.

Men develop larger myocardial infarction (MI) sizes than women. Here, the authors show that male sex and testosterone, via bone marrow stroma, exacerbates MI-induced neutrophilia and cardiac injury and that response to anti-inflammatory treatment in MI is greater in men than women

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet is currently surrounded by relatively cool water but changes in ocean dynamics may lead to warmer ocean water on the shelf in the future. This has the potential to dramatically increase its future sea level contribution.

It may have taken only a decade to repeatedly destabilize the Antarctic Ice Sheet after the last Ice Age as shown by a new data-model study. The ice sheet lost ice for centuries each time before it abruptly re-stabilized again.

A challenge for testing mechanisms of past climate change is the precise correlation of palaeoclimate records. Here, through climate modelling and the alignment of terrestrial, ice and marine ¹⁴C and ¹⁰Be records, the authors show that Southern Ocean freshwater hosing can trigger global change.

Crabeater seals feed predominantly on Antarctic krill. Combining seal tracks and diving behaviour with environmental variables allows the future foraging habitat, and therefore krill distribution, to be predicted, suggesting a shift offshore and south along the western Antarctic Peninsula.

Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.

Impact basins on the Moon are considered as the best landing sites for the recovery of information about the lunar interior. To inform future lunar missions, Kringet al. combine remote sensing and numerical modelling to generate a geological map of the Schrodinger Impact Basin peak ring.