Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
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alibanwell.bsky.social
Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
@alibanwell.bsky.social
1.4K followers 740 following 75 posts
Glaciologist | Antarctica and Greenland | Research Scientist, CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder 🇺🇸 | Professor, CPOM, Northumbria University 🇬🇧 | Protect Our Winters Science Alliance | National Geographic Explorer
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alibanwell.bsky.social
Alison Banwell, Ph.D. @alibanwell.bsky.social · Aug 11
I’m excited to share that I’ve accepted a position as Professor of Glaciology @cpom-uk.bsky.social, @northumbriauni.bsky.social in the UK! I’ll be starting part-time next month and increasing my time from summer 2026, while retaining a part-time position at @cires.colorado.edu, @colorado.edu ❄️🛰️🧪
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
drmichellelarue.bsky.social
We captured 18 birds today and then we surveyed the colony for bird flu, which we thankfully saw no evidence of.

Cape Crozier remains magical!
🌍🧪🦑🦉
A bunch of emperor penguins right near the camera with text overlay that says “surveying for bird flu involved lots of… birds. Curious, adorable birds.”
November 11, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cires.colorado.edu
"One glacier's 'Out of this world' retreat might have set a modern record. Now, scientists pieced together what happened," CIRES research posted by the Smithsonian Magazine. Story: buff.ly/gytQpc1
A glacier spreads into an icy ocean.
November 10, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
alibanwell.bsky.social
Led by Chris Bézu, with co-authors @bradlipovsky.bsky.social, Daniel Shapero & myself, our @igsoc.bsky.social pre-print presents a new open-source model that couples ice-shelf flow, flexure & fracture 🧊 🧪

@cires.colorado.edu @cpom-uk.bsky.social #glaciology

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Ice shelf evolution combining flow, flexure, and fracture | Journal of Glaciology | Cambridge Core
Ice shelf evolution combining flow, flexure, and fracture
www.cambridge.org
September 24, 2025 at 11:27 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
eos.org
In 2024, Amazon forest fires released sevenfold more CO2 than in previous years.
Fire, Not Deforestation, Is Now the Amazon’s Biggest Carbon Emitter - Eos
Forest degradation in the Amazon increased by 400% in 2024. It was largely driven by wildfires during the forest’s worst fire season in more than 20 years.
eos.org
November 8, 2025 at 4:42 PM
alibanwell.bsky.social
🧪 🛰️
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 4d
After 13 years as the top federal workplace, NASA is facing an employee exodus and months of turmoil after deep budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration.

If fully implemented, the changes could reshape U.S. science for years.
NASA has lost thousands of workers. Here’s what that means for science.
Staffers told The Post about months of turmoil and sweeping changes that, if fully implemented, could transform NASA and American science beyond the Trump years.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:48 PM
alibanwell.bsky.social
Dismantling federal agencies like NASA will be disastrous for science www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪
Insiders warn how dismantling federal agencies could put science at risk
From NASA to the National Institutes of Health, federal agencies conduct research that universities cannot. Agency scientists speak out about the irreplaceable facilities, institutional knowledge and ...
www.nature.com
November 6, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
dhsu.bsky.social
There are many uncertainties in this article except this one: "Worldwide, some 230 million people live less than a meter above sea level, and 1 billion people are within 10 meters of sea level." www.quantamagazine.org/how-soon-wil...
How Soon Will the Seas Rise? | Quanta Magazine
The uniquely vulnerable West Antarctic Ice Sheet holds enough water to raise global sea levels by 5 meters. But when that will happen — and how fast — is anything but settled.
www.quantamagazine.org
October 20, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cpom-uk.bsky.social
🚁 At the Lit & Phil last week, CPOM's @andyshepherd.bsky.social & @treacherousbuzz.bsky.social showed how drones are transforming fieldwork in polar regions, sharing these highlights from a CPOM PhD research trip to Iceland last year ❄️

#PolarScience #ClimateResearch #Dronetech
November 4, 2025 at 10:45 AM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cires.colorado.edu
New video: A glacier on Antarctica’s Eastern Peninsula experienced the fastest retreat recorded in modern history—in just two months, nearly 50 percent of the glacier disintegrated. Watch this video to understand what happened. Study by @ciresnews #Antarctica #glaciermelt
November 3, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cires.colorado.edu
This video shows how Hektoria Glacier began to disintegrate in 2022. #Antarctica #CIRES
November 3, 2025 at 9:31 PM
alibanwell.bsky.social
Yup! 75% of us are considering leaving (/made plans to leave/already left) 😢 🧪

www.pbs.org/newshour/sho...
Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'
A poll from the journal Nature found that 75% of researchers in the U.S. are considering leaving the country. That includes a man who’s been dubbed the "Mozart of Math." Stephanie Sy examines what’s b...
www.pbs.org
November 2, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cires.colorado.edu
Please share! CIRES is accepting applications for the role of Associate Director of Science to oversee research activities! This position supervises others and reports to the CIRES Director. Learn more about the position: buff.ly/DE3DhQH
Box with words and CIRES logo.
October 31, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cpom-uk.bsky.social
🛰️We loved bringing this polar science made possible by data from the @esa.int CryoSat-2 mission to life for children and their families at the @scienceatlife.bsky.social 👇
esaclimate.bsky.social esaclimate @esaclimate.bsky.social · 11d
👩‍🔬The next generation of scientists: Climate Change Initiative's Antarctic Ice Sheets project and @cpom-uk.bsky.social brought polar science to young minds! Via interactive activities, children discovered how ESA's CryoSat-2 mission monitors melting polar regions from space.🛰️
youtu.be/kVCApx7BPgI
Science Outreach with CPOM
YouTube video by Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM)
youtu.be
October 31, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cpom-uk.bsky.social
We can’t wait to see updates from Ali in Antarctica! 🇦🇶
alibanwell.bsky.social Alison Banwell, Ph.D. @alibanwell.bsky.social · 16d
Great visit to U. Maine for radar field instrumentation training (GPR and ApRES) - next stop, the McMurdo Ice Shelf #Antarctica! 🇦🇶 ❄️

Thanks @alpinesciences.bsky.social, @km-schild.bsky.social and many wonderful @umaine.bsky.social grad students 👏🏻

@cires.colorado.edu @cpom-uk.bsky.social 🧪
October 28, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cires.colorado.edu
Walt Meir, senior research scientist @nsidc.bsky.social is interviewed on Utah's KPCW "This Green Earth" discussing the Arctic sea ice maximum. Arctic sea ice has been receding for years and the effects are making global impacts. #Arctic
Arctic sea ice below long-term average
Arctic sea ice has experienced an unprecedented decline over the past decade. Senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, Walt Meier, discusses what is currently happening to…
www.kpcw.org
October 29, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cires.colorado.edu
Applications are open for the CIRES Visiting Fellows Program! Two-year fellowships are available for postdocs, and terms of up to 12 months for senior scientists on leave or sabbatical. Learn more: cires.colorado.edu/award-progra... #fellowships #postdoc #sabbatical Photo:@alibanwell.bsky.social
A person in a parka walks on a snow field with mountains in the background and clouds.
October 27, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
katharinehayhoe.com
Have you noticed plane turbulence is getting worse?

It’s not your imagination. It’s climate change.
profpaul.bsky.social Prof Paul Williams @profpaul.bsky.social · 27d
Our new study finds that the upper atmosphere is becoming more sheared and less stratified because of climate change. Both these changes are making the air less stable and more conducive to turbulence.

Published in the November issue of Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

doi.org/10.1175/JAS-...
October 26, 2025 at 5:11 PM
alibanwell.bsky.social
Great visit to U. Maine for radar field instrumentation training (GPR and ApRES) - next stop, the McMurdo Ice Shelf #Antarctica! 🇦🇶 ❄️

Thanks @alpinesciences.bsky.social, @km-schild.bsky.social and many wonderful @umaine.bsky.social grad students 👏🏻

@cires.colorado.edu @cpom-uk.bsky.social 🧪
October 25, 2025 at 8:56 PM
alibanwell.bsky.social
Our fieldwork back on the McMurdo Ice Shelf #Antarctica in 2017. I’m headed back there next month for a new project on the same ice shelf 😎 ❄️ 🐧
cires.colorado.edu CIRES @cires.colorado.edu · 17d
CIRES on ice — In 2017, a field team tested the strength of a frozen meltwater lake on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in Antarctica. #FieldworkFriday

📸: @alibanwell.bsky.social / CIRES
Three people wearing winter gear and holding tools stand on an icy surface
October 25, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cires.colorado.edu
Thanks for hanging in there through our CIRES ABCs project. We hope you learned a little about CIRES or at least enjoyed the photos by our talented scientists! #ciresabc #science #environment #research #sciencetobenefitsociety cires.colorado.edu
October 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cpom-uk.bsky.social
Earth is losing more than a trillion tonnes of ice each year – enough to create an ice cube more than 10km high 🧊

But how do we make data collected by satellites from hundreds of miles above Earth feel real for people on the ground?

1/4

#ClimateAction #PolarScience #ScienceCommunication
October 24, 2025 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
cires.colorado.edu
#ICYMI, last spring, @nsidc.bsky.social Deputy Lead Scientist @drtwilamoon.bsky.social expanded her role at CIRES as the institute's first-ever climate communications engagement lead. buff.ly/HSsheIy #engage #climate #science
CIRES' Twila Moon establishes new role in climate communications
CIRES researcher Twila Moon will train mid-career professionals in climate education workshops across the United States.
www.colorado.edu
October 21, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
polarsecco.bsky.social
Interested in learning more about the various polar organizations that have opportunities for ECRs? PSECCO is excited to host representatives from 16 polar organizations on October 29, 2025 at 10 AM MT to share what they have to offer for the early career community. Register for this event below!
Promo for a reminder to attend the Overview of Polar Organizations for Early Career Researchers event. Text overlaid on photo states “16 organizations will share ways to engage with the community! October 29, 2025 from 10am to 11am MT”. A cloudy sunset behind glaciers at the front of calm polar waters. Promo for a reminder to attend the Overview of Polar Organizations for Early Career Researchers event. Text overlaid on photo states “16 organizations will share ways to engage with the community! October 29, 2025 from 10am to 11am MT”. A cloudy sunset behind glaciers at the front of calm polar waters. Promo for a reminder to attend the Overview of Polar Organizations for Early Career Researchers event. Text overlaid on photo states “16 organizations will share ways to engage with the community! October 29, 2025 from 10am to 11am MT”. A cloudy sunset behind glaciers at the front of calm polar waters.
October 16, 2025 at 9:12 PM
alibanwell.bsky.social
I highly recommend this fellowship! This is what brought me to Boulder over 7 years ago, and I’m still here… ❄️ 🛰️ 🧪
cires.colorado.edu CIRES @cires.colorado.edu · 21d
The CIRES prestigious Visiting Fellows Program invites scientists to join the thriving community of researchers at @colorado.edu and @noaa.gov laboratories. Applications opened TODAY, and will be accepted through January 1, 2026. Learn more here: buff.ly/gg7HNXe
Sunrise on flat but almost vertical mountains making them red with fall colored foliage in the foreground.
October 21, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Reposted by Alison Banwell, Ph.D.
noc.ac.uk
As we prepare for the Arctic Circle #Assembly2025 we're highlighting NOC's Arctic work.

🌡️ The Arctic may be ice-free in summer by 2050, with global impacts. 🌍

Projects like CANARI focus on how this affects extreme weather and the UK. 🇬🇧🌦️

More on our Arctic projects here:
noc.ac.uk/science/arct...
October 15, 2025 at 3:24 PM