Antarctica expedition to study rising sea levels

Antarctica may seem distant for most of us, yet this remote continent contains enough ice to raise sea levels around the world by tens of metres. What happens in Antarctica therefore has implications on coastal regions worldwide and the billions of people who live within them.

As a low-lying island in the tropics, Singapore is especially vulnerable to changes in the oceans. The government had in 2019, announced a S$100 billion plan to protect Singapore from the threat of rising sea levels over the next 50 to 100 years.

To contribute to Singapore’s fight against rising sea levels, NTU researchers from the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) and the Asian School of the Environment (ASE) embarked on a 10-day (17 Feb-26 Feb) expedition to Antarctica for the first time, to better understand the threat of the Antarctic ice sheet.

During the trip, the NTU team of researchers, which included Professor Benjamin Horton, Director of EOS, and Singaporean PhD student, Tan Fang Yi, carried out research activities such as taking air samples to investigate microorganisms in the atmosphere.