Laura Gerrish
GIS and Mapping Specialist at the British Antarctic Survey. Interested in cartography, data visualisation, remote sensing and glaciology ❄️
- This was one of my last things to organise at work before soon going on maternity leave and it's always so nice to see how much people still love paper maps. There's just something special about them and the joy, conversation and memories that they bring about 🥰
- We ran a Map Giveaway for BAS staff & students this week, raising money for @mapaction.bsky.social! The maps were a mixture of beautiful, historical maps from the 70s and 80s, and previous versions of our main published maps. We had so much interest - thanks BAS for the support & generous donations!
- Thank you so much to the British Cartographic Society for recognising 2 of @bas.ac.uk’s maps at last week’s conference. It was fantastic to collect the certificate for our recently-released Alexander Island map, one of the most interesting maps I’ve made in a long time!
- #A23a iceberg continues its disintegration north of South Georgia in the South Atlantic, with a brilliant image from today finishing off this timelapse of Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery over the last few weeks! It's always interesting to track these bergs out of Antarctica and into warmer waters 🌊🌴
- Really looking forward to this conference at @bgs.ac.uk next week! Always great to catch up with other mapping enthusiasts. Is anyone else on here going to 1 or both days?
- Thank you to these speakers who you can meet next week at BCS Annual Conference, 3-4 Sept, BGS, Keyworth, Nottingham For more details see the BCS website lnkd.in/eCQrMjR where you can download full programme details. Link in bio 🔗 #mapping #community #excellence #conference #network #awards
- I'm just starting an update of BAS's published "Adelaide Island and Arrowsmith Peninsula" map. One of the first things I always work on is creating new hillshades & contours from the latest elevation data. These in-progress images show some of the interesting islands & landscapes in the region! 🏔️🧊
- This new topographic map has been my big project for the last few months and I'm so pleased to see it finally printed and published! 🗺️ It's been a truly fascinating region to work in, with changes happening almost before my eyes as I attempted to keep the new data up to date. ❄️🧊
- 📢 New Map Alert 🗺️ We have produced new maps of Alexander Island, along with the geology team here at @bas.ac.uk! These 1:500 000 scale maps cover the second largest uninhabited island in the world at a level of detail never before seen. See the full story here: www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/t... 1/2
- South Georgia in winter 😍 These SAR and optical images show the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. SAR imagery allows us to see these locations through winter and cloud-covered days, and then the optical imagery adds extra content when it's not cloudy or dark!
- 📢 We're hiring! My team is currently advertising for my maternity cover for 12 months. Join us, making maps and working on some of the most interesting aspects of my role. You'll get to work in beautiful Cambridge and meet all kinds of interesting people at the British Antarctic Survey ❄️🗺️
- We're hiring a GIS and Mapping Specialist to manage our Geospatial Helpdesk and to contribute to our Topographic Map Series. This is a really exciting opportunity at the British Antarctic Survey to support colleagues across the organisation. Details here: shorturl.at/bA4fd #GISjobs
- I'm speaking at the IMIA Mapping Leaders Forum next week in London. Is anyone here attending? I'm looking forward to meeting other mapping enthusiasts and experts at the 2 day event! There are still a few spaces left if you'd like to come along. More details here: imiamaps.org/mapping-lead...
- More data! 😄 I love looking at Sentinel-1 imagery through these portals because it gives a near-real-time insight into changes in Antarctica, and the detail in the sea ice patterns can be so insightful for a range of people working in the region 🚢 🛰️ 🌊
- 🎉 Imagery from the newly launched Sentinel-1C Copernicus satellite is now accessible via Polar View www.polarview.aq and the Ice Logistics Portal www.icelogistics.info/antarctic?ce...! This addition significantly increases the repeatability of SAR observations in the Polar Regions 🛰️
- I've picked up my new Alexander Island map today after a month or two of other work, and while double checking some data, I noticed that this section of ice shelf has retreated by over 1.5 km in places since I updated the data in November. Can things just stop melting?! Keeps me busy for sure!
- Lovely image from the NOAA-20 satellite yesterday showing the location of grounded A23a iceberg close to the island of South Georgia 😍 It's still crazy to me that this iceberg has been in the Southern Ocean since 1986, taking a few little pauses along its way to this current position! @bas.ac.uk
- Back to one of my favourite tasks of iceberg mapping 😄
- I'm thrilled to be a part of developing and populating this new catalogue! I’ve created hundreds of maps (maybe even over a thousand!) during my time at BAS - many used once and then forgotten. Now we'll be making them openly available for all to use. Watch this space! 👀🗺️
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- I love these spinning Antarcticas made by my colleague @jonnydawe.github.io! My favourite is the middle one where a little iceberg breaks off 👋🧊
- This is a map I first started about 4 years ago, and it’s been put down and picked back up about 5 times since then (we’ve all had projects like this!) but I’m so glad to see it finally released! The front cover shows some of the very varied terrain that has been mapped 😍
- 📢 New Map Alert 📢 We have just released a new map of the South Orkney Islands! This double-sided map shows the remote archipelago in the Southern Ocean, incorporating new data on key geographical features such as contours, mountain spot heights and place names. www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/n...
- Interesting article written by BAS scientist Dr Ella Gilbert, featuring a little map that I made the other day. I always like mapping the fast-changing and important region of Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers! 🗺️
- NEW – Guest post: How atmospheric rivers are bringing rain to West Antarctica | @drgilbz.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk Read here: buff.ly/4179aR7
- Beautiful Sentinel-2 imagery of George VI Ice Shelf with lots of meltwater from yesterday. The patterns that this water produces is like artwork! Fossil Bluff is shown in the second image, and Hodgson Lake shown in the last - a former subglacial lake sealed under ice thick perennial ice ❄️
- Happy #PenguinAwarenessDay! I think it’s a rule that everyone who works at BAS has to like penguins, so to spread their cuteness, here’s a couple of my favourite photos from an amazing trip to the Falkland Islands a few years ago 🐧
- Beautiful image showing an almost cloud free Stange Ice Shelf with the RRS Sir David Attenborough alongside 🚢 (you’ll need a good eye to spot it!)
- I'm currently trying to figure out the 'best' grounding line to use on our new Alexander Island map. Grounding lines are notoriously difficult and these images show 3 potential sources against a REMA hillshade. I'm redrawing the shape of the land so it's important to show as accurately as possible!
- Just curious, which 3 grounding lines are on your plots?
- The light blue one is from the Antarctic Digital Database (mostly from very old maps and interpreted from sat images in this region), the red lines are InSAR measures v2 data, and the purple is an early release of the in-review BEDMAP3 grounding line 🙂
- I don't get to work in the Arctic as much as I'd like, but someone requested an image of the Qaqortoq region of Greenland today and I found this beautiful Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from a few months ago 😍 There are just so many interesting features to see!
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- The measures InSAR lines in this region are all from 1995/96 so I was thinking they surely can't be the best, but they do look best in most locations. There's no more recent ones are there? I looked at the Li et al ICESat points as well and they look good in some places! Just not for a this use.
- An interesting post from the head of my team showing the location of our big red ship in amongst some sea ice at the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. Good luck to the team onboard! I love seeing the web cam photos here: www.bas.ac.uk/polar-operat...
- We are currently onboard the @bas.ac.uk ship RRS Sir David Attenborough, ensuring it has up to date information about sea ice and icebergs to help with safe and efficient navigation. Our SIIS (Sea Ice Information System) delivers sea ice data and satellite imagery directly to the bridge.
- My colleague collated these images and the second one showing ‘Cape Christmas’ is my favourite - named because surveyors from Stonington Island spent Christmas Day in the vicinity in 1947. A bit different to most of our Christmases now! 🎄
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- To add another contender for 'the world's most southerly island', what about Buckley Island at 85°S? This is the most southerly named island in the SCAR CGA, but surely not a real island as it's well within the grounded area of Antarctica! 🏝️❄️ Map extract taken from maps.apps.pgc.umn.edu/id/344
- To anyone who has followed me on here - my team at BAS now has its own page and will be posting really cool and interesting bits of work. Check it out and give them a follow for all things related to ice and mapping ❄️ 🌍 We also happen to have one of the best team names around (MAGIC!).
- These draft extracts of our new Alexander Island map show 5 new places recently named - Isopleth Island, recently detached from the main island, Mount Meridian, the tallest point in the Colbert Mtns, Projection Rocks, plotting in deep water and so easily missed, and Raster and Vector islands ❤️ 🗺️
- Places are only named when there is a navigational or scientific need. These names were part of a 'modern mapping' theme and approved by the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee.
- Hi everyone! First post here, so I thought I’d share some photos of two maps I’m working on at the moment - Alexander Island and The South Orkney Islands. These two maps will join our series of published maps at BAS, with the South Orkneys map heading to the printers very soon!
