Mapping and Geographic Information Centre
The Mapping and Geographic Information Centre (MAGIC) provides geospatial information, expertise, and services to the British Antarctic Survey (@bas.ac.uk) and wider UK activity in the Polar Regions.
- We’ve been developing a 3D Digital Twin of Rothera, incorporating detailed Building Information Models (BIM) of the Discovery Building and other station facilities. We’ve also integrated live tracking data for our ship, aircraft, and vehicles. In this image you can see our ship docked at the wharf.
- Happy Antarctica Day! We’ve recently updated this map to show consultative and non-consultative signatories of the Antarctic Treaty, signed on this day in 1959. The Treaty designates Antarctica a continent for peace and science. December 1st raises awareness of this global agreement and its goals.
- GIS Asset Engineer Nicole starts her mission across Antarctic stations on Signy, capturing precise geographic locations of buildings and other structures to improve management of these remote sites. Her work helps teams plan and operate effectively in one of Earth’s most challenging environments.
- New data alert 🚨📣: Updated Coastline and Rock Outcrop of Antarctica released as part of the @scar-antarctic.bsky.social Antarctic Digital Database. With big improvements to date formats, coastline positions and more accurate rock outcrop! 📍View and download via the map viewer add.scar.org.
- We've recently created a new collection of legacy maps in our Catalogue, which will be added to over time. For now, we have 3 interesting maps available to view and download: data.bas.ac.uk/collections/... The Scotia Arc is one of our favourites. The map was a massive compilation effort at the time!
- 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!
- After a short delay in Punta Arenas waiting for a weather window, our first team member is now at Rothera Research Station, Antarctica, after travelling over the Drake Passage on the Dash-7 aircraft. 🛩️ While there, they will provide geospatial support to BAS staff as the science field season begins.
- 🚨 New maps alert! Sheets 1–7 of the SCAR Air Operations Planning Maps Series are now live in our catalogue 🗺️✈️ @scar-antarctic.bsky.social Explore detailed Antarctic mapping, designed to support science across the continent. 📍 Browse and download here: data.bas.ac.uk/collections/... 1/2
- Our first team member is soon starting her journey south to Antarctica, to provide geospatial support to BAS staff at Rothera! 🛫🏔️❄️ In the meantime, we've all been busy preparing new maps, data and geomatics equipment for the upcoming season. Stay tuned for lots of exciting updates and photos!
- Some of our recent maps were reviewed for Geology Today & we're pleased to see the positive opinions & appreciation of how much work goes into them 🎉 doi.org/10.1111/gto.... The maps include The South Orkney Islands, Alexander Island, and Bedmap3. Details available in our catalogue - bas.ac.uk/maps
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- We just attended #FOSS4GUK in Leeds. It was a fantastic couple of days meeting other GIS & software enthusiasts to learn about WWII coordinate systems, making maps accessible & much more, all using free & open tools anyone can use! We also presented the code and history behind our new map catalogue.
- We're working on a new project to support building & modernisation at Rothera Research Station. This week we took part in a workshop showcasing how we will integrate 3D Building information models with our GIS platform and how it will form a key part of infrastructure planning and asset management.
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- We've been using recent satellite imagery to update the @scar-antarctic.bsky.social Antarctic Digital Database coastline, in preparation for a new version of our 'Adelaide Island and Arrowsmith Peninsula' map. It's important to update this data, to track changes and portray the current conditions.
- Our GIS Intern, @a-efe.bsky.social, is finishing his 12-week internship at @bas.ac.uk today. We want to say a big thank you for his fantastic contributions during this time with MAGIC! Yesterday, Efe gave a final presentation to the team showcasing his work. 1/2
- We are so pleased to announce the official launch of the new BAS Map Catalogue 🎉🗺 The catalogue contains open access topographic, thematic and geological maps, as well as full details on where to purchase our professionally printed published maps. Have a look for yourselves at bas.ac.uk/maps! 1/2
- 🗺️NEW: BAS Map Catalogue is live! Explore Antarctica and the Arctic through our collection of professional maps. Perfect for educators, adventurers, and polar enthusiasts. Many available on open licence for free download. #PolarMaps #Antarctica
- A few of our favourite maps include: * Bedmap3, showing Antarctica beneath the ice: data.bas.ac.uk/maps/bedmap3 * A beautiful map of Ny-Ålesund in Svalbard: data.bas.ac.uk/maps/2035 * and this map of the Arctic: data.bas.ac.uk/maps/1015 Read more at: www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/e... 2/2
- We're very happy to share that three of our maps received awards at the @bcsmaps.bsky.social Annual Conference last week! Our Alexander Island and Bedmap3 maps were recognised in the Printed Mapping category, and our Ice Logistics Portal (www.icelogistics.info) in the Electronic Mapping category 🏆🎉
- These awards are extremely competitive, with world-leading cartographic organisations entering multiple categories each year. We received Highly Commended and Commended awards, showing the value and importance of the work we carry out mapping the Polar Regions!
- We've recently been testing our new laser scanner, acquired this year to enable accurate scanning of our facilities. It’s capturing in 3D now! MAGIC supports BIM modelling in Antarctica, where buildings will be scanned into point clouds to record detailed features - not even a socket will be missed.
- A couple of our team are attending the @bcsmaps.bsky.social 2025 annual conference taking place at @bgs.ac.uk today and yesterday. It has been a fascinating few days so far and it’s great to see our maps displayed for the awards ceremony later today! #carto2025
- Our new Geomatics Surveyor in the team is attending Pre-Deployment Training this week as he will soon be travelling to Rothera Research Station, Antarctica! Everyone travelling to the Polar Regions with BAS must attend this vital training to make sure we are all safe when deployed. ⛑️❄️
- Iceberg A23A is currently located north of South Georgia & over the weekend has fragmented into a several large pieces. While these individual icebergs are large & may get new names, they may be short lived as further breakup is now likely as currents push them all further north into warmer waters.
- @bas.ac.uk hosts 'Pre-Deployment Training' each year, for those going to Antarctica. Everyone attending receives a couple of maps in their pack and we've been busy printing and collecting up these maps ready for the event! Nothing beats a map to help orient people for their exciting adventure ahead.
- We're almost ready to formally launch our new Map Catalogue, containing a mixture of interesting & useful polar maps! 🗺️ Are there any small maps or graphics that you'd love to see available online? Any of your favourite locations that you've never managed to find a good map of? Let us know!
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- 📢 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
- Alexander Island is home to stunning landscapes, captured here in these Sentinel-2 satellite images. We produced brand new topographic data for the region, including recently updated coastlines & spot height data for over 900 peaks! See more about the map: data.bas.ac.uk/maps/alexander-island 2/2
- MAGIC was out test flying our eBee VISION platforms in advance of the upcoming Antarctic field season this week. The eBee VISION UAVs can fly for 90 minutes and operate up to 20 km from the pilot. Here's a short clip of one of them in action! 🛩️ 1/2
- Come and join BAS, working with both MAGIC and the Wildlife from Space Team! We are looking for an expert in ecological remote sensing with experience of spectral analysis to support our Darwin Plus South Georgia Seabird project. 🐦🦤 bas.ciphr-irecruit.com/applicants/v...
- Lots of dots! These are spot heights generated for our Air Operations Planning Maps, using REMAv2 2m tiles. Next steps are to clean up the density, add existing GPS points & then add them to our maps, which are used for planning by pilots across the continent. The data will then be openly published!
- We are currently hosting an intern digitising ice floes from satellite radar (SAR) imagery in the Weddell Sea. The resulting labelled data will be used in the NERC DEFIANT and QUASAR projects to assess the performance of machine learning methods and quantify errors in sea ice concentration data.
- We've been busy on a new project making polygon boundaries for place names, using Alexander Island as a case study. Creating polygons for Antarctic names is about more than cartographic precision. It’s about improving how we understand, search, & use data in one of Earth’s most remote environments.
- We have been working along with engineers from Phase One and Rocky Mountain Aircraft over the past week to install and test our new Phase One PAS aerial camera into BAS's Twin Otter aircraft. 🛩️ 1/3
- Did you know that it's possible to follow the RRS Sir David Attenborough on @bas.ac.uk's website? We provide the maps and location tracking to underpin this. 🚢🗺️ See the latest position of the ship here, on its way north after a long season in Antarctica! www.bas.ac.uk/polar-operat...
- Our former head of MAGIC gave a joint talk at the South Georgia Association summer event today on 'Advances in Mapping South Georgia'. It was a fantastic overview on the island’s varied and interesting history. We’re proud to be continuing mapping work on the island in 2025!
- This week we have been at a @polomints.bsky.social project meeting, planning details of how to use fixed stereo cameras, RPAS and our new air camera to monitor calving of the Sheldon Glacier on Adelaide Island. For more information visit polomints.ac.uk.
- 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
- We’re developing a prototype web portal to explore British Antarctic Survey’s aerial photography archive 📸 ✈ Search by place or flight line, view results on the map, and access decades of contextual survey data. A step toward making this unique Antarctic record more discoverable & easier to explore!
- We've just received the proofs of our new Alexander Island map from Dennis Maps printers and have given the go ahead for printing! This is the first comprehensive map of the entire region produced in decades. At 1:500 000 scale, it also features a geological map on the reverse 😍 Watch this space!
- Great to see our map used by UK Foreign Secretary Rt Hon David Lammy and Espen Barth Eide during their visit to the @ukarcticoffice.bsky.social in Ny-Ålesund recently. With summer/winter versions, it shows how fast the region changes and why frequent, detailed mapping in the Arctic is so important.
- 🐧📢 New paper alert 📢 🐧 This work was led and supported by the MAGIC team, using fifteen years of remote sensing data to analyse almost 250 satellite images. Read more in BAS's full thread below.
- The newly released NERC 'Forward Look for Environmental Science' highlights Polar View (www.polarview.aq) as a vital service helping users navigate safely & efficiently in the polar regions. We've been developing Polar View for 20 years now & love hearing from all sorts of users. shorturl.at/veId0
