From Antarctica to the Arctic, “Ages of Ice,” is a high-stakes journey into the heart of our planet’s frozen wilderness, following researchers as they push the boundaries of exploration. Each mission is a step toward understanding how glaciers move, how oceans rise, and how the rhythms of the past compare to the quickening tempo of today.
Travel the world with the team and witness the race to understand a planet in transition through the extraordinary people who go to the ends of the Earth to uncover what comes next.
Want to learn more about polar science and these studies? Check out “Ages of Ice,” premiering on PBS on September 16, 2026.
Kangerlussuaq region, Greenland
The Team: Professor Alun Hubbard (Director of the Thule Institute, University of Oulu - Finland), and colleagues Joel and Claus
The team is studying Greenland’s ice sheets, stepping inside the canyons to reveal how the melting water inside sculpts the ice and shows its impact.
The goal is to find out what is driving the rate of ice loss beyond just rising temperatures, particularly the way that the ice sheet flow is affected by the heat that’s going in. This experiment will help figure out how much methane is hiding within the ice sheets and leaking out as they melt.
Professor Hubbard suspects that surface melt may be releasing heat within the ice that’s reducing its strength and making it more vulnerable to flow and climate change.
To test his theory, the team uses methane sensors and feeds experimental fiber optic technology into giant meltwater sinkholes known as moulins to see what methane may be expelling out of the ice and from the bed. The cable can feel temperature shifts down to a fraction of a degree, and after eight months the data will provide information on the heat transferred to the surrounding ice, known as cryohydraulic warming.
They’re also using similar equipment and testing supraglacial lakes to see if the big black patches of cryoconite, or algae crud, is decomposing and letting off any methane.
People may think there’s no point, but with every bit of carbon we stop from going into the atmosphere we can hope to avoid a major catastrophe.
Crossing Greenland in a Journey of Almost 370 Miles in 32 Days
The Team: Dr. Adrian McCallum (Geotechnical Engineer, University of the Sunshine Coast - Australia), along with colleagues Niklas (Germany), Laura (Greenland), Jan (Expedition Coordinator, Copenhagen), and Jens (Team Sugeon, Sweden)
The team is crossing the entire Greenland Ice Sheet to map the largely inaccessible world below the ice and measure how much snow the ice sheet has gained over winter.
To do this, they will collect ground penetrating radar data by projecting energy into the ice sheet, which bounces off reflections within the ice sheet, and comes back to the surface to work out how deep particular snow ice interfaces are. Each day they measure the density of the snow, how deep the ice is, and determine how much the ice is moving. This reveals how much water is stored and how quickly it is compacting into ice.
The team skis up to 13hours a day, battling exhaustion, storms and isolation, hoping to complete their mission before deadly weather closes in.
It’s very important to understand the mass of the Greenland ice sheet because changes in the Arctic will affect future sea levels in all parts of the world.
Longyearbyen, Svalbard
The Scientist: Dr. Louise Archer (Research Fellow, Polar Bears International)
Dr. Archer is studying the denning behaviour of polar bears on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard to determine how arctic warming is affecting snow melt and the conditions these bears depend on.
To capture the first few moments of the first weeks in and around the den site of polar bears, scientists set up cameras to record the footage remotely for several months. After recovering the camera cards from the field, Louise manually searches and reviews the footage for any signs of a bear.
Changing snow density — as more rain is falling in place of snow — impacts the habitat and insulation for the polar bear dens. A den is only as strong as the snow that’s used to build it, and if that snow is washed away or melts too soon, the bear family is forced out before the cubs are ready, making survival much more difficult.
Somovoken Glacier, Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica
The Scientist: Ian Kelly (PhD Student of Antarctic Geophysics, University of Tasmania)
Ian is mapping the bed underneath Antarctic glaciers to determine how fast the ice is changing, and how they will melt and contribute to sea level rise.
The team listens to the glacier by placing seismometers on the surface of the ice. As sunlight warms the surface, the ice creaks and shifts under thermal stress and the sensors record the natural sounds of the glacier.
Ian adds vibrations of his own with shockwaves that go through the ice and bounce off different layers in the ice and bedrock to produce a picture of the interior.
So far, the data from this region has revealed a thermal patchwork. In some places the cold anchors the ice to the Earth, while in others there is warmth rising from below the melting, softening the ice and setting it in motion.
If the possibility of undercutting is found — meltwater coming from the interior of the ice sheet that’s flowing underneath the glacier — it would be a big warning sign for how fast and how high the ocean could rise.
Mount Aoraki, New Zealand (Tasman Glacier)
The Scientist: Dr. Ulyana Horodskyj Peña (Glaciologist, University of Colorado, Boulder)
Dr. Ulyana Horodysky Peña is researching the snow’s reflectivity and what, beyond temperature rise, may be causing glaciers into a global retreat.
Walking the valley floor of the Tasman Glacier, Ulyana traces the path where the ice once rested to create baselines for a global database. She physically looks at the snow, sampling its crystal size and shape, to determine how it is interacting with sunlight to cause the melting.
Dr. Peña is observing metamorphosed snow crystals, finding they’re much bigger grain sizes which are allowing solar radiation to go through the snowpack and causing more melting. She’s also finding signs of black carbon, residue from burned fossil fuels carried here on the wind, which absorbs more solar radiation, prompting it to heat that snowpack, thus causing more rapid melting.
Ice melting is normal throughout Earth’s interglacial warm periods, but in the stage we are in orbit around our sun the Earth should be entering a phase of cooling and it’s not. Temperature rise is driving glaciers into retreat. Never in geologic history have we seen such a high rate of change in temperature rise in such a short amount of time.
Snow and ice is important for regulating and maintaining the temperature range on our planet, and how it reflects solar radiation back into space. There hasn’t been a time where humans have lived on Earth ice free, and Ulyana’s work will help answer whether that is even possible.
Drake Passage (aboard RRS Sir David Attenborough research vessel), traveling to South Georgia
The Team: Consisting of 70 scientists and the ship’s crew, including Professor Geraint Tarling (Chief Scientist, BIOPOLE II at the British Antarctic Survey), Captain Matthew Neill (Chief Officer, RRS Sir David Attenborough), Hannah Cubaynes (Marine Biologist, British Antarctic Survey), Sophie Fielding, and Graeme.
Aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough research vessel is a team, led by Professor Geraint Tarling, gathering crucial data on how polar seas are changing and what it means for life on earth.
At a point in the Southern Ocean lies the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, where the waters coming in from all parts of the globe overturn. Over a span of 8 weeks, the research team will use specially calibrated sonar to search for signs of krills swarms and assess the health of the region’s krill population. The krill are taken to a lab to determine their species, size, and health to help confirm trends or sudden shifts in this significant ecosystem.
The largest and most powerful ocean current in the world fuels marine life, regulates global temperatures, and drives ocean circulation, and changes in the Southern Ocean impact the rest of our planet.
South Georgia (aboard RRS Sir David Attenborough research vessel), traveling via the Drake Passage
The Team: Consisting of 70 scientists and the ship’s crew, including Hannah Cubaynes (Marine Biologist, British Antarctic Survey), Captain Matthew Neill (Chief Officer, RRS Sir David Attenborough), Professor Geraint Tarling (Chief Scientist, BIOPOLE II), Sophie Fielding, and Graeme.
As the vast Antarctic sea ice is declining, Hannah and the team are collecting data about krill to help identify shifts and trends within their pivotal ecosystem.
Using sonar and deep-sea nets over an 8-week period, they are tracking enormous swarms of krill — the creature that sustains entire ocean food chains.
The RRS David Attenborough travels towards the island of South Georgia, through the “Serengeti of the Southern Ocean,” where life gathers at an almost unimaginable scale. In this biodiverse hotspot, krill survive beneath the shelter of sea ice, grazing on the algae that grows there, drawing carbon from the atmosphere into the deep.
The krill data provides meaningful clues into the overall condition of the surrounding ecosystem. The Antarctic sea ice controls how the oceans breathe, mix, and cool, and as the size of sea ice has declined, so has its ability to shield the planet and reflect the sun’s radiation.
Pituffik, Greenland
The Team: Sebastian Schmidt (ARCSIX Science Lead, University of Colorado, Boulder), Vanessa Selimovic (Instrument Scientist, University of Michigan), and Dr. Patrick Taylor (ARCSIX Deputy Science Lead, NASA’s Langley Research Centre)
Flying over the Arctic Ocean, NASA researchers with the Arctic Radiation-Cloud-Aerosol-Surface Interaction Experiment (ARCSIX) are studying how certain types of clouds might influence the melting rate of ice sheets and how that is impacting our global climate system.
Sea planes carrying scientists fly directly through clouds to collect data on atmospheric profiles, various cloud properties, and precipitation. By coordinating 3 aircraft — the high-flying G3 jet with remote sensors, the Learjet with radars, and the Princess (P3) holding the science team and most of the instruments for the entire research — the scientists fly into the remote reaches of the Canadian Arctic at different altitudes to take samples from every part of the layered veils.
The presence of clouds that are not easily characterized by satellites makes this research imperative in gaining deeper insights into our planet. The aircrafts are loaded with cutting-edge instruments, like the Maverik laser cannon, designed to measure the intricate details hanging above the Earth.
The researchers are finding signs of weakening ice on the northeastern corner of Greenland, indicating vulnerability to moving, melting, and breaking apart during storms. This is a glimpse of the new Arctic, which scientists worry will see permanent ice disappearing as soon as the year 2035, or possibly sooner.
As polar seas are warming at an alarming rate — changing how the waters move, mix, and steady the Earth’s climate — the data is an opportunity to predict the Arctic’s future and how that is affecting the greater climate of the Earth.
Arctic Ocean & Spitsbergen, Svalbard
Scientist: Dr. Melanie Lancaster (Senior Specialist Arctic Species Conservation, WWF Global Arctic Programme), and colleague Fabi in Spitsbergen
Listening deep underwater to the “biophony” — the ensemble of sounds beneath the ice — offers scientists clues into how retreating ice and new shipping routes are affecting the once-quiet waters of the Arctic Ocean.
WWF biologist Dr. Melanie is using underwater microphones to reveal which animals are present and what they are doing in the far north waters of the Barents Sea.
Listening through a hydrophone, Dr. Melanie listens and records the delicate sonar clicks of marine mammals traveling underwater.
As the Arctic Ocean is warming at a rapid rate, the open water season is lasting much longer and introducing new shipping routes to the previously quiet waters. Scientists worry how this disruption of human-made noise from industrial activities may be affecting these fragile underwater soundscapes.
As the Arctic continues to experience climate change, scientists rush to understand how Arctic nature functions in order to be able to conserve it.
Listening to sound through hydrophones, Dr. Melanie Lancaster gathers important insights into the animals in the area. The team tracks the baseline soundscape — what animals are used to hearing — and uses that information to gain an understanding of how much industrial noise is coming into different parts of the Arctic Ocean and what that means for animals.
As ocean temperatures rise and sea ice retreats, the warmer water erodes the underside of glaciers, speeding their collapse, causing the whole Arctic region to become more accessible for shipping routes. The introduction of human-made noise disrupts the fragile natural soundscape that so many mammals depend on for survival.
Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada
The Team: Cian Sherwin (Arctic Operations, Real Ice), Professor Shaun Fitzgerald (Centre for Climate Repair, Cambridge University), Albert Van Wijngaarden (Scott Polar Research Institute), colleague Simon, and Iniut guide Pamela Nakashook
While much of the Arctic’s ice is in retreat, a group of scientists are testing a radical idea to preserve it by flooding water onto the ice’s surface.
Researchers from the start-up “Real Ice” are experimenting with submersible pumps that bring seawater to the ice surface, where it refreezes, adding layers of protection. Weeks of repeated flooding is building the ice layer by layer.
Using GPS, the scientists track how much new ice has formed, both on the surface and the underside of the ice. They are finding that, on average, flooded areas are almost 20 inches thicker than the rest of the ice.
The scientists recognize that even a few extra weeks of ice each year could help wildlife, Indigenous communities, and the fragile Arctic ecosystem on this frozen frontier.
Mikkelson Harbour, Antarctica
The Team: Dr. Susanne Lockhart (Polar Deep-Sea Specialist, Southern Benthics), Cassie Sleeper (Submersible Pilot, Seabourn Venture)
Scientists are uncovering how Antarctica’s hidden ecosystems are connected to help protect some of the most vulnerable life on earth.
Descending to the depths of the Bellingshausen Sea to perform an annual survey, marine biologist Dr. Lockhart is collecting evidence to identify fragile ecosystems and make a case for areas to be safeguarded. Among the colorful diversity of the Benthos, the community at the very bottom of the sea floor, life slows down and the appearance of a hidden world beneath the ice emerges.
Though the cold waters of Antarctica allow life forms to endure for hundreds — if not thousands — of years, disturbances to the ecosystem can take generations to heal. And these hidden worlds support the entire southern ocean.
By steering human activity away from the Antarctic sea floor, scientists are ensuring the vulnerable ecosystems that lie below the ice are protected. Thanks to Susanne’s work, portions of Antarctic seafloor are now permanently protected under an international agreement.
Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica
The Scientist: Dr. Ry Holland (Microbiologist, Monash University)
Scientists are uncovering a rich and complex ecosystem beneath the polar ice, rewriting the rules of biology and its power to shape the Earth.
Microbiologist Dr. Ry Holland is using fans with a filter to capture bacteria in the soil, ice, and sea, offering a glimpse into the DNA of life too small to see. The microbes being studied are called aerotrophs, and they thrive on little more than the trace atmospheric gases hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide.
Scientists believe aerotrophs may be forming the base of the food chain in this region of East Antarctica, and they are revealing just how adaptable life can be.
Hintertux, Austria
The Team: Associate Professor Birgit Sattler (Polar Ecologist, University of Innsbruck) and colleague Klemens
High in the Tyrolean Alps, Associate Professor Birgit Satler studies the microscopic lifeforms within glacial ice as a team investigates new eco-friendly materials to help shield the thriving ecosystems.
In an effort to deflect the summer sun, scientists lay out miles of reflective blankets over large areas of glacial ice. This process, known as blanket tucking, is effectively slowing ice melt and buying some glaciers years of extra life.
Birget’s blankets are made of cellulose, a pure natural fiber that does not leach dangerous polypropylene — an emission source of microplastics — into the delicate high-altitude ecosystems. Every two weeks, the test fields are observed for biodiversity inside the snow and ice, to help identify changes that will eventually green-light the new blankets for widespread use.
While blanket tucking the ice won’t stop climate change, this science will buy time for the iconic glaciers and delicate ecosystems inside this frozen territory.
Fairbanks, Alaska
The Scientist: Dr. Kevin Rozmiarek (Polar Geo-biochemist, University of Colorado, Boulder)
By studying the decomposing permafrost in Alaska, Dr. Kevin Rozmiarek is gauging these sources of gas and projecting their effects on the Arctic’s future.
To find out how much gas is escaping into the atmosphere, Dr. Kevin uses telescopic tubes to sample the invisible gas. Big Trail Lake is a laboratory of the Arctic where microbes under the thawing mud feed and exhale gaseous products, like carbon dioxide and methane.
A clear sign of change within this environment are the trees that are leaning over as a consequence of thaw that’s happening to the permafrost underneath the soil below.
As abrupt permafrost thaw areas are starting to emerge elsewhere, it is important to better understand the widespread consequences of the gasses being released from the squelching mud.
International Space Station & Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland
Team: NASA’s Europa Clipper (250 miles above Earth) & Captain Patrick Marchesseau (La Commandant Charcot), Vickie Siegel (Field Roboticist, Stone Aerospace), and colleague Mathieu in Ittoqqortoormiit
As life is able to incubate within ice here on Earth, scientists wonder about the possibility that it could do the same elsewhere throughout our solar system.
In 2024, NASA’s Europa Clipper began a five and a half year journey across the cosmos to Europa’s ice moon to search for life.
Beneath the frozen crust of Europa is an immense liquid that the Clipper will skim in order to map the icy surface, providing details for a future landing.
In Ittoqqortoormiit, a robotics team is working with a team at NASA in developing systems to someday explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
By building autonomous vehicles that dive beneath sea ice and investigating different under-ice environments on Earth, scientists speculate that they can better understand the constraints that may exist in icy worlds beyond our planet.
The icebreaker La Commandant Charcot navigates through sea ice along the coastal fjords of Greenland where the team is sending an ROV down for a dive. The goal is investigating the underside of the ice for a different perspective.
The scientists are learning more about climate change, and extreme biology, which will pave the way to engineer equipment for future space exploration.