"The main target for our strategy is really focused on climate change because the polar regions are the regions on Earth which are changing most drastically," BAS director Jane Francis said, adding that these changes are"affecting the whole planet".
From the sky, drones and satellite technology help monitor and count animal populations in remote or inaccessible parts of the polar regions.To gather information about atmospheric conditions in the past, scientists are drilling into ice sheets and glaciers to retrieve ice cores, some containing ice that is hundreds of thousands of years old.
In the field, the BAS currently operates five research stations in the Antarctic, one of them only during the southern hemisphere summer. Some snowmobiles are equipped with vehicle-tracking devices that have a distress button to request assistance from the station but also keep a record of refuelling stops and other activity while out in the field.