Sampling at sunset

During the southern summer in Antarctica, the sun never sets. It simply sinks to the horizon, casting a golden-red glow over the frozen ocean. This photograph was taken aboard the South African research vessel, SA Agulhas II, where scientists were carrying out oceanographic sampling in the inhospitable and little-explored Weddell Sea. In the image, two of the icebreaker’s sailors can be seen deploying the Conductivity Temperature Depth (CTD) probe, which measures the ocean’s temperature and salinity from the surface down to the seabed. This CTD station is located next to the Larsen C ice shelf, where a huge rift has been growing over the past few years. The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the regions most impacted by global warming, whose effects on this remote part of the Southern Ocean will be studied using the data collected. This image is a winner of the 2021 La preuve par l'image (LPPI) competition.