I visualise water in relation to climate change for the benefit of polar and glacial science and seek to communicate the findings to the public. This Ph.D project is an  ongoing interdisciplinary science and art research project, examining and interpreting water images for their possible application in environmental and physical sciences. Water drop patterns in ice can potentially show how the climate has changed over the past millennia. My research is done through Bath Spa University, The University of Manchester and British Antarctic Survey.

Water residue forms varied patterns in an evaporated drop, with many factors influencing the result, from humidity, temperature, dust, and the composition of contaminates. Think of coffee rings on a tabletop, or the stain left on your car windscreen after rain as everyday examples of water residue patterns of dried drops. When viewed under the microscope, the patterns within dried drops are created by the arrangement of any micro-organisms or metals left as a residue. Chemical composition and concentration of the contaminates, and the internal flow of those particles within the drying drop, impact in the final patterning, placing them in patterns unique to the water source.

Contributing to new knowledge, Ice cores were selected as the water source for this research. Ice cores, like tree rings are formed in annual layers, each layer of ice contains the environmental contaminates that compacted in that year’s snowfall like sea salt, volcanic ash, dust, aerosol material as well as CO2, which provides the only historical record of fluctuating historical atmospheric composition. Analysis of the ice core drops is ongoing with the identification of the contaminates causing the patterns, as yet to be unveiled.