A UNIVERSITY scientist is making final preparations to head off to Antarctica to study the thinning of the ice sheets.

Durham University academic Professor Mike Bentley is part of the team taking part in an ambitious science mission to discover what is behind the rapid ice loss from glaciers.

Prof Bentley will join scientists on the iSTAR D project to find out why the Pine Island Glacier on the West Antarctic Ice sheet has been thinning rapidly.

He said: "The Pine Island Glacier is currently the single biggest contributor to sea level rise from the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

"If we can establish exactly how much ice loss there is and what is causing it, then we can make more accurate predictions about future sea level rise."

The iSTAR programme involves 11 UK universities along with the British Antarctic Survey and will use tracking vehicles, aircraft, ocean robots, ships, submarines and even sensors carried by seals to track ice movement.

They plan to measure changes to the flow and thickness of glaciers and investigate the role that the ocean plays in transporting warm water beneath ice shelves.

Professor Bentley will be part of the first group of scientists leaving for Antarctica in December to spend up to 10 weeks travelling 600 miles across the ice sheet by tractor-traverse, and visiting remote locations by ski-equipped aircraft.

Prof Bentley said: "Prior to the advent of satellites, very little was known about the rates at which ice sheets would respond to climate change.

"We now have those measurements of ice sheet change but they need to be backed-up by careful ground-based measurements before we can precisely assess the amount of ice being lost to the ocean.

"It is those measurements that the team are going to undertake over the next two field seasons on the Pine Island Glacier."