The British Antractic Survey’s vessel RRS Ernest Shackleton teamed up with the Royal Navy survey ship HMS Protector to help scientists begin a five-year mission  to understand how West Antarctica is contributing to global sea-level rise.

Working together the ships crunched their way through over 300 miles of sea ice to a remote Antarctic ice shelf to support a team of around 100 scientists who seek to understand a glacier the size of Great Britain.