Navigating this blog

Posted on by jmcook in Bergy Bits

Welcome to ToThePoles blog. The posts here will be divided into six distinct categories: Cryosphere: posts about ice and snow including paper reviews and commentary, trip reports etc Adventure: posts about field work reports, logistics, stories etc from all kinds of adventures Science/Tech: posts about general science and technology including tutorials. Strong computer science, cloud … Continue reading Navigating this blog →

Python: x-array Q&A’s

Posted on by jmcook in Science/Tech

During the pandemic I ran an online x-array training session for a major commodities broker that wanted to explore this incredibly useful Python package for processing big weather data. After making a presentation and a hands-on demonstration, I ran a Q&A for the audience of software engineers who were already familiar with Pandas. Here is … Continue reading Python: x-array Q&A’s →

CNN Call to Earth

Posted on by jmcook in Cryosphere, News and Events

It's not every day Margate gets connected to Greenland, but that's what we did in this new CNN Call to Earth piece about the melting ice sheet. The Covid lockdown prevented us from traveling to an icy location to film, so instead Hazel Pfeifer and her team cam for a socially distanced interview on the … Continue reading CNN Call to Earth →

Ubuntu 20.04 boot issues/NVIDIA graphics cards

Posted on by jmcook in Science/Tech

I have recently experienced problems with Ubuntu 20.04 after an update included updates to the NVIDIA graphics drivers. A normal boot hung on a black screen showing only 'dev/sda1: clean, 552599/6111232 files, 7119295/24414464 blocks' It took me a while to work out how to fix this as it was not immediately apparent that the issue … Continue reading Ubuntu 20.04 boot issues/NVIDIA graphics cards →

Computing the Earth

Posted on by jmcook in Cryosphere, News and Events

Here's a short article I wrote for Canterbury Christ Church University's "Expert Comment" series on World Environment Day about the role computer scientists might play in battling climate change... The recent Covid-19 pandemic has given the planet a brief breather from human greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, the long-term outlook for the environment remains bleak, likely … Continue reading Computing the Earth →

Biodiversity Day Talk: Ice Alive

Posted on by jmcook in Cryosphere, Science/Tech

On 24th May I spoke to the Biodiversity Festival - it was moderated over a Zoom call and live streamed to Youtube. You can watch HERE. I was talking about an often overlooked aspect of glacier melting that ties in very tightly with the theme of biodiversity. Here's a transcript: We do not usually think … Continue reading Biodiversity Day Talk: Ice Alive →

Install notes: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on Lenovo x1 Extreme Gen 2

Posted on by jmcook in Science/Tech

New laptop, new Ubuntu. This post shows step-by-step how I installed Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on a brand new Lenovo x1 Extreme Gen 2. I kept Windows on a smaller (250 GB) partition with the option to boot into either OS. This post will assume you are working from a Windows 10 OS. You should have … Continue reading Install notes: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on Lenovo x1 Extreme Gen 2 →

Python: Pandas

Posted on by jmcook in Science/Tech

Python Data Analysis Library There is a Jupyter Notebook accompanying this post HERE! In a previous session we explored NumPy in detail, learning about array structures and vectorisation. While NumPy is extremely powerful, it has some limitations. For example, data is organised into rows and columns (often in more than 2 dimensions) without labels other … Continue reading Python: Pandas →

Inside the Ice Sheet: Caving expedition

Posted on by jmcook in Adventure, Cryosphere

The lockdown has ended all hopes of spring field work this year, so I've been reminiscing about the last time I was out in Greenland, in winter 2018. We were on the ice for a second time to explore the moulins, which are large vertical pipes carved into the ice by melt water in summer … Continue reading Inside the Ice Sheet: Caving expedition →