Philippe Blondel

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Bath (UK). I have worked here since 1999, starting as a postdoctoral researcher. Before that, I worked as Senior Scientific Office at the Southampton Oceanography Centre (earlier at the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Deacon Laboratory) and even before that, as a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Oceanography, University of Washington. I have a PhD in Physics (Remote Sensing) from Paris-Jussieu, working on radar imagery from Venus, and a pure Physics background from the Universities of Paris-Orsay and Rouen Haute-Normandie (France). I am also a Chartered Geologist, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and a Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics.

Philippe Blondel
July 26, 2014

24 July 2014 – Glacier ice cubes and glacier work

Yesterday saw another successful deployment of DAB, the Directional Acoustic Buoy to track where underwater noise comes from exactly. Each survey starts in the same way: zooming in the boat to the fjord with the glacier, jumping on the beach...
Philippe Blondel
July 26, 2014

23 July 2014 - Hump day

A few days ago, it was already “hump day”. This is a custom taken from long surveys on ships, where people use the analogy of the camel hump to mark the days “up”, toward the middle of the survey, or...
Philippe Blondel
July 22, 2014

22 July 2014 – Pulled under by a mini-tsunami

7 am: The weather has cleared up and we can start field work again. According to Internet, we are in the sunshine. According to my own eyes, the clouds are still very low and all grey from one end of...
Philippe Blondel
July 22, 2014

20 July 2014 – The wild side of Arctic life

Conditions in the Arctic vary rapidly, and local ecosystems are very simple (no rodents or hares, for example, in this part of Svalbard) (no worms, no slugs, but a few insects). There are many other animals around, though, and they...
Philippe Blondel
July 22, 2014

18 July 2014 – Zip-Lock and Duck Tape

Science at sea is always full of improvisations. This is even more true here, in Svalbard, where the nearest shop is several hundreds of kilometres and several days of sailing away. So we have to make do with what...
Philippe Blondel
July 22, 2014

16 July 2014 - More about the experiments

Last time, I talked at length about the science, and why we are here. But it's not all work in the field. Arctic weather changes fast, and even the best forecasts (using data from the weather station 100 m away)...
Philippe Blondel
July 21, 2014

14 July 2014 – Starting the science

The last two days have been very busy, starting with the first experiments and really testing our equipment for good. Being in the field is always very nice, although life back home carries on as usual. The deadline for submitting...
Philippe Blondel
July 21, 2014

11/12 July 2014 – The Polish Polar Station

We arrived late last night … or was it already the morning? At this latitude (77°00.0’N), the full polar day lasts from 24 April to 18 August, and we cannot see any difference between night and day. This means it...
Philippe Blondel
July 21, 2014

10 July 2014 – Arriving at the station

Last day on the ship, if all goes well. R/V Horyzont II is a very nice ship, but we’ll all be glad to arrive at the station and start the scientific work we have prepared for over the last months....
Philippe Blondel
July 21, 2014

09 July 2014 - From Petunia to Calypso

The day started with Petunia, a research station shared by a Polish group and a Czech team. A very poetic name, but nothing to do with flowers (they are very rare in Svalbard, and usually very small). Petuniabukta, or Petunia...