An accurate model of Earth's climate requires data from places that are hard to reach and unpleasant to work in. Scientists have drilled ice cores in Antarctica, launched instrumented balloons over remote oceans, sampled clouds from aircraft flying through storms and measured gases from stations on the roof of the world. A photographic record of that work shows how physical and how demanding the enterprise is.
The images capture the practical reality of climate research: researchers in bulky suits handling delicate equipment in sub-zero winds, the long logistics of moving gear across ice, the improvised fixes when something breaks thousands of kilometres from the nearest workshop. Each measurement is a small contribution to a global picture assembled from countless fragments.
What emerges from the collection is a sense of scale, both of the planet and of the effort required to understand it. The data these expeditions produce underpin every projection about the coming century. Seeing the conditions in which they are gathered is a reminder that the numbers are not abstractions.
