Girija Kalyani Burada, PhD

What’s the work that you do?

I study how weather systems shape Antarctica’s climate. My research focuses on atmospheric rivers—long, narrow corridors that transport vast amounts of heat and moisture from the Southern Ocean into Antarctica. I investigate how these events interact with large-scale weather systems, such as cyclones and atmospheric blocking, to influence snowfall, surface melting, and the Antarctic ice sheet. By combining climate datasets and atmospheric analyses, I aim to better understand how these processes affect Antarctica today and how they may change in a warming climate, helping improve future climate projections.

What keeps you going?

What keeps me going is the excitement of discovering something new about a place that is still full of unanswered questions. Antarctica may seem remote, but what happens there influences our global climate. I enjoy combining observations, data, and atmospheric science to understand how different weather systems work together and what they mean for the future. Every dataset tells a story, and I find it incredibly rewarding when small pieces of evidence come together to reveal a bigger picture. Knowing that this research can contribute to improving our understanding of climate change is what motivates me every day.

What’s your message to the world?

When people think of Antarctica, they often imagine a place far removed from everyday life. But the atmosphere doesn’t recognise borders, and neither does climate. The weather systems that reach Antarctica are part of a much larger global story. I hope my work helps people see that studying the poles is really about understanding the planet we all call home.