The Airy Glacier is a glacier

Glacier

A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 20 miles long and 6 miles (10 km) wide, flowing west to the northeast portion of Forster Ice Piedmont

Forster Ice Piedmont

The Forster Ice Piedmont is an ice piedmont lying landward of the Wordie Ice Shelf, along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.The piedmont is formed by the confluence of Airy, Seller, Fleming and Prospect Glaciers and is about 25 miles long from north to south and 12 miles wide...

, near the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula

Antarctic Peninsula

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It extends from a line between Cape Adams and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands....

.

The glacier was first roughly surveyed by British Graham Land Expedition

British Graham Land Expedition

A British expedition to Graham Land led by John Lachlan Cope took place between 1920 and 1922. The British Graham Land Expedition was a geophysical and exploration expedition to Graham Land in Antarctica between 1934 to 1937. Under the leadership of John Riddoch Rymill, the expedition spent two...

 of 1936–37, then photographed from the air by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition

Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition

The Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition was an expedition from 1947-1948 which researched the area surrounding the head of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.-Background:...

 in 1947, and surveyed by Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey in 1958. It was named by United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee for George Biddell Airy

George Biddell Airy

Sir George Biddell Airy PRS KCB was an English mathematician and astronomer, Astronomer Royal from 1835 to 1881...

, British Astronomer Royal

Astronomer Royal

Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the second is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834....

, who in 1839 introduced a method of correcting magnetic compasses for deviation

Magnetic deviation

Magnetic deviation is the error induced in a compass by local magnetic fields, which must be allowed for, along with magnetic declination, if accurate bearings are to be calculated....

.