Short talk on Friday Dec 4 - PhD project in glaciology presented at the WWF event at COP15, in room TF141 at 12:00

Signe Kroken

Anne Chapuis going to give a short talk at a WWF event organized during COP15 next week in Copenhagen about her PhD project and how it fits within the big picture of climate research.

Isfjell Foto:

Exploring the dynamics of iceberg calving in Svalbard

Summary:

The future response of glaciers and ice sheets to climate change is poorly understood. However, their contribution to sea level rise is very important. The goal of my research project is to better understand the role of ice dynamics in the response of glaciers and ice sheets to climate change. Ice dynamics are currently poorly understood and implemented in numerical models, which is one of the main limitations to predict the future of glaciers and ice sheets changes. My project focusses on iceberg calving, which had a large role in the desintegration of the past ice sheets and triggers current retreat and acceleration of tidewaters and outlet glaciers. In order to improve quantitative measurements and predictions of iceberg calving activity I first collected calving event data at Kronebreen, Svalbard, and then tested the influence that different possible controls such as the local environment parameters have on the calving activity. This project is very relevant in the effort made to improve the understanding of the future behaviour of glaciers and ice sheets and thus the future increase of sea level rise. We started the first period of contimuous observations of calving events during one week in August 2008 and continued with two weeks in August 2009. We collected the timing, size, style and location of more than 6000 calving events. My first results suggest that calving glaciers are very sensitive to changes in their close environment such as air temperature and sun radiation and that their response to external pertubations is complex, unpredictable and non linear.

Oppdatert: 02.12.09
Utskriftsvennlig versjon

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Institutt for matematiske realfag og teknologi

Postboks 5003
1432 Ås.
Besøksadresse: Drøbakveien 31
Tlf.: 64 96 54 00, sentralbord UMB er 64 96 50 00
Faks: 64 96 54 01
Epost: imt@umb.no

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