This is a past event
The Earth Science Research Seminar will be given by Dr Doug Mair.
Please come along from 1pm - 2pm in Room G3 of the Geography and Environment Department St Mary's Building, Aberdeen University, Scotland, UK. Free event (open to all).
Doug Mair is a glaciologist whose research interests include: the influences of hydrology on glacier dynamics; understanding long-term (centennial to millenial) patterns of tidewater glacier advance and retreat; the controls on ice sheet mass balance and volume change, and validation of satellite measurements of cryospheric change. He investigates these topics using both field based measurements and the development of glacial process models.
His current research relates to the hydrology and dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet: This research focuses on obtaining a better understanding of the basal and internal processes which influence ice sheet dynamics. Ongoing NERC funded research on the Greenland Ice Sheet aims to characterise the coupling between surface meltwater and ice dynamics and its temporal and spatial evolution continuously over several annual cycles. The field experiments, in conjunction with remotely sensed data, focus on two flow-parallel transects at the western margin of the GrIS in land and marine terminating catchments (Leverett/Russell Glacier and Kangiata Nunata Sermia respectively). Motion characteristics are compared with hydrological results to determine how glacier hydrology exerts control on variations in ice motion.
Calving Glaciers: Longterm Validation and Evidence (CALVE): This research topic aims to determine the chronology and geometric changes of the advance and retreat of a large tidewater glacier over the last one thousand years and model this long-term behaviour. The project focusses at Kangiata Nunata Sermia (KNS), the largest and most dynamic tidewater glacier in SW Greenland, where a unique combination of glacial sedimentological, geomorphological and archaeological evidence enables the growth and advance of this glacier to be determined following the mediaeval warm period. This Leverhulme Trust funded project is a intra-disciplinary collaboration with glacial geomorphologists (Brice Rea), Palaeo-environmental change specialists (Ed Schofield) and palaeo marine biologists (Nick Kamenos, University of Glasgow). We aim to use KNS as a test site for numerical models of tidewater calving criteria and their long-term sensitivity to climate change.
Mass and density changes of the Greenland Ice Sheet and Devon Ice Cap: This research is part of an international collaborative project funded by NERC and the European Space Agency (ESA) aimed at calibrating and validating ESA's "CryoSat2" satellite radar measurements of changes in the Earth's land and marine based ice fluxes. CryoSat2 will help determine the response of the Earth's ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice to changes in global climate. Ground measurements of temporal and spatial variability in the surface and near-surface structure and density of ice sheets have been made to (a) accurately interpret elevation changes from radar altimeter measurements and to (b) determine significance of melting, percolation and refreezing processes on the mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet and Devon Ice Cap.
Contact Telephone: +44 (0)1224 272326 Email: d.mair@abdn.ac.uk
- Speaker
- Dr Doug Mair