Life on ice: how do hydrology and biology drive glacial melting?

It has never been more important to constrain how ice sheets and glaciers melt to enable better prediction of the planet’s response to climate change. Recently it has become apparent that surface biology and hydrology play key roles in this arena. For instance, melting causes liquid water to pond between ice crystals, permitting light to travel deeper into the ice, decreasing surface reflectivity, and further exacerbating the melting process. This water also stimulates the growth of light absorbing microbes, in the surface ice; these can then run off, creating complex melting patterns.

This project is focused on applying revolutionary new smartphone based imaging technology, which has been pioneered by the project supervisors, for cryospheric applications. Fieldwork will be performed in the Arctic, where the sensors will be drone-mounted, to map ice surface hydrology, biology and surface reflectivity, alongside ancillary satellite observations. We will thereby aim to significantly expand current understanding on the complex interaction between solar radiation and these ice surface processes, building on the Rolex Award-winning work of the supervisors (e.g., www.rolexawards.com/40/laureate/joseph-cook).

The project would suit a motivated student with experience in field-work, an interest in the cryosphere, and climate change, and potentially technical and computational skills.