Current funded Projects

Here is what I spend my time on when I’m not teaching, navel-gazing, or doing things that have nothing to do with academia…

PROPHET (Processes, drivers, Prediction: modeling the History and Evolution of Thwaites)

PROPHET is a jointly NSF-NERC funded project, part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. It is led by Northumbria University and University of California-Irvine, with co-investigators in Ediburgh, Grenoble and MIT. The aim of PROPHET is to predict the future evolution of Thwaites Glacier, in Western Antarctica, using state-of-the-art ice and ocean modelling informed by accurate and extensive observational data.

QUoRUM (QUantifying and Reducing Uncertainty in Multi-Decadal Projection of Ice Sheet-Sea Level Contribution)

QUoRUM is an Edinburgh-led NERC Standard Grant devoted to characterising uncertainty in ice-sheet model projections. The uncertainty in ice-sheet models associated with initialisation, and how this uncertainty propagates within projections, is largely unconstrained and yet is a leading source of uncertainty in century-scale Antarctic ice-sheet simulations. This project makes use of sophisticated computational tools for PDE-solving and automatic differentiation together with methodologies for quantifying uncertainty of parameter sets in order to quantify uncertainty in ice-sheet predictions, to understand how it grows over time, and to hopefully identify the leading sources of uncertainty to inform future observing missions.

4DAntarctica

4DAntarctica is an Edinburgh ESA project. The overall aim of 4DAntarctica is to advance our understanding of the Antarctic Ice Sheet’s supra and sub-glacial hydrology, its evolution, and its role within the broader ice sheet and ocean systems. To achieve these aims an unprecedented dataset composed of ice-sheet wide hydrology and lithospheric products, Earth Observation datasets, and state of the art ice-sheet and hydrology models, is being created. My role is to oversee the development of a basal melt product using the most up-to-date Earth Observations of Antarctica. The main work is the development of a bed frictional dissipation product at 5 km resolution (1 km in select catchments) developed by means of ice-sheet inversion methods.

MII-Greenland (Meltwater-ice sheet interactions and the changing climate of Greenland )

MII-Greenland is a Lancaster-led NERC Standard Grant which seeks to create a comprehensive model of supra- and subglacial hydrology within BISICLES, the UKESM ice-sheet model. The supra and subglacial components will leverage the adaptive meshing capabilities of BISICLES, enabling ice-sheet wide characterisation of the impact of surface melt-induced runoff on dynamics of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

SWARM (Impacts Assessment to Support WAter Resources Management and Climate Change Adaptation for China)

SWARM is a project within the CSSP China program, a joint BEIS/Newton Fund effort which aims to accelerate climate science reserch programmes to underpin development of climate services that help build resilience to climate vulnerability. Led by UEA with invesigators in Edinburgh, Exeter and U of Sussex, SWARM aims to provide an integrated assessment of current water resources and potential future changes in China. My role is to lead the glacier-modelling component, assessing the effect of climate change on glacier retreat and the associated hydrological impacts.