Dr. Felicity McCormack

Supervisor: Felicity McCormack
Field of study: Antarctica / ice sheet modelling

Brief description: A key uncertainty in projections of future sea level rise as Antarctica melts is due to the impact of climate variability on ice flow, This is particularly due to the stabilising/destabilising impact of bed topography on ice sheet flow. This project will use an idealised model of an ice sheet/shelf system to investigate the impact of variability in ocean and atmospheric temperatures and snowfall on how ice flows over topographic bumps. Desirable skills: Applied maths (e.g. PDEs, ODEs, numerical methods), scientific computing (matlab/python), keen to learn modelling!

Supervisor: Felicity McCormack
Field of study: Antarctica / ice sheet modelling

Internal layers (isochrones) are visible in radar echograms of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, reflecting the chemistry of the atmosphere at the time of snowfall deposition. From traces of these layers, we can extract information about the ice sheet internal temperature and even paleo accumulation rates – both important features of the ice sheet that are largely un-characterised throughout most of Antarctica. This project will derive/use existing traced isochrones from catchments within East Antarctica to extract temperature and paleo accumulation rates, comparing against information from ice cores. Desirable skills: python, data analysis, working with large data sets

For further information contact Felicity McCormack