
Research into glaciers and ice sheets is based at the Scott Polar Research Institute, where staff use observational data, laboratory experiments and numerical models to understand the dimensions and flow of ice masses, and to assess the impact of climate change. Current research focuses on fast-flowing glaciers and ice streams, hydrological processes and pathways within ice sheets, mass- and energy-balance, and sedimentary records from glacier-influenced marine environments.
Research projects
Research projects currently being undertaken on this theme include:
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RESPONDER: Resolving subglacial properties, hydrological networks and dynamic evolution of ice flow on the Greenland Ice SheetRESPONDER is an ERC-funded research project based at the University of Cambridge. It aims to develop an intergrated understanding of the evolution of ice flow on the Greenland ice sheet and the co-evolution of hydrological networks operating at its base. By employing multiple, complementary approaches, ranging from geophysical imaging techniques to direct exploration in kilometer-deep boreholes, the project is collecting an unparalleled stream of observational data from the basal environment which is rarely studied, yet responsible for making Greenland glaciers flow faster than glaciers anywhere else on Earth. |
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SAFIRE: Subglacial Access and Fast Ice Research ExperimentOutlet glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet cause significant sea level rise because they flow fast and are sensitive to climate change. The processes and mechanisms that govern fast flow are, however, not well understood. This project aims to resolve the control on the fast glacier motion by drilling to the bed of Store Gletscher in West Greenland. |
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TIME: Thwaites Interdisciplinary Margin EvolutionThe largest Earth science funding agencies in the United Kingdom and the United States are collaborating to investigate one of the most unstable glaciers in Antarctica. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) and UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) are teaming up to study a rapidly changing glacier roughly the same size as Florida or Britain. |
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Surface and Basal Hydrology of the Greenland Ice SheetThis project investigates the behaviour of surface lakes that form each summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, the delivery of surface water to the bed, and the effects this has on basal water pressures and ice sheet velocities. |
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Antarctic ice-shelf hydrology, instability and break-upThis project is ultimately trying to answer the questions: Why did the Larsen B Ice Shelf catastrophically break up in 2002? And might other ice shelves meet the same fate? It involves a combination of numerical modelling supported by recent field measurements in Antarctica to investigate the role that surface melt water ponding may play in ice shelf flexure and fracture. |
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Meteorology, debris cover and hydrology of Himalayan glaciersThis project is concerned with obtaining a better understanding of how the steep, complex topography of the Himalaya affects small scale weather patterns, how this influences the distribution of snowfall and energy receipt across the glaciers of the region, and how this, together with the characteristics of glacier surface debris layers, controls patterns of water ponding and glacier shrinkage. |
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iSTAR: NERC Ice-sheet stability programmePine Island Glacier is one of five glaciers in West Antarctica that are currently contributing sea-level rise at a significant and accelerating rate. The aim of NERC’s ice sheet stability programme (iSTAR) is to understand the cause of sea level rise stemming from the rapid transfer of ice from ice-sheet to ocean. |
Earlier projects
- Investigating basal conditions and flow dynamics on Vestfonna Ice Cap, Svalbard
- Understanding contemporary changes in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet
- Hydrological controls on the formation of basal ice layers beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet
- Identification of Subglacial Paleolakes in Arctic Canada: geophysical surveys in the Great Slave Lake
- Modelling and observing subglacial processes beneath Antarctic ice streams
- Thermodynamics of basal freeze-on beneath glaciers and ice sheet
- Surface characteristics and mass balance of Icelandic ice caps
- Mass balance of Svalbard glaciers
- Semi-automated mapping of glacial landforms
- The Greenland Ice Sheet: How fast is it changing, and why?
- Modelling Mass Balance of Svalbard Glaciers
- Glacial Sedimentary Processes in Iceland
- Supraglacial, Englacial and Subglacial Hydrology of Glaciers and Ice Sheets
- Changing Thermal Regime of Polythermal Glaciers
- Assessing the role of subglacial hydrology on the flow of West Antarctic ice streams: a numerical modelling approach
- INTEGRAL
- Geometry and scale-dependence of an Arctic glacier
- Modelling the influence of glacier hydrology on the dynamics of large ice sheets
- Evaluating the potential of high-resolution airborne remote sensing for glaciology
- High-resolution distributed modelling of the surface energy balance of valley glaciers
- Spaceborne measurements of Arctic glaciers and implications for sea-level change