Research
Our research focuses on two broads areas:
-- the study of ice sheet mass balance;
-- the study of changes in the Arctic water cycle in response to climate change.
In both cases, our work relies heavily on novel spaceborne geodetic techniques combined with outputs from numerical models and ground based observations.
Our research objectives:
-- For the ice sheets are to develop a better understanding of the physical processes governing Greenland and Antarctica ice mass balance and to provide critical information to constrain predictions of their evolution and impacts.
-- For the water cycle, our objectives are to identify the main processes controlling the evolution of the high Arctic water budget and understand their dynamics and relationship with climate change.
To achieve these science objectives, we employ novel geophysical methods and satellite remote sensing techniques.
Our research group has developed expertise in applying time-variable gravity from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission to study changes in the Earth climate system. For ice sheets, we have pioneered the use of GRACE data for estimating ice sheet mass balance and their contribution to sea level rise. In hydrology, we have demonstrated the enormous potential of the GRACE technique for resolving changes in ground water storage and for providing powerful new insights about changes in the water cycle.
At present, we are pursuing three major objectives:
- Characterize the inter-annual to decadal variability in ice sheet mass balance and quantify its impact on mass balance uncertainty.
- Develop new methodologies to calculate the spatial and temporal pattern of regional sea level rise.
- Apply new techniques to study the partitioning of the terrestrial water cycle in the Arctic and resolve precipitation biases.
