I am a glaciologist and ice sheet modeler working with the Climate, Ocean, and Sea Ice Modeling (COSIM) group at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Recently, COSIM has started taking steps to include land ice modeling in its portfolio of climate modeling. A goal of our research group is to improve the predictive capabilities of ice sheet models, which are needed for estimating current and future changes in global sea level due to changes in the volume of glaciers and large ice sheets.
Improvements over current generation ice sheet models are likely to come in two main areas, (1) improved model physics and (2) true coupling with atmospheric and oceanic models. To date, most large-scale ice sheet models rely on a simplified treatment of the physics governing ice flow. While these models have the advantage of being computationally un-intensive (relative to an atmospheric or ocean circulation model, for example) recent studies have shown that more complicated models are necessary to mimic the rapid changes on the ice sheets that are being observed today. My research focuses primarily on the first improvement noted above (see current research). The COSIM group brings considerable expertise to the second improvement, as well as expertise in the broader fields of geophysical fluid dynamics and numerical modeling.
My interest in ice-flow modeling started with my PhD work at the University of Washington, where I developed a two-dimensional, full-stress, ice-flow model in order to better understand the potential for changes at the heads of the West Antarctic ice streams. Most of my research in the past has been concerned with the West Antarctic ice sheet. In particular, my work has focussed on trying to better understand the very dynamic ice streams that are somewhat unique to that ice sheet (see past research).
I first became interested in studying glaciers after I spent a summer on the Juneau Icefield in Alaska / British Columbia as an undergraduate major in geology. Since then, I have been fortunate enough to take part in field work at various places on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets (see pictures).
