Climate Change

The climate change group consists of polar remote sensing/glaciology and paleoclimate/geochronology.  We consist of  two full time faculty, research faculty, and typically one or more post-docs, ~10 graduate students and ~5 undergraduate students.

The Climate Group’s polar remote sensing and glaciology research focuses on measuring and monitoring the mass balance and dynamics of polar ice sheets and glaciers and on investigating the major cryospheric, solid earth and atmospheric processes controlling them. Our group promotes an interdisciplinary approach, combining methods and observations from glaciology, geodesy, geophysics, remote sensing and photogrammetry, with modeling and simulation tools for investigating the polar regions. We also have a strong focus on developing novel information extraction methods from remotely sensed data, such as LIDAR and stereo imagery.

The Climate Group’s paleoclimate and geochronology research focuses on reconstructing arctic climate and glacier change.  We combine field geology with several dating tools, notably cosmogenic isotope exposure dating, and we house a Be dating laboratory where we prepare rock samples for Be dating.  We also collect lake sediment cores and analyze their contents in the sediment lab with the goal of using lake sediments to reconstruct glacier and climate change.  Focus on reconstructing Greenland Ice Sheet margin changes through time rely on these approaches and is combined with the remote sensing and glaciology component of the climate group.

The Climate Group’s research focuses on:

• Monitoring Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet mass balance mass and dynamic thinning, and reconstructing ice sheet elevation and velocity histories using remote sensing and photogrammetry

• Investigating subglacial geology and hydrology for improving ice sheet models

• Cosmogenic 10Be dating of moraines and other glacial features to determine the timing of Late Pleistocene and Holocene history of the Greenland Ice Sheet, other Pleistocene ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere, and mountain glaciers in Alaska.

• Using lake sediments to reconstruct Holocene climate and glacier change in Greenland, Alaska and Baffin Island.

Personnel:

Jason P. Briner – glacial geology, cosmogenic isotope geochronology, lacustrine sediments

Beata M. Csatho – glaciology, remote sensing, photogrammetry, laser altimetry, geodesy

Anton F. Schenk - geospatial information processing, digital photogrammetry, laser altimetry, computer vision (research professor)

Courses:

GLY 325                     Geophysics

GLY 443/543             Quaternary Dating and Paleoclimate

GLY 445/545             Glacial Geology

GLY 465/565             Environmental Remote Sensing

GLY 560                     GIS for Earth Scientists