Umesh Haritashya, Assistan Professor at the University of Dayton in Dayton Ohio has, with colleagues Mark Pleasants (also from Dayton University) and Luke Copland (from the University of Ottawa), remapped the velocity of the Tasman Glacier in New Zealand, and the Khumbu Glacier in Nepal and compared the results. They found that in the debris covered regions of the glaciers the Tasman had annual average velocity up to 140 m/year whereas the Kumbu Glacier measured up to an average of 70 m/year. The team used repeat-images from the ASTER satellite. The research has been published in Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography

Two fully funded PhD positions are available at GNS Science and the Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand:

Antarctic Holocene climate variability, drivers and consequences as captured by the RICE Ice Core

The Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) project (http://www.rice.aq) is a 9-nation collaboration which recovered a 764m deep ice core from Roosevelt Island, an independent ice rise at the northern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The overall aim of the project is to improve our understanding of the vulnerability of the Ross Ice Shelf and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to rapid retreat to improve projections of future sea level rise. The PhD project offered here will use the Holocene major ion record to reconstruct environmental conditions, climate drivers and feedback mechanisms over the past 10,000 years. Within this topic there are a range of possible research directions which include the reconstruction of sea ice extent, tropical teleconnections, wind stress on ocean currents, polynya acitivity etc. and can be tailored to suit the candidates interests.

This work builds on existing and completed RICE PhD projects which analysed samples for the past millennium and developed a robust age scale. The successful candidate will be collaborating with a large number of international scientists and graduate students.

The ideal candidate will hold a MSc degree, having specialised in one or more of the following fields: ice core climatology, paleoclimate reconstructions, glaciology, geochemistry, programming (e.g. Matlab) and polar fieldwork.

This fully-funded (fees + stipend for living expenses) PhD project forms part of a research effort within GNS Science and theAntarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington. The successful candidate will be hosted by both organisations.

We encourage potential applicants to contact Associate Prof. Nancy Bertler by 9^th October 2015 (Nancy.Bertler@vuw.ac.nz, N.Bertler@gns.cri.nz), who will become the student’s principal doctoral advisor. Nancy will then assist the most suitable candidate with the Victoria University graduate admission process. Note that an excellent grades / GPA will be required. Applications to the university are required by 1^st November 2015.

Next meeting  of the CLIVAR/CliC/SCAR Southern Ocean Regional Panel is on the 24-25 September.

The agenda is found here: SORP-10_Agenda_5aug2015

Please submit items for the New Zealand national activities summary to Mike Williams by 16th September.

Please submit other comments or contributions related to agenda items to Inga Smith (particularly if they are about sea ice) or to one of the other members of the panel representing your sub-discipline by 16th September.