Laura Kehrl, working with the glaciological team at Victoria University have reported on their precise measurements of the surface velocity of the Franz Josef glacier. They put a whole lot of GPS sensors on the glacier and left them to log their position during March of 2011 and then again over late summer in 2013. They found the glacier sped up and slowed down every day and sped up following rain. The movement propagated from up glacier down to the terminus. When comparing the movement to their best estimates of rainfall and melt water they concluded the glacier speed was related to the change in liquid water, not just the quantity of water. They attribute this to the sub-glacial conduits closing during low flows leading to high pressure when the next high flows occurred. This high water pressure reduced friction between the glacier and the rock beneath it letting the glacier speed up. The research is published the Journal of Glaciology.

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.

A fully funded PhD position is available at the Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

We seek a PhD applicant to address the following project:

Investigating the response of East Antarctic glaciers to deglacial warming

The ideal candidate will hold a Masters degree, having specialised in one or more of the following fields: glaciology, geomorphology, geochemistry, programming (e.g. Matlab, Python) and polar/alpine fieldwork.

This fully-funded (fees + stipend for living expenses) PhD project forms part of a research effort within the Antarctic Research Centre at Victoria University of Wellington http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic in conjunction with the Past Antarctic Climates programme hosted at GNS Science in Wellington http://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Our-Science/Environment-and-Materials/Climate-Change/Research/Past-Antarctic-Climates, and the New Zealand Antarctic Research Institute (NZARI) http://nzari.aq.

We encourage potential applicants to first discuss the project with Andrew.Mackintosh@vuw.ac.nz, who will become the student’s principal doctoral advisor. We will then assist the most suitable candidate with the Victoria University graduate admission process. Note that an excellent GPA will be required.

Applications to the university are required by October 1^st 2015.  A student starting in December 2015 would be eligible to join our field programme in the Transantarctic Mountains in January 2016.

Sincerely,

Andrew Mackintosh

—————————————————————————————————–

More details:

Investigating the response of East Antarctic glaciers to deglacial warming

Satellite observations show that parts of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet are experiencing decadal-scale thinning, and outlet glacier retreat. Geological data can extend the record of ice sheet observations beyond that of the satellite era, providing rates, durations and magnitudes of past ice surface lowering that help us to understand the processes driving present-day and future ice sheet responses.

The PhD student will focus on geomorphological mapping and ¹⁰Be exposure dating in Victoria Land, Antarctica. Candidates with a strong background in glaciology and programming might also carry out numerical modeling of associated outlet glaciers. Glaciers in this sector of Antarctica drained into a large grounded ice sheet in the Ross Sea at the Last Glacial Maximum. ¹⁰Be dating of glacial deposits and associated numerical modelling of outlet glaciers has the potential to provide critical insight into the mechanisms that forced Antarctic ice sheet retreat from this maximum to its present-day configuration.

The PhD student will participate in at least one Antarctic field season – there is potential to gain experience as a member of our field programme in January 2016 – however, the main fieldwork associated with this PhD project will occur in the austral summer of 2016/2017.

The PhD student will be based in the Antarctic Research Centre (ARC), one of a number of centres of research excellence at Victoria University of Wellington. The centre is co-located with the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, with which it shares academic staff and facilities, including a purpose-built ¹⁰Be laboratory http://www.victoria.ac.nz/sgees/research/facilities/cosmogenic-nuclide-laboratory. Victoria University was recently ranked number one in New Zealand for research quality.

The ARC mission is to improve our understanding of Antarctic climate history and processes and their influence on the global climate system. We believe this field provides exciting opportunities and challenges attractive to young researchers, and is needed to provide a sound basis for international debate and policy development on global change issues.

Andrew N. Mackintosh

Deputy Director, Antarctic Research Centre

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/antarctic/about/staff/andrew-mackintosh

Associate Professor/Reader, School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/sgees/about/staff/andrew-mackintosh

Secretary General, International Association of Cryospheric Sciences (IACS)

http://www.cryosphericsciences.org

Victoria University of Wellington

PO Box 600 Wellington

New Zealand

New research published by Henrik Rother from the Institue for Geography and Geology at the University of Greifswald in Germany indicates that twenty four and a half thousand years ago the Castle Hill basin was full of ice with a glacier tongue reaching down through the Waimakariri Gorge. While the evidence for the “Waimakariri Glacier” reaching beyond the gorge has long been known, the previous estimate of when the ice was below the gorge was 300 thousand years ago, so this new twenty four and a half thousand years ago estimate is a considerable revision of the timing. The paper reference is available here

The title for the 2017 international symposium has been decide upon.
It is:
International Symposium on the Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

It will be held in Wellington, New Zealand
from the 13th – 17th February in 2017
The symposium is sponsored by:
the International Glaciological Society,
the International Association of Cryospheric Sciences and
the Climate and Cryosphere project.

The symposium is being hosted by:
the NZ Snow and Ice research Group and
the Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington.

SIRG2015_callforabstracts