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 1st 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
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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.
Unwin Lodge facts are available here: unwin_factsheet and directions to Unwin Lodge are available here: unwinlodge_directions.
Remember that you are required to bring your own bedding. Mattresses and sheets are provided but pillows, bedding and towels are not. Bring your hiking boots and outdoors gear as well!
The programme and abstracts booklet is now available for the upcoming SIRG Workshop. We will meet at Unwin Lodge, Aoraki Mt Cook Village July 2nd – July 4th. The full programme is available here: proceedings Aoraki Mt Cook. The schedule is available here: SIRG2014_Schedule
A series of short public talks will be held at Unwin Lodge on Thursday July 3rd from 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm. The speakers at this event will be Brian Anderson (VUW), Pascal Sirguey (Otago University) and Jane Morris (Alpine Guides). For more information and an advertising flyer see here: SIRG_publictalks.
The public are also welcome to the general talks during the SIRG workshop. We hope to see some of you there.
Huw Horgan and Brian Anderson
The rapid retreat of Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers is making these glaciers more difficult to access for West Coast tourism operators. However, on the other side of the mountains the rapidly-growing Tasman Lake, which Tasman Glacier regularly calves icebergs into, is providing spectacular experience for visitors.
Heather Purdie comments on these issues – Retreating glaciers possible threat to tourism
TV3 Campbell Live: What’s happening to Franz Josef Glacier?
TV3 Campbell Live reporting on the current state of Franz Josef Glacier. See Brian Anderson present his prognosis for this well known, and rapidly changing, New Zealand glacier.
The 2014 SIRG workshop will be held at Unwin Lodge in Aoraki Mt Cook Village close to the heart of the central Southern Alps. This setting provides the perfect location for the SIRG community to congregate. The 11th SIRG meeting will be the first winter meet and an opportunity to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the collaborative Brewster Glacier mass balance project.
Click here to download the workshop announcement and registration form: SIRG2014_announcement. For additional inquiries please contact sirgnz2014@gmail.co.nz.
Key dates for the workshop
June 6th: Registration and abstract submission deadline. Students will not be charged a registration fee. Non-students are asked to contribute $100 per person.
June 20th: Final schedule and abstracts released electronically.
July 2nd-4th: SIRG-NZ workshop will be held at Unwin Lodge, Mt Cook Village. The workshop will start at 1:00 PM on Wednesday July 2nd and finish 1pm Friday July 4th.
