Modeling the terrestrial cryosphere in a changing climate
Contact person: Sebastian Westermann
Keywords: cryosphere, process modeling, glacier, permafrost, snow
Research group: Geography and Hydrology (GeoHyd)
Department of Geosciences
The terrestrial cryosphere (snow, glaciers, ice sheet, permafrost, etc.) is strongly affected by climate change (https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc/). Numerical models are important tools to enhance understanding of the processes governing cryospheric changes and to make future projections. Our department is working actively on developing suitable models, including CryoGrid for permafrost and glacier mass balance or PyGEM for glacier mass evolution simulations. Many of the governing processes are afflicted with considerable heterogeneity, for instance meter-scale variability induced by micro-topography. This challenges application of numerical models over large spatial scales and for long periods because computational costs for resolving fine scales becomes excessive. In future, machine-learning-based emulators trained by such process-rich models provide a way forward to overcome this obstacle in order to achieve a much-improved understanding of the terrestrial cryosphere. Research proposals may span several methodological approaches within this broader thematical scope, as well as a number of application domains.
Methodological research topics:
- Improvement of process models for the terrestrial cryosphere
- Interplay between models and field observations
- Machine-learning based emulators for process-rich models
- Regional- to global-scale modeling of cryospheric elements
- Bayesian statistics in modeling, data assimilation methods
Topics from natural sciences or technology:
- Glacier mass balance and dynamics
- Permafrost in both mountain and lowland settings
- Ground ice in permafrost, including thermokarst
- Snow cover, snow thickness, snow water equivalent and their spatio-temporal changes
- Glacier-permafrost interactions
- Snow physics
- Hydrological simulations in glaciated/permafrost catchments
Mentoring and internship will be offered by a relevant external partner.
