Professor McMillan said: “We’re trying to push the boundaries of what we can observe. Over the last ten years, the resolution and detail of the data we get from satellites has dramatically improved.
“Diverse data, capturing the state of ice sheets are now acquired almost continuously so we have vast amounts of data, but the key is how we exploit, model, and extract that information through data science to provide robust scientific evidence.”
From optical imagery to radar data from satellites measuring the elevation of the ice surface or snowfall, Professor McMillan is using data to investigate ice loss and understand the mass of ice sheets and what lies above and below the surface.
He said: “As the frequency and accuracy of measurements improves, we can look more closely at the structure of ice sheets and understand the climate processes around them.
“Radar data and ultra-high-resolution satellite-derived elevation models show lakes buried beneath ice sheets. As we understand more, we also find more that we don’t understand, and very rapid ice loss can often trigger unstable and unpredictable behaviour.”
Doctor Leeson knows this well through her research into the cryosphere (the regions on Earth where water freezes into snow or ice) and specifically how climate change affects the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.
Doctor Leeson’s research helps us understand surface processes. By evaluating how rising temperatures impact ice loss and ‘firn’ (partially compacted snow), her research reveals how extreme weather has affected polar regions. The aim is to predict future impacts and what that might mean for the world.
Doctor Leeson said: “Our research is always full of surprises. For example, we knew lakes existed below the ice in Antarctica. This was mapped over 70 years ago. However, our PhD student Jade Bowling discovered new, highly dynamic lakes beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, one of which exhibited some quite remarkable behaviour.”
Through examining the data, they realised the lake was draining beneath the ice, with the water then forcing its way up to the surface, fracturing the ice sheet as it went.
“This is a new phenomenon. We’ve not seen anything of that scale. We’re now looking at how we develop systems that utilise these high-resolution data to automatically monitor these future events.”
The university’s groundbreaking research has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment Reports, the United Nations body that assesses science related to climate change.
Doctor Leeson added: “We’re able to have reasonable confidence in future projections – and their respective uncertainties –up to 2100, but as models get better and their accuracy improves, we hope to improve these predictions and project out even further in time. However, while scientists can provide the evidence, it’s up to people and governments worldwide to decide what they do with that knowledge.”