Research
Research focuses on assessing and modeling the effects of climate change on glaciers on scales ranging from individual glaciers to global. Models are developed and used to project future glacier changes and their effects of on sea level and streamflow using climate projections from climate models.
Ongoing projects and grants at UAF:
7/2020-6/2024 - Quantifying contributions from glaciers and terrestrial hydrology to recent and future sea level change
R. Hock (PI), M. Fahnestock (Co-I), Collaborative project with D. Rounce (Lead PI, CMU) and R. Lammers (UNH) and others
Funded by NASA
7/2020-6/2024 - Peak water in High Mountain Asia: Quantifying future cryosphere change to understand downstream human impacts
R. Hock (PI), M. Fahnestock (Co-I), Collaborative project with D. Rounce (Lead PI, CMU) and R. Lammers (UNH) and others
Funded by NASA
8/2019-7/2024- Anticipating rates of deglaciation in Alaska: controls on the mass loss and morphology of the debris covered terminus of Kennicott Glacier, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park
R. Hock (PI), M. Fahnestock
Funded by NSF
Completed projects:
1/2022-1/2023 - Summer School in Glaciology 2022
R. Hock (PI), M. Truffer
Funded by NASA
8/2017-7/2020 - 21st century regional sea level projections due to land ice mass losses and geodynamic adjustments using 3-D Earth models
R. Hock (PI), J. Freymueller, A. Aschwanden
Funded by NASA
9/2016-08/2019 - High Mountain Asia and Beyond: Regional Changes in Climate, Glaciers and Water Resources
(PI), Collaborative project with B. Osmanoglu (Lead PI, NASA) and R. Lammers (UNH) and others
Funded by NASA
09/2016-08/2019 - Collaborative Research: Refreezing in the firn of the Greenland ice sheet: Spatiotemporal variability and implications for ice sheet mass balance
(PI), Collaborative project with A. Rennermalm (Rutgers Univ), M. Tedesco (Columbia Univ.)
Funded by NSF
04/2016-03/2019 - Collaborative research: Present and projected future forcings on Antarctic Peninsula glaciers and ice shelves using the Weather Forecasting and Research (WRF) Model
(PI, collaboration with M. Fahnestock and J. Zhang)
Funded by NSF
1/2016-12/2016 - Summer School in Glaciology
(PI), funded by NASA (ROSES-2015/Topical Workshops, Symposia, and Conferences
07/2013 - 07/2017 - What role do glaciers play in terrestrial sub-arctic hydrology?
(Co-I; A. Liljedahl PI)
Funded by NSF
4/2013-3/2017 - Engaging a New Generation of Arctic Researchers
(PI V. Alexej, UAF)
Funding by NSF. Grant funded the Glaciology Summer School in 2014.
9/2010-8/2015 - Collaborative Research: Crops, climate, canals,and the cryosphere in Asia changing water resources around the Earth’s third pole
(PI Steve Frolking, New Hampshire)
Funded by NSF
Undergraduate student: Aurora Roth
Abstract: This project is generating an integrated assessment of the impacts of climate-, and human-driven changes in hydrology on agricultural production and land use in Central, South, East, and Southeast Asia, and the implications for regional food security and economic welfare in the coming decades. It combines future climate projections, remote sensing and hydrological data together with hydrological, geophysical, agroecosystem and economic modeling to characterize the relative importance of local precipitation, runoff, groundwater mining, interbasin water transfers, and agricultural and non-agricultural water use for the region's water supply-demand balance. The project goal is to estimate how effects of climate change on high-elevation snow, ice, and permafrost hydrology will affect downstream water resources and food production, and through scenario analyses with regard to e.g. dam construction and other large-scale water engineering efforts. At UAF we model the response of all High Mountain Glaciers to future climate change and quantity the runoff from the glaciers as input for hydrological models.
6/2012-6/2015 - Future glacier and runoff changes in the Susitna drainage basin
(collaborators G. Wolken (DGGS), A. Liljedahl (INE UAF) and others
Funded by Alaska Energy Authority through DGGS
Research professional: Juliana Braun; postdoc Andy Bliss
2/2011-2/2015 - Mass budgets of Alaskan glaciers: an assessment of the dynamic contribution to sea level rise
(collaborators A. Arendt, M. Braun)
Funded by NASA.
PhD students: A. Cody Beedlow, Christian Kienholz.
Abstract: We study the current mass budget of all glaciers in Alaska/southwestern Yukon/northwestern British Columbia with the ultimate goal of discriminating between the climatic (surface mass balance) and dynamic component (calving including submarine melting at calving fronts) of the total glacier mass budget. The climatic mass balance is modeled with temperature-index mass balance models while ice discharge into the ocean is quantified using SAR derived ice velocities and approximations of ice thicknesses close to glacier termini.
6/2011-9/2014 - Contribution of Western Antarctic Peninsula glaciers to sea level rise: separation of the dynamic and climatic components
(collaborator: M. Braun)
Funded by NSF
Postdoc: Batuhan Osmanoglu
Abstract: We study the current mass budget of glaciers on the Western Antarctic Peninsula and surrounding sub-Antarctic islands with the ultimate goal of discriminating between the climatic (surface mass balance) and dynamic component (calving including submarine melting at calving fronts) of the total glacier mass budget. We focus on King George Island and Livingston Island and use SAR remote sensing to estimate ice velocities and ice discharge into the ocean.
7/2011-8/2014 - Mass budget closure on the global inventory of mountain glacier and ice caps: Past and future sea-level rise and streamflow variability
(collaborators J. Box (U Ohio), R. Lammers (U. New Hampshire)
Funded by NASA.
Postdoc: Andy Bliss.
Abstract: This work will quantify recent and future glacier mass balances of all glaciers on Earth (excluding the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets) in order A) to estimate and predict their contribution to sea-level for the last decade and until the end of this century in response to climate change, and B) to quantify the impacts of glacier wastage on regional-scale watershed hydrology in terms of regionally differentiated runoff quantities and seasonality using a global hydrology model.
6/2010-5/2014 - Present and future contribution of glacial runoff to freshwater discharge into the Gulf of Alaska
Collaborators Eran Hood (UAS), Jing Zhang (ARSC)
Funded by NSF
Grad student: Robert McNabb
Abstract: We study the effects of future climate change on the runoff and associated biogeochemical fluxes from glaciers that drain to the Gulf of Alaska. We estimate the current magnitude and timing of runoff from glaciers that drain to the Gulf of Alaska using a regional-scale glacier runoff model, project how annual and seasonal glacial runoff along the GOA will change by 2100 in response to future climate scenarios in Alaska downscaled by a regional climate model, and assess potential changes to the biogeochemical fluxes (C, N, and P) into freshwater and marine ecosystems associated with the projected changes in glacier runoff.
6/2012-5/2013 - Estimating future flood frequency and magnitude in basins affected by glacier wastage
(collaborators: A. Arendt, A. Liljedahl (INE UAF)
Funded by Department of Transportation (DOT)
5/2009-4/2013 - Improving surface mass balance scheme of PISM for Greenland
Part of NASA project: A high resolution Parallel Ice Sheet Model including fast, sliding flow: advanced development and application
(PI Ed Bueler)
Funded by NASA
2006-2009 - Energy balance and mass balance of Vestfonna, Svalbard.
The project is part of the IPY project 'Kinnvika'.
2007-2010 - Climate and Energy Systems (CES)
Last update: October 2016