Doug MacAyeal
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
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RESEARCH
My work at the University differs from that of other climate-dynamics colleagues in the department by being oriented toward "field-data collection and processing." My approach to climate related science uses this field data as the means to establish proper, rational models of the physical processes governing climate. My field efforts in Antarctica (I've worked on the Ross Ice Shelf and in the Ross Sea for 10 field seasons) yield a range of physical models concerning the dynamics of large ice masses. For example, my work of about 10 years ago focussed on the processes of ice-stream flow, and the nature of the subglacial boundary layer that facilitates ice-stream basal lubrication. My models of ice streams were subsequently built upon by students at the U. of C. and colleagues elsewhere to determine the role of ice-stream surging in abrupt climate change of the North Atlantic (e.g., Heinrich events, when great armadas of icebergs plied the North Atlantic dropping ice-rafted debris and shutting down North Atlantic Deep Water production).
My current research passion involves the break-up of ice shelves and the subsequent transport of icebergs into the surrounding ocean. In 2002, the Larsen B Ice Shelf broke up by a melting-triggered ice-shelf fragmentation process. My students and I plan to perform field work on the remaining Larsen B and Larsen C ice shelves to verify the hypothesis suggesting how ice shelves are linked to climate.
Projects:
Giant Icebergs of the Ross Sea: Field work continues through winter, 2006.
Sensors and Sensor Networks: I am working to develop a wireless sensor network to monitor the seismicity and basal melting rates of icebergs as they drift through the Southern Ocean. This work, if funded, will be performed with colleages at Stanford University, Northwestern University, Kansas Universeity and the University of Wisconsin.
Inverse methods in Glaciology: I occasionally advise colleagues interested in performing "adjoint trajectory" models of the Antarctic Ice Sheet for the estimation of otherwiseunobservable parameters. The colleagues who do this work are located at NASA's JPL, GSFC and also University of Washington.