Investigating Seasonal Glacier Fluctuations in Northeast Greenland Using Physics-Informed Machine Learning
9/2024-
I am currently working with Dr. Michalea King and Dr. Ian Joughin at the Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington. My work focuses on using machine learning to understand seasonal fluctuations of Greenland outlet glaciers. This is a work in progress but you can read the abstract here:
The Greenland Ice Sheet is losing mass due, in part, to the recent speedup of many of its outlet glaciers, including Zachariæ Isstrøm (ZI), a large outlet glacier in the northeast region of the ice sheet. Not only does ZI play an important role in the ice sheet’s surface mass balance, but it also exhibits marked seasonal variability, observed in both glacier flow speeds and the terminus position. Compared to its neighbor Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden (79N), ZI does not have a floating ice tongue and is predicted to retreat much faster despite being subject to similar environmental forcings. Recently, studies examining a small number of large outlet glaciers have also linked the formation, build-up, and subsequent break-up of proglacial mélange to seasonal variability through its impact on the timing of glacier advance and retreat. Still, the relative impact of mélange and other variables, such as terminus position and meltwater runoff, on glacier flow and the extent to which they propagate further upstream remains unclear. Here, I propose to characterize seasonal patterns of glacier flow and retreat at ZI and 79N to determine how meltwater, mélange, and terminus position drive changes in ice velocity and gain insight into the glaciers’ potential future changes. Together, these results will provide a deeper understanding of how glacier sensitivity (and thus, ice mass loss) to environmental conditions evolves over time, particularly in the event of ice tongue collapse as observed at ZI, and expand our knowledge of two of the largest and most significant Greenland outlet glaciers.