Multiple PhD Positions Available
Northumbria University
Department of Geography
Newcastle, United Kingdom
Landslides and Sediment Flux in a Warming Antarctica
Application deadline: 31 March 2015Improved Climate Model Simulation of Snow Cover Extent
in Boreal Forest
Application deadline: 30 April 2015.Modelling Changes in Debris-Covered Glaciers Across the World
Application deadline: 31 March 2015Variability in Snow Melt-Out Associated with Boreal Forest Structure
Application deadline: 31 March 2015Drivers of Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Balance During the Medieval Warm
Period - Little Ice Age Transition
Application deadline: 31 March 2015
The Department of Geography at Northumbria University is currently
seeking to fill five PhD student positions. All five positions will be
based in Newcastle, United Kingdom.
- Landslides and Sediment Flux in a Warming Antarctica
Landslides in Antarctica range from small individual rockfall, rapid
long-runout rock avalanches millions of cubic meters in volume, through
to the slow failure of entire mountainsides with volumes measured in
cubic kilometres. However, there is no no information on the rates and
spatial patterns of activity, nor how these may vary in response to
current, and by inference, past climate change. There is an archive of
aerial photography of the Antarctic Peninsula dating back to the 1940s
that has been largely ignored due to the range of technical problems
associated with deriving quantitative data from historic aerial
photographs. Advances in photogrammetric processing will allow this
project to process archive aerial imagery and use historic and modern
ground-based imagery to quantify multi-scale landslide activity in
Antarctica.
Application deadline: 31 March 2015.
For the complete announcement or to apply, go to:
http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=61942&LID=2316
- Improved Climate Model Simulation of Snow Cover Extent
in Boreal Forest
Current climate models fail to adequately represent the recently
observed rapid poleward retreat of late spring Northern Hemisphere (NH)
snow cover extent (SCE), -21.5% per decade (1979-2012), much of which is
spatially coincident with boreal forest. This PhD studentship will
evaluate current parameterisations of mass and energy fluxes in
snow-forest models, which will guide the development and implementation
of new, dynamic (changing with plant functional type (PFT) and density)
parameterisations in the land surface model CLM4 of the NCAR Community
Earth System Model (CESM). To enable evaluation and development of
parameterisations an Investigation Model will be created using knowledge
of common snow-forest canopy energy flux parameterisations, allowing
easy interchange of prognostic process representations and
parameterisations.
Application deadline: 30 April 2015.
For the complete announcement or to apply, go to:
http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=62055&LID=2316
- Modelling Changes in Debris-Covered Glaciers Across the World
Click here to visit the Northumbria University website Spatial evolution
of supraglacial debris cover on mountain glaciers is a largely
unmonitored phenomenon that has a direct effect on glacier melt. This
PhD will develop a model of debris cover evolution that can be applied
to mountain glaciers across the world. This will incorporate debris
inputs, transport pathways and the influence of mass balance on spatial
patterns and thickness of supraglacial debris.
Application deadline: 31 March 2015.
For the complete announcement or to apply, go to:
http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=61933&LID=2316
- Variability in Snow Melt-Out Associated with Boreal Forest Structure
A key challenge in reducing uncertainty in climate model projections of
future land surface temperatures is to adequately represent the recently
observed rapid poleward retreat of late spring boreal Northern
Hemisphere snow cover extent (SCE). Poor representation of interactions
between snow, vegetation cover, and climate in boreal regions has been
identified as the likely source of the uncertainty. This PhD student
will utilize a suite of geospatial data to quantify the influence of
boreal forest structure on the timing of spring snowmelt and related
land surface properties, and also to assess representation of key
related variables in climate models. The project will involve using
satellite observations to characterise the influence of forest type
(e.g. evergreen needleleaf vs. deciduous broadleaf) and forest density
on the rate and timing of snowmelt across the boreal biome.
Application deadline: 31 March 2015.
For the complete announcement or to apply, go to:
http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=61940&LID=2316
- Drivers of Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Balance During the Medieval Warm
Period - Little Ice Age Transition
The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is expected to be a major contributor to
sea-level change in the coming centuries. However, despite extensive
observational and modelling analyses, there is insufficient
understanding about mechanisms that affect ice sheet mass balance over
multi-decadal to century timescales. The primary aim of this project is
to quantify the influence of the NAO and/or Medieval Warm Period
(MWP)-LIA transition on the mass balance of the GrIS during the last
millennium. This will be achieved by forcing a
glaciologically-consistent 3D thermomechanical ice sheet model of the
GrIS with an ensemble of climate model output available from, but not
limited to, the PMIP3 project.
Application deadline: 31 March 2015.
For the complete announcement or to apply, go to:
http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=61936&LID=2316
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