Skip navigation

You are in:  Home » Staff and students » Academic staff » Neil Arnold

Dr Neil Arnold M.A., Ph.D.

University Senior Lecturer

Physical geographer, with interests within the broad field of environmental modelling, particularly the interactions between ice masses, climate and glacier hydrology.

Biography

Career:

Qualifications:

Research

My research interests focus, in the broadest sense, on glacier hydrology. These interests range from small-scale energy balance variations over valley glaciers, and the routing of the resulting meltwater over the glacier surface and into the subglacial drainage system, to the large-scale variability of ice sheets during the late Quaternary, and the role that glacier hydrology may have played in their dynamics. The main technique I employ in these investigations is the development of numerical models of the processes involved. These models use airborne- and satellite-derived remotely sensed data, and data obtained from field work, as input data to drive the models, to provide boundary conditions for the models, and for model calibration and evaluation.

Major research interests:

Modelling the influence of glacier hydrology on the dynamics of ice sheets and glaciers.

Glacier hydrology, that is the systems which carry water within and at the bed of ice sheets and glaciers, are one of the fundamental controls on the velocity of ice masses, and hence their possible responses to climate change. This set of research themes aims to continue to develop numerical models of the impacts of glacier hydrology at spatial and temporal scales ranging from intra-annual fluctuations on small valley glaciers through to the dynamics of large ice sheets over a glacial/interglacial cycle. My current work, in collaboration with Dr Ian Willis, and our PhD student Alison Banwell, is focused on developing a numerical model for the surface, englacial and subglacial hydrology of the Greenland Ice Sheet, with particular emphasis on the filling and draining of supra-glacial lakes, and the impact of such drainage events on the subglacial hydrology.

Evaluating the potential of high resolution airborne remote sensing in glaciology.

Accurate data form the foundation for understanding the processes which goivern the flow and mass balance of glaciers. This project focuses on the use of very high resolution remotely sensed airborne data, including LiDAR altimetry and multi-spectral radiometric data in glaciology, particularly as a boundary condition for energy balance modelling.

Distributed modelling of the surface energy balance of glaciers.

The surface energy balance of ice masses is one of the key controls on melt rates, and hence mass balance. This research focuses on the ongoing development of high resolution energy balance models of glaciers, including investigating the impacts of fractal surface properties on glacier energy balance, and sensitivity of such models to factors such as their spatial and temporal resolution. I am also interested in the use of reanalysis products in energy balance modelling, and in improving estimates of the uncertainty in energy balance model estimates of the future response of ice masses to climate change. This ongoing work is in collaboration with Dr Ian Willis and Cameron Rye, our former PhD student, and Dr Jack Kohler of the Norsk Polarinstitutt.

Publications

External activities