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You are in:  Home » Staff and students » Research staff » Steven Palmer

Steven Palmer BSc MSc PhD

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Satellite and airborne remote sensing glaciology

Biography

Career

• April 2011 – present: Postdoctoral Research Associate. Airborne geophysical investigations of basal conditions at flow transitions of outlet glaciers on the Greenland Ice Sheet (NERC Grant NE/H020667).
• March 2010 – March 2011: Postdoctoral Research Associate. European Union ice2sea project, Leeds University, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, UK
• October 2009 – March 2010: Postgraduate Research Assistant. AFI 8-25: Isolating the Larsen-C Ice Shelf mass instability. Leeds University, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, UK.
• July 2005 – September 2005: Research and Logistics Assistant. GRADES-TIGRIS fieldwork campaign, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK.
• January 2005 – July 2005: Mission Systems Engineer. Earth Observation group, EADS Astrium, Stevenage, UK.

Qualifications

• NERC PhD in Remote Sensing Glaciology, University of Edinburgh.
  Thesis: Temporal fluctuations in the motion of Arctic ice masses from satellite radar interferometry.
• MSc Astronautics & Spacecraft Engineering, Cranfield University.
  Thesis: Investigating links between geomagnetic activity and human health.
• BSc (Hons) Earth & Space Science, University College London.
  Dissertation: X-ray observations of Active Galactic Nuclei.

Awards

• JSPS fellowship at the National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Japan (2008).
• Cranfield University EADS Astrium prize for Spacecraft Engineering (2004).
• University College London Matthews prize for excellence in Geophysics (2003).

Research

Steve's current research uses a variety of airborne geophysical measurements to investigate the ice geometry and basal conditions at selected marine-terminating glaciers in Greenland. The work focuses on 'flow transition zones' where a large horizontal gradient in the speed of ice flow exists between the slow flowing ice sheet interior, and the faster flowing outlet glaciers.

Fieldwork

• April 2011: Airborne radar, lidar, gravity and magnetometer survey of selected Greenland outlet glaciers.
• October 2009 – January 2010: Neutron probe survey of the Larsen-C ice shelf, Antarctic Peninsula.
• September - October 2008: Phase-sensitive radar survey of GrimsvÖtn caldera, VatnajÖkull, Iceland.

Publications

2011

• Palmer, S.J., Shepherd, A., Nienow, P., Joughin, I. (2011) Seasonal speedup closely correlated with surface hydrology at the Western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 302(3-4), 423-428.
• Sundal, A.V., Shepherd, A., Nienow, P., Hanna, E., Palmer, S., Huybrechts, P. (2011) Faster ice flow in southwest Greenland during years of low melting. Nature, 469(7331), 522-U8.
• Bartholomew, I., Nienow, P., Sole, A., Mair, D., Cowton, T., Palmer, S., Wadham, J. (2011) Supraglacial Forcing of Subglacial Drainage in the Ablation Zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Geophysical Research Letters, 38(L08502), doi:10.1029/2011GL047063.
• Rinne, E.J., Shepherd, A., Palmer, S., van den Broeke, M.R., Muir, A., Ettema, J., Wingham, D. (in review) On the recent elevation changes at the Flade Isblink Ice Cap, Northern Greenland. Journal of Geophysical Research.

2010

• Palmer, S.J., Shepherd, A., Nienow, P., Rinne, E., Sundal, A. V. (Revised manuscript submitted to , August 2010) InSAR observations of ice elevation and velocity fluctuations at the Flade Isblink ice cap, eastern North Greenland. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115(F04037), doi:10.1029/2010JF001686.

2009

• Palmer, S.J., Shepherd, A., BjÖrnsson, H., Palsson, F. (2009) Ice velocity measurements of Langjokull, Iceland from InSAR, Journal of Glaciology 55(193), 834-838.
• Sundal, A. V., Shepherd, A., Nienow, P., Hanna, E., Palmer, S., Huybrechts, P. (2009) Evolution of supra-glacial lakes across the Greenland Ice Sheet, Remote Sensing of the Environment, 113, 2164-2171.

2006

• Palmer S.J., Rycroft M.J., Cermack M. (2006) Solar and geomagnetic activity, extremely low frequency magnetic and electric fields and human health at the Earth's surface. Surveys in Geophysics 27, 557–595.

Presentations and workshops

• Near-surface density variations at the Larsen-C ice shelf derived from neutron scattering measurements, AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco, USA, December 2010 (poster).
• InSAR observations of Arctic ice flow fluctuations, Hutton seminar, The University of Edinburgh, October 2010 (Invited).
• Form and flow of Flade Isblink Ice Cap, Greenland, 35^th Annual IGS-BB meeting, Aberystwyth, UK, September 2010.
• Satellite radar interferometry observations of ice flow and elevation at Flade Isblink ice cap, Greenland, ESA Living Planet Symposium, Bergen, Norway, June 2010.
• Current NCEO cryospheric remote sensing activities, National Centre for Earth Observation student conference, Edinburgh, UK, March 2010 (Invited).
• Fluctuations in the flow of Arctic ice masses from satellite InSAR, National Centre for Earth Observation general meeting, Oxford, UK September 2009 (poster).
• Seasonal flow variability and surface hydrology at the Western margin of the Greenland Ice Sheet IGS International Symposium on Dynamics in Glaciology, Limerick, Ireland, August 2008.
• ESA Earth Observation summer school, Frascati, Italy, August 2008.
• Ice Sheets & Glaciers in the Climate System Summer School, Karthaus, Italy, Sept 2007.

Teaching

Lecturer:

• Year 2 undergraduate course 'Natural Hazards', University of Edinburgh (2008).
• Lothians Equal Access Programme for Schools (2008).

Demonstrator/Tutor:

• Undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Physical Geography, GIS & Remote sensing and Geophysics courses at The University of Edinburgh and Cambridge University (2005-2008).
• Geology and Geomorphology residential fieldtrip to Arran (2007).
• Glacial Geomorphology residential fieldtrip to the Cairngorms (2007, 2008, 2009).

Voluntary:

• Participated in drop-in sessions for the general public during Edinburgh Science week, (2006-2008).
• Leeds Science Festival: 'Science at the ends of the Earth' (2011).