Rebecca Dell

Research Associate in Remote Sensing and Machine Learning

European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative Fellow, based at the Scott Polar Research Institute. Postdoctoral Affiliate at Newnham College.

Rebecca's research currently employs a 'Big Data' approach to investigate Antarctic Ice Shelf stability in relation to surface meltwater through remote sensing and machine learning methodologies. She investigates the climatic drivers of trends in surface meltwater using the European Space Agency Essential Climate Variables (https://climate.esa.int/en/odp/#/dashboard).

Rebecca has also conducted two Antarctic fieldwork seasons for a NSFGEO-NERC funded project entitled "Ice-Shelf Instability Caused by Active Surface Meltwater Production, Movement, Ponding and Hydrofracture" (PI: Dr Alison Banwell)

Career

• September 2021 - present: European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative Fellow. Project title: Controls on lake formation on ice shelves.

Biography

Qualifications

• 2017- 2021: PhD in Polar Studies, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge (Christ's College), UK. Funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). CASE Studentship with the British Antarctic Survey, where Hamish Pritchard is an additional supervisor. Thesis: Investigating the surface hydrology of Antarctic ice shelves using remote sensing and machine learning.
• 2016-2017: MPhil in Geography at Newcastle University, UK. Thesis: 'Interactions between glacier dynamics, ice structure, and climate at Fjallsjökull, southeast Iceland'
• 2013-2016: BSc (Hons) (First Class) in Geography, University of Durham (St Cuthbert's Collee), UK. Thesis: 'The controls on catastrophic calving events on East Antarctic Glaciers, from 1989 to 2015'.

Awards and grants

• 2022: Nerc Field Spectrometry Facility Loan Awarded for a Field Spectrometer (Application given a Grade 9)
• 2020: European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative Fellowship Scheme (£83,000)
• 2018: World Climate Research Programme Grant for the European Space Agency Cryosphere Remote Sensing Training School (~ £360)
• 2018: Christ's College Graduate Travel Grant for the EGU General Assembly (£400)
• 2017: NERC PhD Studentship awarded by the Cambridge ESS DTP (~ £78,000)
• 2017: Fieldwork and Conference Supplementary Funding from the School of Politics, Geography, and Sociology, Newcastle University for the EGU General Assembly (£750)
• 2017: Geography Masters Scholarship from Newcastle University (£3600)

Research

My research uses remote sensing and machine learning methodologies to better understand the spatio-temporal variation of factors that affect ice shelf (in)stability, with a particular focus on ice shelf surface meltwater. Most recently, this has led to the development of a Random Forest Classifier that is trained to detect both slush and ponded water across Antarctica's ice shelves. This work has been published (https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.114), and has significantly advanced the research communities ability to track surface meltwater across Antarctica, as until this point, it was not possible to disentangle the spectral signature of slush and to map it using an automated approach across the majority of Antarctica's ice shelves.

The above work has underpinned my research Fellowship at the European Space Agency, where I have been awarded £83,000 to produce a pan-Antarctic dataset of surface meltwater across 65 ice shelves, before exploring which essential climate variables (https://climate.esa.int/en/odp/#/dashboard) are driving this melt, through advanced statistical analysis.

In addition to research centred on machine learning and remote sensing methodologies, I have significant fieldwork experience in both Antarctica and Iceland. My most recent fieldwork has involved two seasons working with an NSFGEO-NERC funded project entitled "Ice-Shelf Instability Caused by Active Surface Meltwater Production, Movement, Ponding and Hydrofracture" (PI: Dr Alison Banwell).

During the second field season (2022), I was successful in obtaining support from the NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility for a project entitled "Producing an in-situ spectral library for Antarctic ice-shelf surface types". This allowed me to collect spectral data of ice-shelf and near-ice shelf environments during the field season, with the aim of constraining remote sensing and machine learning methodologies using in-situ data.

Publications

Peer-reviewed articles

• Dell, R., Banwell, A., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Halberstadt, A.R.W., Chudley, T.R., Pritchard, H. Orr, A. (2022). Supervised classification of slush and ponded water on Antarctic ice shelves using Landsat 8 imagery. Journal of Glaciology, 1-14, https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2021.114
• Banwell, A.F., Datta, R.T., Dell, R., Moussavi, M., Brucker, L., Picard, G., Shuman, C.A. and Stevens, L.A. (2021). The 32-year record-high surface melt in 2019/2020 on the northern George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula. The Cryosphere, 15(2), pp.909-925. https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-909-2021
• Dell, R., Arnold, N., Willis, I., Banwell, A., Williamson, A., Pritchard, H. Orr, A. (2020). Lateral meltwater transfer across an Antarctic ice shelf. The Cryosphere, 14, 2313-2330, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2313-2020
• Dell, R., Carr, R., Phillips, E., & Russell, A. J. (2019). Response of glacier flow and structure to proglacial lake development and climate at Fjallsjökull, south-east Iceland. Journal of Glaciology, 1-16.

Conference contributions

• Deakin, K., Dell, R., Dirscherl, M. and Willis, I., 2022. Intra-and inter-annual melt water patterns on George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, from synthetic aperture radar and optical satellite imagery. Cryosphere 2022, 21-26. August 2022
• Dell, R., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Banwell, A: A CCI fellowship project: A record of surface meltwater ponding and slush on Antarctic ice shelves from 2013 to 2021 using Landsat 8. ESA Living Planet Symposium, 2022
• Dell, R., Banwell, A., Arnold, N., Willis, I., Halberstadt, A.R.W., Chudley, T., and Pritchard, H.: A record of slush and water extent on Antarctic ice shelves from 2013 to present day, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19-30 April 2021, EGU21-16349, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16349, 2021

• Dell, R., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Banwell, A., Pritchard, H., and Halberstadt, A. R.: Temporal variations in the surface hydrology across Antarctic ice shelves, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-9856, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-9856, 2020
• Banwell, A.F., Dell, R., Dunmire, D., MacAyeal, D., Stevens, L.A. and Willis, I.C.: Ice-shelf instability due to surface meltwater systems on the George VI Ice Shelf. EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4-8 May 2020, EGU2020-6190, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6190, 2020
• Dell, R., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Banwell, A., Pritchard, H.: Seasonal variations in the Surface Hydrology of Antarctica's Ice Shelves. IGS British Branch, 2020
• Dell, R., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Banwell, A., Pritchard, H., (2019). Applying semi-automated methods to investigate the changing surface hydrology of Antarctic ice shelves. ESA Living Planet Symposium.
• Dell, R., Banwell., A., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Pritchard, H., (2018). The Changing Surface Hydrology of the Nivlisen Ice Shelf, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. AGU Fall Meeting
• Dell, R., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Banwell, A., Pritchard, H., (2018). Applying semi-automated methods to investigate the changing surface hydrology of the Nivlisen Ice Shelf, Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica. IGS British Branch
• Dell, R., Banwell, A., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Pritchard, H. (2018). Changing Surface Hydrology, strain rates, and fracture distribution across Antarctic Ice Shelves. European Geosciences Union General Assembly
• Dell, R., Banwell, A., Willis, I., Arnold, N., Pritchard, H. (2018). Changing Surface Hydrology, strain rates, and fracture distribution across Antarctic Ice Shelves. Antarctic Surface Hydrology Workshop
• Dell, R., Carr, R., Russell, E., Phillips., E. (2017). Structural dynamics and calving behaviour at Fjallsjokull, South-East Iceland. European Geosciences Union General Assembly
• Dell, R., Carr, R., Russell, E., Phillips., E. (2017). Structural dynamics and calving behaviour at Fjallsjokull, South-East Iceland. Quaternary Research Association Annual Discussion Meeting

Teaching

• Demonstrator, Geographical Tripos, Part 1B Glacial Processes (Numerical Glacier Modelling) (2023)
• Supervisor, Geographical Tripos, Part 1A Physical Geography: The Cryosphere (2022-2023)
• Field Trip Leader, Geographical Tripos, Part 2 Physical Geography: Glaciology (2019)
• Supervisor, Geographical Tripos, Part 2 Physical Geography: Glaciology (2019-2020)
• Supervisor, Geographical Tripos, Part 1B Physical Geography: Glacial Processes (2018-2020)
• Supervisor, Geographical Tripos, Part 1A Physical Geography: The Cryosphere (2018-2020)
• Demonstrator, Geographical Tripos, Part 1A GIS and Cartography, University of Cambridge (2019-present)
• Demonstrator, Geographical Tripos, Part 1B GIS and Spatial Data Analysis, University of Cambridge (2018-2020)
• Demonstrator, Geographical Tripos, Part 1A Geographical Skills and Methods, University of Cambridge, (2019-2020)
• Demonstrator, Physical Geography, Newcastle University, 2016-2017
• Demonstrator, Glacial Environments, Newcastle University, 2016-2017

External activities

Committee roles

• Cambridge NERC ESS DTP Student Representative (2017-2020)
• Geography Department Graduate Student Representative (2017-2020)
• Athena Swan Committee Graduate Student Representative (2018-2019)
• Sponsorship and Fundraising Organiser for Durham University Boat Club (2014-2015)

Other affiliations

• Newnham College Postdoctoral Affiliate (2021-present)
• Cambridge University Women's Boat Club Member (2017-2021)
• European Geosciences Union
• Women in Geospatial