Summary
Greenland’s largest glaciers are held back by jammed icebergs at their fronts. This exciting project will study how melting of these icebergs influences the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Project background
The Greenland Ice Sheet has lost over 4 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992, with 2019 seeing the largest loss on contemporary record, making Greenland a major contributor to global sea level rise. In high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, Greenland is projected to contribute between 4 and 14 cm to global sea level over the 21st century. Narrowing the uncertainty range on such projections is a high priority and motivates the topic of this PhD.
Ice is lost from Greenland by (i) melting of the ice sheet surface and by (ii) ice flowing into the ocean at the edge of the ice sheet. Recent mass loss is partitioned approximately equally between these processes, but the latter process is very poorly understood. The rate at which ice flows into the ocean around the ice sheet is thought to respond to changing ocean temperature and the associated rate at which the ocean melts the fronts of Greenland’s marine-terminating glaciers. Recent work however suggests an important, and perhaps underappreciated role for ice mélange.
Ice mélange is a mixture of icebergs and sea ice that is often floating in the ocean in front of Greenland’s marine-terminating glaciers. Where sufficiently strong, this mélange can jam against adjacent fjord-walls, ‘pushing’ back on the glacier, causing it to slow down and the ice sheet to lose less mass. To quantify the possible role of mélange in influencing the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet, we therefore need to understand what controls mélange strength. It is thought that warm ocean temperatures can loosen mélange by melting its underside, but this process remains poorly understood. This project will investigate the processes controlling ice mélange strength, thereby constraining one of the most important processes for the future of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Further information on the project background may be found in the provided references, or in this outreach article.
Research questions
- To use state-of-the-art ocean modeling to quantify how melting of ice mélange by the ocean depends on mélange geometry and environmental conditions.
- To simulate submarine melting of ice mélange at two large glaciers in Greenland and compare the model with observed melt rates and ocean conditions.
- To develop simple rules (parameterisations) enabling the quantification of ice mélange melt rates without full ocean modeling.
- To compare time series of mélange melt rate with glacier velocity and terminus position changes in order to constrain the role of ice mélange in glacier and ice sheet stability.
Application Process
1. Download the application forms
Please note: following some updates on fees status assessment, the below application form has been updated on 23/11/2021 to reflect the latest guidance received. In case you had downloaded the application form before that date, please download it again and use this one instead.
Download and carefully read the 3 forms listed below.  You can apply to only one project hence only one application form per candidate will be accepted.
- Application Form
- Equality and Diversity Monitoring Form
- Widening Participation Form
2. Contact your referees
Ask 2 referees to send reference letters directly to us, at e4dtp.info@ed.ac.uk, by the application deadline: 6 January 2022, noon.
Reference letters should be dated (not older than 2 years), signed (a scanned or typed signature is fine) and on headed paper. We have issued some guidance for referees to produce helpful references in the below document ‘E4 DTP Guidance for Referees’. You can forward the guidance to them together with your request for reference.
The referees should not be members of the supervision team of the project you are applying for.
It is your responsibility to ensure that both references are submitted on time, by the above deadline.  We won’t accept reference letters provided by yourself.
3. Gather documents and completed forms
- Complete and gather the below compulsory documents:
- the Application Form, duly completed and with relevant boxes ticked;
- the Equality and Diversity Monitoring Form (completed or not);
- an up-to-date academic CV (not more than 2 pages);
- all Transcripts and Certificates of Higher Education Degrees obtained to date (including interim transcripts if available). Note that for documents that are not in English, providing us with a translation is helpful although not compulsory.
- Complete and gather the below optional documents as relevant to your situation:
- the Widening Participation Form: for applicants from an under-represented group, who wish to disclose to us to benefit from our WP scheme
- a valid English Language Test: for non-English native speakers who already hold a test that fits our requirements (please refer to the English Proficiency section on the Application Form or the Entry and Eligibility Criteria webpage) – If you do not have a valid test at the time of submitting your application, that is fine, you will only need to provide one by the interview stage (end of February), if you are invited to interview.
- a proof of your Immigration Status: for applicants with EU pre-settled or settled status or with Indefinite Leave to Remain (please see the UKRI Funding Eligibility section on the Application Form for further details)
4. Submit application
Submit your complete application by attaching ALL the relevant documents to a single email and sending it to e4dtp.info@ed.ac.uk before the application deadline: 6 January 2022, 12 noon. Documents can be either in word or pdf format. It is not necessary to combine them in a single pdf file.
5. Receipt and Outcome
We will acknowledge receipt of your application by email as soon as possible (this can be after the application deadline if you send it close to it) and be back in touch by 15 February 2022, at the latest, with the outcome, through email. You can read about our selection process and indicative timing here.
We anticipate that the interviews will be held on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th of February 2022. We hope that our interviews will be held in-person wherever possible but online interviews will also be offered.
For further information please visit this website.