PostDoctoral Research Fellowship

Courville Zoe, Hanover NH

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This post-doctoral fellowship award supports a project to determine the spatial extent of metamorphosed snow, and the amount of grain growth due to metamorphism in firn on the East Antarctic Plateau. This will be combined with satellite-based mapping and data from surface traverse-acquired radar profiles in order to improve the physical understanding of depositional processes and their impact on the character of radar signals from areas of extensive snow metamorphism. The intellectual merit of the research is that it combines previous surface work on firn metamorphism on the East Antarctic Plateau with the wealth of recent traverse and remote-sensing based information on firn physical properties and surface topography. The objective is to fully document the location and character of megadune areas on the Plateau and create a comprehensive, plateau-wide context for megadune occurrence. The broader impacts of this work are that it will provide technical and career development opportunities for the PI by introducing her to the use of remote sensing techniques that provide spatial context for understanding the depositional and metamorphic processes in firn that she has previously studied. This interdisciplinary approach combines previous work with mentoring in remote sensing research at the University of New Hampshire with sponsoring scientist Mark Fahnestock. The research will also make a contribution toward understanding mass accumulation over East Antarctica - a fundamental problem faced by researchers trying to access the present mass balance of the ice sheet. The project will also involved informal science outreach, with emphasis on Arctic communities.