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Directory of European Glaciology
United Kingdom
Research institutions are listed in alphabetical order, derived from web searches, the glaciology literature, and the IGS publication "Ice". Use was also made of the "Directory of UK University staff who have carried out Arctic research" (no longer online) produced by the Arctic Environmental Metadata Centre, which is also based at SPRI. See also the SPRI Library Catalogue.
Entries listed here do not amount to endorsements of products or services.
University of Aberdeen
- Geography
- Research: the dynamics of subglacial processes, climatic variability during the last Ice Age including global synchroneity of Late-glacial climatic shifts, luminescence dating of Quaternary events
- Plant and Soil Science
- Research: expertise in Montane and Arctic environments (eg work on Cairngorm snowbeds and on Svalbard), effects of environmental change on vegetation and soil at high altitude and latitude
The Queen's University of Belfast
- School of Geosciences
- Research: glacial sedimentology, glacial geomorphology and weathering (eg on ice caps in Norway and with rock glaciers in Iceland), structure of rock cracks and pores and their characterisation,
University of Birmingham
- School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences
- Research: glacial hydrology, glacio-fluvial processes
University of Brighton
- School of the Environment
- Research: till and glaciofluvial deposition (UK)
University of Bristol
- Earth Sciences
- Research: interaction of lava and ice during volcanic eruptions (with fieldwork in Volcán Nevados de Chillán, Chile), sub-glacial and supra-glacial volcanism, studies of magma-ice interaction
- School of Geographical Sciences
- Bristol Glaciology Centre
- Research: glacial hydrology and geochemical cycling, the chemistry of snow and snowmelt and the consequent impact on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, the use of glacial runoff chemistry in the determination of sub-glacial hydrological systems, the role of terrestrial ice in global geochemical cycles, geochemical weathering reactions in the proglacial zone (Finsterwalderbreen, Svalbard), the break-up of the last Eurasian High Arctic ice sheet covering the Barents and Kara seas. Glaciological applications of remote sensing data (eg topography of the Greenland ice sheet, use of SSM/I for the detection of snow cover).
- Bristol Glaciology Centre
- Physics
- Research: radio echo-sounding in ice
British Antarctic Survey (NERC), Cambridge
- Research: to understand the present behaviour of the ice-atmosphere-ocean system in Antarctica and its evolution in the past, and to use this knowledge to predict future behaviour. Work is also carried out in Greenland. The Physical Sciences Division carries out research in oceanography, glaciology, and atmospheric physics and chemistry from the Earth's surface to the very edges of the Earth's atmosphere
University of Cambridge
- Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
- Polar Ocean Physics Group was Sea Ice and Polar Oceanography Group, recently moved from Scott Polar Research Institute
- Research: fluid dynamics as applied to the physical oceanography of the European shelf-seas and fronts; remote sensing for characterisation of wind-driven sea states and for fine-scale meteorology, sea ice modelling; sea ice-ocean interactions in the Arctic Ocean and Greenland Sea, in particular pressure ridge morphology, winter convection and the thermohaline circulation. Sea ice mechanical, acoustic, optical, biological and engineering processes. Remote sensing imagery of sea ice (including development of ice classification algorithms) and icebergs (for operational use in polar waters).
- Polar Ocean Physics Group was Sea Ice and Polar Oceanography Group, recently moved from Scott Polar Research Institute
- Cambridge Arctic Shelf Programme
- Research: Quaternary geology of the pan-Arctic and sub-Arctic areas, East Greenland, the North Atlantic margins, Svalbard, Russia and other areas of the former Soviet Union. Relevant research has included reconstructions of the Arctic Ocean, and ice conditions in the Barents Sea area.
- Geography
- Research: Pleistocene geology, sedimentation and stratigraphy. Evolutionary palaeogeography and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, using a wide range of litho-, bio- and chrono- stratigraphical methods. Interactions between ice masses, climate and glacier hydrology. Hydrological controls of floodplains in Alpine rivers, including channel response glacial meltwater streams. Monitoring and modelling of processes operating in glacial environments; in particular, the micrometeorology, ablation and mass balance of glaciers; hydrological, geochemical and sedimentological processes operating beneath glaciers; and glacier dynamics
- Cambridge Quaternary is comprised of staff and students from Archaeology, Earth Sciences, Geography, Plant Sciences and Zoology departments
- Research: high resolution isotope records of the history of ice sheet fluctuations during the Quaternary. Proxy climatic indicators (isotopes, lithology, faunal counts, magnetic susceptibility) to investigate the relationship between orbital forcing and climatic change. Palaeoceanographic processes. Ice-rafting events and salinity changes
- Scott Polar Research Institute
- Research: radio-echo sounding of Antarctic and Svalbard ice sheets. Polar ice sheet dynamics. Remote sensing of glaciers and ice sheets (changes in the shape, volume and surface conditions), snow surfaces (snow conditions in Scotland), permafrost regions (especially areas subjected to air and oil pollution). The ICSU World Data Centre Glaciology, Cambridge and the Arctic Environmental Metadata Centre are also based at SPRI
Cardiff University
- Earth Sciences
- Research: late glacial and postglacial evolution in Ireland, Wales and England. Permafrost and climate change in Europe: mountain permafrost degradation, permafrost temperatures and distribution, associated environmental hazards. Associated Quaternary and environmental geology
Coventry University
- Geography department
- Research: periglacial landscapes, oscillations of glaciers (Chile).
University of Derby
- Geography
- Research: blizzards and heavy snow events across the UK since 1861
University of Dundee
- Geography
- Research: glacier sensitivity to climate change in both Northern and Southern hemisphere, glacial geomorphology and physics (especially in New Zealand and Iceland). Melt rates, ground-based and satellite-derived albedo, and surface roughness of glacier surfaces, energy-balance modelling (especially in Switzerland)
University of Durham
- Geography
- Research: glacier distributions and the development of glacial landforms, (eg cirques, troughs and abraded forms in Britain, Canada and the Alps). Soil development on moraines and in tundra areas. Proglacial fluvial processes and ground sorting by frost action
Earth Observation Sciences Ltd., Farnham, Surrey
- Research: development of a workstation to monitor sea ice using remote sensing data
University of East Anglia, Norwich, Norfolk
- Climatic Research Unit, part of the School of Environmental Sciences
- Research: palaeoclimatology. quantitative climate reconstructions, climate change detection, historical climatology (Iceland)
- School of Environmental Sciences
- Research: the influence of the Scotia Sea, Antarctica, on global ocean circulation. Icebergs and the mass balance of Antarctica. Firn and ice record of trace atmospheric chemistry using high resolution, high sensitivity organic mass spectrometry
- School of Mathematics
- Research: geophysical fluid dynamics, especially snow-melt hydrology (based on interacting continua with phase change). Polar ice sheet flow. Sea ice dynamics for different ice rheologies. Modelling the dynamics and thermodynamics of icebergs.
University of East London
- Schoool of Surveying
- Research: historical variations of European glaciers
University of Edinburgh
- Centre for the Study of Environmental Change and Sustainability
- Research: Secretariat for the NERC Arctic Ice and Environmental Variability (ARCICE) Programme
- Geography
- Research: glacial geomorphology, the role of glaciers as geomorphic agents. Ice sheet models to simulate the evolution of a former ice sheet. Tephrochronology to study the response of Icelandic glaciers to climate change. Diurnal and seasonal changes in glacier flow. The role of the seasonal evolution of subglacial meltwater drainage in glacier sliding. Modelling the landscape evolution of the Transantarctic Mountains. Computer modelling of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Antarctic glacial history; Icelandic glacial history; combined field and modelling studies of Patagonian glacier fluctuations; glacial applications of cosmogenic isotopes.
- Geology and Geophysics
- Research: the role of ice sheets in environmental and climatic change. Sedimentation in polar and glacial terrestrial and marine environments; Quaternary palaeoenvironments; modelling of ancient and modern ice sheets.
University of Exeter
- Geography
- Research: late glacial and postglacial environments in Scotland, South-West England, Norway and Iceland. Glacial geomorphology; sea-level changes
Fugro Global Environmental & Ocean Sciences (GEOS), Aberdeen, Swindon and Southampton
- Research: sea ice motion from drifting buoy and AVHRR data
University of Glasgow
- Geography and Geomatics
- Research: Glacial geology and geomorphology, Quaternary science and polar environments. Glacial, fluvial and coastal processes within glaciated basins, together with their environmental management implications
University of Greenwich
- Earth and Environmental Sciences (Natural Resources Institute), Chatham Maritime, Kent
- Research: glacial geology, spatial distribution of landforms and sediments deposited by the ice sheets and ice-fields in NW Europe during the Quaternary "ice age". Modern glacial processes in the high-Arctic, eg Svalbard
Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
- Civil and Offshore Engineering
- Research: Quaternary engineering geology, especially as applied to to problems of pollution movement and containment in estuarine and seabed sediments.
Infoterra Ltd (was National Remote Sensing Centre / Matra Marconi Space) Farnborough
- Research: iceberg detection using ERS-1 SAR
University of Keele, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
- School of Earth Sciences and Geography
- Research: sedimentology of glaciogenic deposits, the effects of jökulhlaups in southern Iceland (characteristics of jökulhlaup deposits). Sediment movement within basal ice. Changes in glacier margin position and proglacial river channel pattern, in West Greenland
- Mathematics
- Research: the role of the ocean in the interannual variability of sea ice around Antarctica. Small ice cap stability experiments. Processes that lead to the formation and maintenance of polynyas
University of Leeds
- Geography
- Research: the Glaciology group research is focussed on fast glacier flow, glacial instability and the physical processes that operate at the base of glaciers and ice sheets. See the above web page for more information
University of Liverpool
- Geography
- Research: evidence for coherent fluctuations in Fennoscandian and Laurentide ice sheets. Environmental and climatic change in the Holocene
Liverpool John Moores University
- Biological and Earth Sciences
- Research: Glacial sedimentary processes and glacial geomorphology in modern glacial environments (in Patagonia and Svalbard); Quaternary palaeoenvironments; ice-sheet modelling. Glaciofluvial processes and sedimentology
University of Luton
- Department of Geology
University of London, Queen Mary and Westfield College
- Geography
- Research: glacial geomorphology (glacio-isostasy, glacio-eustasy); Quaternary studies
University of London, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College
- Geography
- Research: Quaternary research, glacial and periglacial geomorphology, diamict sedimentology, palaeosols, palaeohydrology. Includes the Centre for Quaternary Research
University of London, University College
- Geography
- Research: fluvial geomorphology, eg sediment concentration and turbidity in glacial meltwater
- Environmental Change Research Centre
- Research: reconstruction of climate and nutrient histories for lakes in the Arctic (Svalbard, Kola Peninsula) and the Antarctic (South Orkney Islands, Vestfold Hills).
- Geological Sciences
- Research: ice rheology and glacial flow; ice fracture; subglacial sediment deformation; rheology of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets; break-up of Antarctic ice shelves; glacial geology; sea ice machanics.
- Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Dorking, Surrey
- Research: Remote sensing techniques applied to glaciology eg Altimetry (mass balance, topography, ice flow), Radiometry ATSR/AVHRR (surface temperatures/albedo), Synthetic Aperture Radar SAR (high resolution topography and flow), Passive Microwave (snow morphology, accumulation)
University of Manchester
- Geography
- Research: subglacial hydrology, meltwater chemistry, chemical denudation rates in alpine regions, modelling snowmelt and discharge, mass and energy balances of glaciers, digital terrain modelling of the surface/bed topography of the Austre Okstindbreen glacier, Okstindan, Norway. Monitoring glacier changes using a Global Positioning System
Meteorological Office
- Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
- Research: assessment of both natural and man-made climate change, especially by the development and use of global climate models. Sea-ice changes, which are an important positive feedback in climate change, include ice growth and melt and movement in response to ocean currents and consideration of internal ice stresses.
- Meteorological Research Flight, Farnborough
- Research: scattering properties of ice crystals
Office of Naval Research (USA) International Field Office, London
- Research: waves in sea ice
University of Oxford
- Environmental Change Institute
- Research: mountain research
- Mathematical Institute
- Research: applications of mathematical modelling to ice sheet dynamics, glacier flow, basal sliding and subglacial hydrology
- School of Geography
- Research: Quaternary sedimentology, periglacial soils and sediments
University of Plymouth
- Geographical Sciences
- Research: glaciotectonics, landforms and processes
University of Portsmouth
- School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Research: periglacial geohazard prediction
University of Reading
- Geography
- Research: periglacial processes in the sub-arctic, as they affect soil development
- Meteorology
- Research: simulations of realistic ice sheet growth at the beginning of the last ice age, ozone loss in polar regions
Scottish Association for Marine Science
, Oban, Scotland Part of the University of the Highlands and Islands
- Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Sea Ice Research Group
St Andrews University
- School of Geography and Geosciences
- Research: Quaternary geology and geomorphology, ice-sheet reconstruction, Quaternary chronology and Holocene landscape evolution
Scottish University Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow
- Research: Quaternary dating, biogeochemistry and sediment studies. Includes the NERC Argon Isotope Facility
University of Sheffield
- Geography
- Research: glacial geomorphology with remote sensing, eg reconstructing former ice sheets (Laurentide and British), subglacial bedform genesis and the activity of ice streams, snowmelt forecasting in mountainous terrain. Hydrology and fluvial sediment/solute transfer in glacial basins in Svalbard, monitoring surface energy balance of ice surfaces. Nutrient transport in glaciated and frozen ground
University of Southampton
- The GeoData Institute
- GeoData maintain thewebsite for the International Permafrost Association
- Geography
- Research: alpine and arctic proglacial hydrology, fluvial geomorphology, palaeohydrological and permafrost data studies, palaeoecology/palaeoclimate, glacial sedimentology, numerical modelling of Quaternary ocean/ice sheet dynamics.
Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent
- Division of Geography
- Research: hydrology and ice dynamics of glacial outburst floods (Iceland), glacial geomorphology
University of Stirling
- School of Biological & Environmental Sciences
- Research: Quaternary glacial erosion in the Antarctic Peninsula and in the Scottish Highlands; the sensitivity of periglacial forms and processes to natural and anthropogenically induced change
University of Ulster at Coleraine
- School of Environmental Studies
- Research: stone polygons Falkland Is
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
- Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences
- Research: includes the Centre for Glaciology which works on the form and flow of large ice masses, the response of glaciers to climate change, numerical modelling of ice sheets, subglacial processes and basal ice formation, glacier hydrogeochemistry, radio-echo sounding of ice thickness, satellite studies of ice masses, glacimarine processes and sedimentation, and seismic studies of glacier-influenced marine sediments
University of Wales, Swansea
- Geography
- Research: Quaternary geomorphology and weathering, Holocene environmental change
University of Wolverhampton
- Environmental Science and Geography
- Research: glacial diamicts, Scotland
IGS Correspondent - United Kingdom
- Dr Bryn P Hubbard,
Centre for Glaciology,
Institute of of Geography and Earth Sciences,
University of Wales,
Aberystwyth SY23 3DB,
Ceredigion, Wales,
U.K.
Tel: +44 1970 622-783
Fax: +44 1970 622-780
E-mail: byh@aber.ac.uk