Professor Jonathan Bamber
B.Sc.(Bristol), Ph.D.(Cantab.)
Expertise
Current positions
Professor
School of Geographical Sciences
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
I am a physicist who uses Earth Observation (EO) data, primarily from satellites but also airborne platforms, to study the cryosphere and polar regions. My research interests are broad but can loosely be described as cryospheric processes and their interaction with the rest of the climate system. Most of my research focuses on using EO techniques, including laser and radar altimetry, Synthetic Aperture Radar, imaging spectrometry and gravimetry, to investigate the behaviour of the ice sheets covering Antarctica and Greenland. I have, however, also applied similar methods to study the Patagonian Ice Caps, Svalbard, Himalayan glaciers and Arctic sea ice. Much of my most recent research relates to the impact of melting land ice on sea level rise (SLR) and also the response of the ocean to changes in freshwater forcing. Thus, I have worked on investigating the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) among other oceanography problems such as closing the Sea Level Budget and the fate of freshwater fluxes in the North Atlantic.
Most of the EO techniques I employ fall into the category of satellite geodesy and I have used the same methods to produce digital elevation models of various land surfaces. More recently I have partnered with the Technical University of Munich, AI4EO lab to utilise the power of AI and EO data to address Grand Challenges in Earth System Science.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
ESA SLB CCI+
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
01/04/2023 to 31/03/2026
4Dmodeller
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
01/12/2022 to 31/05/2024
Arctic PASSION
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
01/07/2021 to 30/06/2025
Contribution of Land water stOrage to Sea-level Rise
Role
Co-Principal Investigator
Description
Sea-level rise is one of the most dreadful consequences of future climate change. To estimate the associated risk and prepare ourselves better for its implications, we need to identify the…Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
01/07/2019 to 30/06/2021
Interactive visualisation of Antarctic mass trends from 2003 until present
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
JGI Seed Corn funded project for web visualisation of mass trends from the NERC Resolving Antarctic Mass TrEndS (RATES) project.Managing organisational unit
School of Geographical SciencesDates
01/12/2018 to 01/07/2019
Thesis supervisions
The development, benchmarking and application of a three dimensional thermomechanical finite volume model of ice sheet flow
Supervisors
How can the water budget help us understand terrestrial water storage variations?
Supervisors
Clouds over Greenland
Supervisors
Elevation and volumetric changes to the Greenland ice sheet derived from Sentinel-3 satellite radar altimetry
Supervisors
The role of ice shelves in Antarctic ice dynamics
Supervisors
Mapping Antarctic grounding zones from ICESat-2 laser altimetry
Supervisors
A long-term record of sea ice thickness in the Canadian Arctic
Supervisors
What lies beneath
Supervisors
Publications
Selected publications
20/05/2019Ice sheet contributions to future sea-level rise from structured expert judgment
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Proposing a 1.0°C climate target for a safer future
PLOS Climate
How well are we able to close the water budget at the global scale?
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
Recent publications
20/02/2024A high-resolution calving front data product for marine-terminating glaciers in Svalbard
Earth System Science Data
fdmr: A Comprehensive R Package for Spatio-Temporal Modelling
From Sea Level Rise to COVID-19
Antarctic Ice Sheet paleo-constraint database
Earth System Science Data
Can GPS and GRACE data be used to separate past and present-day surface loading in a data-driven approach?
Geophysical Journal International