Course Syllabus

Course Description

The response of ice sheets and glaciers to future climate changes remains a large source of uncertainty in projections of future sea-level changes. This course will provide students with a basic understanding of glaciers and their role in the climate system. We will cover topics like glacier mass balance, the transformation from snow to ice, ice flow, and the conditions required for glaciers to form and ‘survive’. A significant part of the course will consist of student projects, where students will be exploring and further developing a simple computer model to investigate the behavior of glaciers.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course you will be able to

• Explain the role of glaciers in the global climate system
• Identify and describe the processes that determine/govern the mass balance of a glacier
• Identify and describe the processes that determine/govern the shape of glaciers
• Use simple glacier models to investigate the response of glaciers to changes in climate
• Explain key processes of importance when modeling glaciers
• Identify areas of uncertainty in the contribution from glaciers to future sea-level rise

Faculty

Eliza Cook, PhD in Physical Geography at Swansea University (2016) and MSc in Quaternary Science at University College London (2003). Currently an assistant professor at Copenhagen University, with a research focus on reconstructing volcanism over the last 100,000 years, using the Greenland ice cores. Experience as a Field Scientist on eight ice core drilling expeditions in the Arctic, and as a field operations manager, supporting research logistics for the research missions in Greenland

Readings

All readings are provided by DIS through the Canvas course page. Main readings come from the following sources:

Textbooks (abbreviations used in the lecture plan are in parentheses):
Benn and Evans (B&E): Glaciers and Glaciations, 2^nd edition, 2010.
Cuffey and Paterson (C&P): The Physics of Glaciers, 4^th edition, 2010.
C. Dym (Dym): Principles of Mathematical Modeling, 2004.
Hambrey and Alean (H&A): Glaciers, 2^nd edition, 2004.
P. Knight (Knight): Glaciers, 1999.
S. Marshall (Marshall): The Cryosphere, 2012.

Other required texts
AMAP, 2017. Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic (SWIPA) 2017. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), Oslo, Norway. xiv + 269 pp.

IPCC, 2019: IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, M. Tignor, E. Poloczanska, K. Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Nicolai, A. Okem, J. Petzold, B. Rama, N.M. Weyer (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA, 755 pp. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157964.

IPCC, 2021: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of
Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Björnsson and Pálsson: Icelandic glaciers, Jökull 58, 2008

Björnsson et al.: Surges of glaciers in Iceland, Annals of Glaciology 36, 82-90, 2003.

Grindsted et al.: Sea level rise projections for northern Europe under RCP8.5, Clim Res Vol. 64: 15–23, 2015.

Pattyn: GRANTISM: An Excel^TM model for Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheet response to climate changes, Computers & Geosciences 32 (2006) 316–325.

Format

Lectures, group work, discussions, field studies, student projects and presentations.

Study Tour

Students will travel to Greenland

Evaluation

To be eligible for a passing grade in this class you must complete all of the assigned work. The overall grade will come from the following:

Grading

Participation (20%): Students are expected to participate in all classes and field studies. Furthermore, active participation in class is required in order to get a good grade for participation. Examples of active student participation: volunteer to sum up key points from last class (2-3 min), ask questions about readings, lectures etc., start and/or participate in class discussions relating to the subjects treated.

Study tour assignment (30%): A selection of questions and assignments to be carried out during the six-days study tour to Iceland. The study tour assignment is designed to contextualize the experiences in Iceland with the course material in general and the student projects in particular.

Student Project (50%): Student projects will be carried out in small groups. Each group will choose a subject and use and further develop an existing glacier model to investigate this subject. The final product will be a group report and an individual short video presentation of the project results. Required elements of each project is that students familiarize themselves with the model they are using and give a thorough description and evaluation of the model and the assumptions it is based on.

Academic Regulations 

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:

• Course Enrollment and Grading
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code