Ensemble modelling of Argentière Glacier evolution during the 20st century

Mountain glaciers show a strong sensitivity to climate changes and are relevant to assess the climate change impacts in remote areas. General glacier retreat around the globe has become iconic to illustrate the effects of global warming and we anticipate that this demise will continue with important consequences in term of sea level rise, regional water resources, risk or tourism. Better projections of glacier retreat are therefore essential in terms of coastal impact, water management and hydro-glaciological risks.

The overall aim of the project is to improve past and future glacier volume projections.

The topic of the proposed internship is to use Elmer/Ice, a numerical ice flow model co-developed at the IGE, to simulate Argentière glacier fluctuations during the 20th century. Located in the Mont-Blanc massif, Argentière glacier is one of the 5 glaciers in the French Alps monitored within the GLACIOCLIM observatory.

The objective is to use the rich historical record of observations (surface mass balance, ice thickness, surface DEMs, ice flow velocities, snout fluctuations...) to better validate and constrain the simulations.
In particular, the student will :
– design an ensemble of simulations that takes into account the uncertainties in - - the model initial and boundary conditions.
– run the simulations on local HPC clusters
– use the available data sets to validate the simulations
– use data assimilation methods to better constrain the model

Pour candidater : Adresser un CV et une lettre de motivation par email à l’adresse ci-dessous
fabien.gillet-chaulet univ-grenoble-alpes.fr