Main tasks within ice2sea: Involvement in W5.3: Patagonia
Description of institution: CECS, Centro de Estudios Científicos (Center for Scientific Studies) is a private, non-profit corporation, devoted to the development, promotion and diffusion of scientific research. CECS was founded in 1984 as the Center for Scientific Studies of Santiago, Chile and has since been directed by physicist Claudio Bunster. CECS moved to Valdivia, southern Chile, in the year 2000, where its laboratories and offices are located. It has now grown to a size of about 80 researchers who study three major topics: Theoretical Physics, Biophysics and Molecular Physiology, and Glaciology and Climate Change. CECS does not grant academic degrees per se, but many of the young researchers are undergraduate and graduate students associated to Chilean and overseas universities. The traditional work of the center and its achievements has been in basic research. The glaciologists at CECS focus on glacier studies of the southern Andes and Antarctica based on satellite remote sensing, ground and airborne geophysical methods, glacier-climate and glacier-volcano interactions. In addition to continuing to pursue basic research, the centre is now involved in applied science as an obvious expansion of its expertise in basic science. CECS receives funding from Chilean Government sources such as CONICYT (the Chilean Science Agency), various Ministries from Chile, and from private sponsors, both Chilean and international. CECS also has a well-established accounting department that meets Chilean and international requirements.
Department name: Not applicable
Staff member: Dr. Gino Casassa
Profile of staff member: Gino has studied glaciers since 1982. He holds a Hydraulics Engineering degree from Universidad de Chile (1984), a Ms.Sc. in Geophysics from Hokkaido University (1989) and a Ph.D. in Geology from The Ohio State University (1993). From 1994 to 2002 he worked at Universidad de Magallanes, Punta Arenas, Chile, as Associate Professor and Director for Antarctic Programs. Since 2002 he is a Researcher of Glaciology and Climate Change at CECS, and together with Andrés Rivera he is co-leader of the Glaciology group which is presently composed of 20 people including researchers, associate researchers, adjunct researchers, students, and logistic personnel. His studies include glacier geophysics, the use of airborne methods and satellite data for glacier studies, and the interactions of glaciers with climate. Currently he is a member of the Steering Committee of the AGCS Programme of SCAR, member of the Scientific Steering Group of the CLiC-WCRP-SCAR Project, and Vice President of the International Association of Cryosphere Sciences (IACS). He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005 and participated as Lead Coordinating Author of Working Group II of the IPCC, Fourth Assessment Report.
Selected references:
Casassa, G., W. Haeberli, G. Jones, G. Kaser, P. Ribstein, A. Rivera, C. Schneider. 2007. Current status of Andean glaciers. Global and Planetary Change, doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.11.013.
Rosenzweig, C., G. Casassa, D.J. Karoly, A. Imeson, , C. Liu, A. Menzel, S. Rawlins, T.L. Root, B. Seguin and P. Tryjanowski. 2007. Assessment of Observed Changes and Responses in Natural and Managed Systems. Climate Change 2007: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Canziani, O. M. Parry and J. Palutikof (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
Casassa, G., A. Rivera and M. Schwikowski. 2006. Glacier mass balance data for southern South America (30 °S – 56 °S). In Glaciers and Earth’s Changing Environment, Ed. P. Knight. Blackwell Oxford, UK, pp 239-241.
Thomas, R., E. Rignot, G. Casassa, P. Kanagaratnam, C. Acuña, T. Akins, H. Brecher, E. Frederick, P. Gogineni, W. Krabill, S. Manizade, H. Ramamoorthy, A. Rivera, R. Russell, J. Sonntag, R. Swift, J. Yungel, J. Zwally. 2004. Accelerated sea-level rise from West Antarctica. Science, 306, 255-258.
Rignot E., A. Rivera and G. Casassa. 2003. Contribution of the Patagonia Icefields of South America to Sea Level Rise. Science:302, 434-436.
Casassa, G. and I.M. Whillans. 1994. Decay of surface topography on the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica. Annals of Glaciology, 20:249-253.
Other Staff member: Andrés Rivera holds a degree in Geography and a M.Sc. in Geography from Universidad de Chile in Santiago, and a Ph.D. in Glaciology from the University of Bristol, England, where he worked with Jonathan Bamber at the Bristol Glaciology Center. He has worked in glaciology since 1988, including glacier inventory, climatology and meteorology of glaciers and the altiplano in the north of Chile, satellite remote sensing methods, mass balance investigations, ice radar methods, and airborne surveys of glaciers by means of laser scanning and ice radar. He joined CECS as researcher in Glaciology and Climate Change in 2001, and is Assistant Professor at Universidad de Chile since 1991. He has performed extensive field work in the southern Andes of Chile, including Patagonia, and in the the Antarctic. Recently Andrés has become actively involved in the Subglacial Lake Ellsworth Project led by a consortium of British institutions, and also in ice-volcano interactions in the Chilean lake district. Andrés is member of the International Glaciology Society, editor of the Aragon Glaciology Bulletin, and was author and member of the Steering Committee of the 2007 UNEP book “Global Outlook for Ice & Snow.
Selected references:
Rivera, A., T. Benham, G. Casassa, J. Bamber and J. Dowdeswell. 2007. Ice elevation and areal changes of glaciers from the Northern Patagonia Icefield, Chile. Global and Planetary Change, 59, 126-137.
Vaughan, D., A. Rivera, J. Woodward, H.F.J. Corr, J. Wendt and R. Zamora. 2007. Topographic and hydrological controls on Subglacial Lake Ellsworth, West Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L18501, doi:10.1029/2007GL030769.
Thomas, R., E. Rignot, G. Casassa, P. Kanagaratnam, C. Acuña, T. Akins, H. Brecher, E. Frederick, P. Gogineni, W. Krabill, S. Manizade, H. Ramamoorthy, A. Rivera, R. Russell, J. Sonntag, R. Swift, J. Yungel,and J. Zwally. 2004. Accelerated sea-level rise from West Antarctica. Science, 306, 255-258.
Rignot E., A. Rivera and G. Casassa. 2003. Contribution of the Patagonia Icefields of South America to Sea Level Rise. Science:302, 434-436.
Rivera, A., C. Acuña, G. Casassa, and F. Bown. 2002. Use of remote sensing and field data to estimate the contribution of Chilean glaciers to the sea level rise. Annals of Glaciology, 34: 367-372.
Rivera, A. and G. Casassa. 2002. Detection of ice thickness using radio echo sounding on the Southern Patagonia Icefield. In: The Patagonian Icefields. A unique natural laboratory for environmental and climate change studies. Casassa G., Sepúlveda F. V., and Sinclair R. M. (Eds.) Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, pp. 101-115.
