Main tasks within ice2sea: Involvement in W2, W4, W5
Description of institution: CNRS, (Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de l’Environnement (UJF – CNRS, Grenoble) French national centre for scientific research, is a public basic-research organization. CNRS has 26,080 employees in 1,260 service and research units spread throughout the country and covers all fields of research. Interdisciplinary programs and actions offer a gateway into new domains of scientific investigation and enable CNRS to address the needs of society and industry. The Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l’environnement (LGGE) (UMR 5183) is a Joint Research Unit (JRU) set up by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Université Joseph Fourier (UJF). Within the CNRS, LGGE is primarily a part of the Sciences of the Universe department (INSU/SDU), but also the Engineering Sciences department (SPI) for its work on ice. Within the university, LGGE is a part of the Observatory for Sciences of the Universe in Grenoble (OSUG). It makes extensive use of the technical support provided by Institut Polaire Français Paul-Emile Victor (IPEV) for operations in polar regions. LGGE has built its scientific reputation on its research dealing with the climate and the composition of the atmosphere. These studies deal with the present and the past based on the natural archives of ice and snow accumulated over the ages. However, LGGE has generated other very competitive fields of competence based on ice and snow, for instance the physical and mechanical study of ice, chemical exchanges between air and snow, as well as data acquisition in the field and via satellite. The research carried out combines technological and analytical developments with a digital modelling approach covering various fields from the atmosphere to the flow of massive quantities of ice. The Arctic and Antarctic polar regions are the primary sites studied, but LGGE has considerable experience in mountain zones as well, including research on glaciers in the Alps and the Andes, and pollution in the valleys of the Alps.
Staff member: Dr. Christophe Genthon
Profile of staff member: Christophe Genthon (CG) is a CNRS research director at LGGE. He has a record of more than 60 publications in the peer-reviewed international literature, including and in particular on modeling, observing and predicting the surface mass balance of the polar ice sheets. CG has coordinated several national and international projects on the climate and environment of the polar regions, including the “Polarsnow” FP4-supported project. CG has designed and deployed the GLACIOCLIM-SAMBA long-term observatory to monitor the surface mass balance of a sector of Antarctica. Several proposed contributions to ICE2SEA will take place in the framework of (and taking advantage of the logistics of) GLACIOLCIM-SAMBA.
Selected references:
Eisen O., M. Frezzotti, C. Genthon, et al., 2007. Snow accumulation in east Antarctica, Rev. Geophys., in press.
Genthon C., P. Lardeux, and G. Krinner, 2007. The surface accumulation and ablation of a blue ice area near Cap Prudhomme, Adélie Land, Antarctica, J. Glaciol. 53, 635-645.
Krinner, G., O. Magand, I. Simmonds, C. Genthon, and J.-L. Dufresne. Simulated Antarctic precipitation and surface mass balance at the end of the 20th and 21st centuries. Clim. Dyn., 28, 215-230, 2007.
Magand O., C. Genthon, M. Fily, G. Krinner, G. Picard, M. Frezzotti, and A. A. Ekaykin, 2007. Surface mass balance of the Est Wilkes and Victoria Land region, East Antarctica, from 1950-2005, J. Geophys. Res., in press.
Other staff members: Gerhard Krinner, Catherine Ritz, Hubert Gallee, Olivier Gagliardini, Emmanuel Le Meur, Vincenet Favier (CNRS)
Profile of staff member: Gerhard Krinner obtained a PhD in physics in 1997 at the University of Grenoble. He is CNRS Research Scientist (Chargé de Recherche) at LGGE where he is head of the “Modern climate and climtological observations” section (currently replaced by C. Genthon). Presently, until August 2008, he is visiting scientist at AWI Potsdam (Germany). His research interests concern polar climate modeling with general circulation models, in particular surface-atmosphere interactions and ice sheet surface mass balance, for the recent geological past (quaternary) as well as for present and future conditions. He developped a dynamic global vegetation model which is coupled to the IPSL comprehensive climate model and is in charge of the development of the polar aspects of the LMDZ4 atmospheric general circulation model.
Profile of staff member: Catherine Ritz, obtained a Phd in geophysics in 1992 at the University of Grenoble. She is Research Scientist (Directeur de Recherche) in the CNRS at LGGE where she is the head of the ice sheet modelling group. Her research interest concerns ice sheet modelling and she has developped 3D, thermomechanically coupled, models that simulate the evolution of ice sheets under various climatic conditions. These models have been applied to present ice sheets, such as Greenland and Antarctica, but also to past ice sheets that covered part of the northern hemisphere during the glacial periods. She also participated to the ice cores interpretation and for instance provided the glaciological dating of the Vostok ice core. From 1994 to 1999, she was the French member of EISMINT (European Ice Sheet Modelling Initiative, launched by the European Science Foundation) and in the framework of EISMINT she organized several workshops and coordinated an intercomparison experiment (concerning the Greenland ice sheet).
Profile of staff member: Hubert Gallee is research director at CNRS (LGGE, France) since 2002. He comes from Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium) where he developed the LLN-2D model, which is one among the first Earth system Model of Intermediate Complexity (EMIC). Hubert Gallée was also the first to perform simulations of the quaternary glacial interglacial cycle using such a model. Hubert Gallée developed the polar mesoscale model MAR during the last 15 years. He studied meteorological processes specific to the antarctic ice sheet and was the first to simulate antarctic katabatic jumps with a primitive equations model. He also developed a detailled snow model including a description of blowing snow and coupled it to MAR. Hubert Gallée was the leader of the regional scale meteorology modeling group at the University of Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, until june 1999. He now investigates the surface mass balance of the antarctic and greenland ice sheets at LGGE and develops a regional model of the antarctic climate system by coupling MAR with the french sea-ice ocean model NEMO. He also collaborates with the italian antarctic programme on the implementation of his model as a limited area numerical weather prediction model over the Ross Sea (Antarctica).
Profile of staff member: Olivier Gagliardini obtained his PhD in mechanics in 1999 at the University of Grenoble on the modelling of flow of strain-induced anisotropic polar ice. He is doing his research at LGGE and teaching at the University J. Fourier of Grenoble. His research interest concerns complex flow modelling of glaciological object using the finite element method. In collaboration with T. Zwinger at CSC (Helsinki, Finland), he has developed the finite element package Elmer/Ice, based on the FE code Elmer. Elmer/Ice has been intensively use by O. Gagliardini to solve different glaciological problems, among them the flow of alpine glaciers and more recently the transition zone at grounding line. O. Gagliardini is a member of the Council of the International Glaciological Society.
Profile of staff member: Emmanuel Le Meur has obtained his PhD in geophysics in 1996 at the University of Grenoble. He is doing his research at LGGE and teaching at the University J. Fourier of Grenoble. He is working on the modelling of the dynamic of mountain glaciers. He has participated at the research program GLACIOCLIM on the Alps and in Antarctica. He has a large experience of field works, both in the Alps and in Antarctica. He is the coordinator of the project DACOTA supported by the French ANR.
Profile of staff member: Vincent Favier was hired in a full-time associate observatory physicist position at LGGE in 2007 to contribute maintaining the GLACIOLCIM-SAMBA observatory and develop research on high-resolution surface mass balance modeling over Antarctica.
Selected references:
Fettweis, X., J.-P. van Ypersele, H. Gallée, F. Lefebre, and W. Lefebvre 2007, The 1979–2005 Greenland ice sheet melt extent from passive microwave data using an improved version of the melt retrieval XPGR algorithm, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L05502, doi:10.1029/2006GL028787.
Gagliardini O., D. Cohen, P. Råback and T. Zwinger, 2007. Finite-Element Modeling of Subglacial Cavities and Related Friction Law. J. of Geophys. Res., Earth Surface, 112, F02027.
Gallée, H., V. Peyaud and I. Goodwin, 2005. Temporal and spatial variability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet Surface Mass Balance assessed from a comparison between snow stakes measurements and regional climate modeling. Annals of Glaciology 41, 17-22.
Gillet-Chaulet F., O. Gagliardini, J. Meyssonnier, T. Zwinger and J. Ruokolainen, 2006. Flow-induced anisotropy in polar ice and related ice-sheet flow modelling. J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech., 134, p. 33-43.
Krinner, G., B. Guicherd, K. Ox, C. Genthon, and O. Magand. Influence of oceanic boundary conditions in simulations of Antarctic climate and surface mass balance change during the coming century. J. Climate, 21, 938–962, 2008.
Krinner, G., O. Boucher, and Y. Balkanski. Ice-free glacial northern Asia due to dust deposition on snow. Clim. Dyn., 27, 613-625, doi:10.1007/s00382-006-0159-z, 2006.
Krinner, G., J. Mangerud, M. Jakobsson, M. Crucifix, C. Ritz and J. I. Svendsen, Enhanced ice sheet growth in Eurasia owing to adjacent ice-dammed lakes. Nature, 427, 429-432, 2004.
Krinner, G., N. Viovy, N. de Noblet-Ducoudré, J. Ogée, J. Polcher, P. Friedlingstein, P. Ciais, S. Sitch and I. C. Prentice. A dynamic global vegetation model for studies of the coupled atmosphere-biosphere system. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 19, GB1015, 2005. doi:10.1029/2003GB002199.
Le Meur E., O. Gagliardini , T. Zwinger and J. Ruokolainen, 2004. Glacier flow modelling: a comparison of the Shallow Ice Approximation and the full-Stokes solution, C.R. physique, 5, p. 709-722
Le Meur E., M. Gerbaux, M. Schaefer and C. Vincent. Disappearance of an Alpine glacier over the 21st Century simulated from modeling its future surface mass balance, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 261, p. 367-374, 2007.
Lhomme N., G. K. C. Clarke, C. Ritz, 2005. Global budget of water isotopes inferred from polar ice sheets, Geophysical Research Letters, VOL. 32, L20502, doi:10.1029/2005GL023774, 2005
Parrenin, F., Rémy, F., Ritz, C., Siegert, M.J. and Jouzel, J. 2004. New modelling of the Vostok ice flow line and implication for the glaciological chronology of the Vostok ice core. Journal of Geophysical Research. J. Geophys. Res., 10.1029/2004JD004561), 109, (D20102) 1-14, 2004.
Peyaud, V., C. Ritz, and G. Krinner. 2007. Modelling the Early Weichselian Eurasian ice sheets: role of ice shelves and influence of ice-dammed lakes. Climate of the Past, 3, 375-386.
Swain, M.R., and H. Gallée, 2006. Antarctic Boundary Layer Seeing. Astronomical Society of the Pacific 118, 1190—1197.
Zwinger T. , R. Greve, O. Gagliardini, T. Shiraiwa and M. Lyly, 2007. A full Stokes-flow thermo-mechanical model for firn and ice applied to the Gorshkov crater glacier, Kamchatka. Annals of Glaciol., 45, p. 29-37.
