Main tasks within ice2sea: Coordination of W2; involvement in W2
Description of institution: The Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) was founded in 1834 and today enjoys a place as one of the leading French-speaking universities in the world. It has around 20,000 students and has carved out a leading place for itself in the international academic community during its 170 years of existence. The Laboratoire de Glaciologie is one of the laboratories within the Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l’Environnement. Its activities are focused on the study interface ice in polar and alpine regions. This approach encompasses experimental programmes in cold rooms, field work and modeling. The laboratory was actively involved in FP5 and FP6 projects such as EPICA and EPICA-MIS, focusing on the analysis of the basal sequence of the deep ice core drilling.
Department name: Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Département des Sciences de la Terre et de l’Environnement (DSTE)
Staff member: Prof. Frank Pattyn (FP)
Profile of staff member: FP is a glaciologist, professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles since 2005 and visiting professor at the Ghent University, Belgium. His core research focuses on the development of numerical ice sheet, ice stream and shelf models and the study of the behavior of ice streams and outlet glaciers, especially the transition zone near the grounding line. He participated in several Antarctic and Arctic expeditions, mainly carrying out radio-echo sounding surveys. FP is coordinator and PI of ASPI, a multi-annual research project of the Belgian National Antarctic Programme, associate member of the Belgian National Committee on Antarctic Research, Belgian representative to SCAR Standing Scientific Group of Geosciences, member of SCAR-SALE and member of the Steering Committee of IPY-NEEM (North Greenland ice core Project).
Selected references:
Pattyn, F. (2007) Investigating the stability of subglacial lakes with a full Stokes model. Journal of Glaciology 54 (185), in press.
Pattyn, F., A. Huyghe, S. De Brabander, and B. De Smedt (2006) The role of transition zones in marine ice sheet dynamics. Journal of Geophysical Research (Earth Surface). 111 (F2): No. F02004, doi:10.1029/2005JF000394.
Pattyn, F., B. De Smedt and R. Souchez (2004) Influence of subglacial Lake Vostok on the regional ice dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet: a model study. Journal of Glaciology 50 (171): 583-589.
Pattyn, F. and R. Naruse (2003) The nature of complex ice flow in Shirase Glacier catchment, East Antarctica. Journal of Glaciology 49 (166): 429-436.
Pattyn, F. (2003) A new three-dimensional higher-order thermomechanical ice sheet model: basic sensitivity, ice stream development and ice flow across subglacial lakes. Journal of Geophysical Research (Solid Earth), 108 (B8), 2382, doi:10.1029/2002JB002329.
Pattyn, F. (2002) Transient glacier response with a higher-order numerical ice-flow model. Journal of Glaciology 48(162): 467-477.
