Main tasks within ice2sea: Workpackage co-coordination (W5), involvement in W2 and W5
Description of institution: The ‘Ice and Climate’ research group of the Department of Geography of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) has a longstanding expertise in glaciological activities, both regarding modeling and fieldwork. Since 20 years, the group has gained a reputation for modeling the dynamics of natural ice masses (continental ice sheets, ice caps and glaciers) and their interaction with the climate system. The three-dimensional ice sheet models which were developed at the institute are widely regarded as state-of-the-art. They have been applied to the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and to the Northern Hemisphere’s ice sheets to investigate ice and climate interactions at time scales ranging from ice sheet inception to glacial-interglacial cycles and the response to future greenhouse warming. Amongst other things, these models were used to calculate the sea-level contributions of the polar ice sheets for the Second, Third, and Fourth Scientific Assessment Reports of IPCC. Recent work has concentrated on the development of higher-order ice dynamic models that are nested within the large-scale model codes to investigate the ice flow around deep drilling sites and in outlet glaciers. Considerable expertise was also gained in recent years with the coupling of large-scale ice sheet models with earth system models and with general circulation models of the atmosphere and the ocean. The research group ‘Ice and Climate’ currently consists of 1 professor, 2 postdocs, 3 resident and 2 visiting PhD students, and 1 research assistant. Within ice2sea, VUB will contribute with modeling the response of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets to climate change and their effect on global sea-level changes.
Department name: Departement Geografie
Staff member: Prof. Philippe Huybrechts
Profile of staff member: Philippe Huybrechts has more than 20 years of experience in the numerical modeling of ice sheets and glaciers, with a focus on ice-climate interactions. He is professor of climatology, glaciology, and geodesy at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel since 2005 after having been affiliated with the Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung in Bremerhaven for almost 15 years. He is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of WCRP-COPES (for “Understanding sea level rise and variability”) and is the Belgian representative for IACS (IUGG). He also manages the modeling work package of EPICA-MIS (EU FP6) and contributed to several other EU projects (RTN NICE, EPICA, and ‘Climate Change and Sea Level’). He participated to several expeditions to Antarctica, Greenland, and Svalbard. Prof. Huybrechts is author or co-author of about 100 publications in the international peer-reviewed literature and has presented about 40 invited talks at international meetings and foreign universities. He has contributed to the Second, Third (as Lead Author), and Fourth Assessment Reports of IPCC for the contribution of the polar ice sheets to sea level change. Philippe Huybrechts led the EISMINT ice sheet model intercomparison initiative and currently coordinates a new Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project (ISMIP) under the auspices of CliC (SCAR/ WCRP).
Selected references:
Hanna, E., P. Huybrechts, K. Steffen, J. Capellen, R. Huff, C. Shuman, T. Irvine-Fynn, S. Wise, and M. Griffiths (2008): Increased runoff from melt from the Greenland Ice Sheet: a response to global warming, Journal of Climate, 21(2), 331-341.
Huybrechts, P., O. Rybak., F. Pattyn, U. Ruth, and D. Steinhage (2007): Ice thinning, upstream advection, and non-climatic biases for the upper 89% of the EDML ice core from a nested model of the Antarctic ice sheet, Climate of the Past, 3, 577-589.
Gregory, J., and P. Huybrechts (2006): Ice-sheet contributions to future sea-level change, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A, 364, 1709-1731, doi: 10.1098/rsta.2006.1796..
Huybrechts, P. (2006): Numerical modeling of ice sheets through time, in: Knight, P.G. (ed.): Glacier Science and Environmental Change, Blackwell Publishing (Oxford), 406-412.
Alley, R., P.U. Clark, P. Huybrechts, and I. Joughin (2005): Ice sheets and sea-level change, Science, 310, 456-460.
Huybrechts, P., J. Gregory, I. Janssens, and M. Wild (2004): Modelling Antarctic and Greenland volume changes during the 20th and 21st centuries forced by GCM time slice integrations, Global and Planetary Change, 42, 83-105.
Gregory, J.M., P. Huybrechts, and S. Raper (2004): Threatened loss of the Greenland ice sheet, Nature, 428, 616.
