Short biography:
Inga completed her honours degree in physics at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand and her PhD thesis was on sea ice formation near ice shelves, also from the University of Otago physics department, jointly with the marine science department.She then did a postdoc on observational polar physical oceanography at the University of East Anglia, looking at the transport of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current over the North Scotia Ridge, with Dave Stevens and Karen Heywood.
Inga is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Otago, and has spent the last six months as a Visiting Research Scientist at Dartmouth College in the USA as part of her sabbatical leave. Inga was briefly in the UK, visiting the MetOffice, University of Manchester, and UEA, before visiting the University of Bergen. She has been here for a month at the end of her sabbatical, and flies back to New Zealand on Friday.
She was recently hired as a Senior Lecturer, to start on the 1st of July 2017, at the Department of Physics, University of Otago.
Abstract:
In this talk, I will give an overview of sea ice research in New Zealand, which includes: formation of sea ice near ice shelves in Antarctica; sea ice and wave interactions; physical oceanography observations, sea ice and climate modelling; and Arctic sea ice process research. I will then explain how my visit to Bergen relates to our research priorities, particularly supercooling and platelet ice formation. Following this overview, I will explain my specific research into fresh(er) water impacts on Antarctic and Arctic sea ice formation using oxygen isotopes and thermodynamic modelling. The signature of unexpected fresher water pulses was detected in Barrow, Alaska 2011/2012 sea ice using oxygen isotope analysis. Mooring salinity data confirmed unusual fresher water entering Barrow canyon in the winter. Rivers in the immediate vicinity of Barrow are thought to be frozen during the winter, so the source of that fresher water remains a mystery. Using modelling and archived data, we are addressing the question: was the 2011/2012 fresher water detected at Barrow a harbinger of things to come as the Arctic continues to warm?