Hamish Pritchard

Biography

My focus is on the two great glaciology issues: ice-sheet deglaciation and sea level rise, and the role and future of mountain glaciers as a water resource. My contributions include: a new assessment of the role of Asia’s mountain glaciers in regional hydrology and socio-economics that identifies their importance in protecting societies against acute drought stress; highly cited studies identifying the extent, mechanism and underlying cause of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet and tidewater glacier loss through accelerated glacier flow and ocean-driven ice-shelf thinning; the Bedmap2 project that I managed and for which I created the core data products of topography and ice thickness that are proving fundamental to much contemporary continental-scale Antarctic Ice Sheet modelling. My ongoing work involves: dating the arrival of ocean and climate forcing on the West Antarctic coast using radar field surveys that I have conducted; establishing observationally whether or not the West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed during the last interglacial by driving a radar survey through the Transantarctic Mountains; auditing Asian glacier ice volumes on the river-basin scale using a new airborne radar survey platform that I am developing (following successful field pilot studies in Nepal); and characterising Himalayan glacier debris cover and its effect on melting (field radar, thermal imaging, energy balance). My technical background is in synthetic aperture radar and laser remote sensing, low-frequency radar field surveys of glaciers and ice sheets, GIS and hydrological modelling. These are tools that I apply in both a polar and alpine context, and the use of Antarctic research techniques and equipment to glaciers in High Mountain Asia fits well with the increasing focus of UK science on overseas development issues.

Research Interest

Glaciology issues: ice-sheet deglaciation and sea level rise, and the role and future of mountain glaciers as a water resource