Markus Frey

Biography

I joined the British Antarctic Survey in 2008 after working for CNRS at the Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement in Grenoble/France (2006-08). I received my PhD in Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Arizona in Tucson AZ / USA (1999-2005), and prior to that a MSci in Hydrology from the Albert-Ludwigs Universität Freiburg / Germany (1993-99).

Research Interest

My research is about physical and chemical air-snow exchange processes to gain a better understanding of how snow and ice surfaces influence atmospheric composition and oxidation capacity, and ultimately climate, with a focus on tropospheric ozone, the nitrogen and sulfur cycle, halogen chemistry, as well as aerosol formation and growth. Further aims are to quantify the preservation of chemical trace species in snow and ice to develop proxies of atmospheric composition in the past using ice cores. In the field and lab I use a range of detectors to measure chemical species in air, snow and ice at the ultra-trace level, as well as spectrometers to determine particle size and concentration. I also use and develop box and 1-D models to interpret experimental data. To date I’ve lead and managed 14 atmospheric sampling and ice coring projects on expeditions to Antarctica, the Arctic and the Bolivian Andes, including two polar sea ice cruises during winter.