Ann Huyghe tells about her latest training course.
7 September 2006
Ann Huyghe, PhD student at the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, was awarded one of the
six BE-POLES fellowships to undertake a short term visit to a
major international laboratory, field facility or educational
authority on polar subjects.
From 18 July to 3 August she participated
in the Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology.
The main focus
of the summer school was on the climate of the Cenozoic: how
and in which extent did the climate change, were these changes
gradual or stepwise, what caused the warmings and coolings
and how can we investigate them? What happened with fauna and
flora and with the ocean circulation during these events? To
find an answer to these questions, a closer look to the paleobiology,
paleogeography and paleoceanography of the Cenozoic is needed.
During the lectures, exercises, evening talks and discussions
possible mechanisms and forcings for the climate changes during
the Cenozoic were discussed, proxies and different methods
for building age models and correlation of different marine and
terrestrial records were interpreted.
‘In the year 1999
I started to study Geography at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
In 2003 I graduated in Physical Geography. The subject of my
thesis was studying the
influence of basal hydrology on large scale ice dynamics, using
a numerical 3D-ice
sheet model.
Fascinated by ice, I started a PhD in the field of glaciology.
The aim of my research
is to improve a numerical ice sheet/ice shelf-model by coupling
ice sheet and ice
shelf in a way that there is a continuous ice flux between
them. Next to this,
implementation of a sliding law with relation to subglacial
hydrology makes it
possible to reconstruct ice streams, which are responsible
for the large ice flux of
inland ice to the ocean. I would like to use this model to
make a reconstruction of
the glacial history of the Antarctic Peninsula.
The subject of
paleoclimate is very interesting in the study of the glacial
history of the Antarctic continent and because the Antarctic
Ice Sheet is a major driver of Earth's climate and sea level,
much effort is necessary to develop models of its behaviour.
In the research for my PhD an existing 3-dimensional ice
sheet model is refined and used to reconstruct the ice cover
of the Antarctic Peninsula (Boyd-Gerlache Strait and Bransfield
Basin in particular) during past glaciations. An important
boundary condition for this model is past climate. It is therefore
necessary to know every detail of paleoclimate changes. In
order to use data concerning this issue, one must know how
the data is collected, how climate models work and how the
results of these climate models can be integrated as a boundary
condition in ice sheet/shelf models. Participating in the summer
school was an excellent start to collect information about
the global and Antarctic paleoclimate.’
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