Email: n.baurley@soton.ac.uk
Address: B44, West Highfield Campus, University Road, SO17 1BJ (View in Google Maps)
I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate, who at present is part of a project which is studying the response of soft-bedded glaciers to climate change using novel remote sensing techniques. I'm particularly interested in using UAVs to investigate how the dynamics of these glaciers are changing, and what this may mean for their future response to climate change.
I am currently using a combination of novel remote sensing techniques, including UAV imagery and UAV-mounted radar to investigate the surface velocity and basal hydrology of glaciers in Iceland. This in turn can provide information on their dynamic behaviour (i.e. how they are moving), and thus how they may respond in future. My research is part of a wider research project at the university between Geography and ECS.
I began my path in academica by studying for a degree in Geography at Aberystwyth University in September of 2012. It was while studying for this degree that I became interested in Glaciology, and by my third year I was specialising in the subject. This specialism concluded in me spending 4 weeks in the French Alps for my dissertation, where I investigated the impact of rock debris on the rate of surface ablation on Glacier Noir.
Following my graduation in 2015, I continued at the university to undertake an MSc in Glaciology within the renowned Centre for Glaciology. This course introduced me to a number of new skills and methodologies, while only serving to cement my interest in the subject further. For my thesis I spent 3 weeks in Iceland in the summer of 2017, where I investigated the impact of tephra mobilisation on the surface albedo, roughness and rate of ablation on Sólheimajökull.
I then moved to Southampton in September 2018 to begin my PhD journey, under the supervison of Professor Jane Hart and Dr. Eli Lazarus. My project involved using uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery to investigate the changing dynamics of Fjallsjökull, a calving glacier in southeast Iceland, at high spatial and temporal resolutions. The skills I have honed and opportunties I have been afforded during my PhD have enabled me to obtain a PDRA position at the unversity, as part of a Leverhulme Grant that my primary supervisor was succesfully awarded. I am looking forward to working closely with her and colleagues in ECS on this project!