snow coated pine trees on a deeply snow covered hill

Quantitative Study of Snow and Ice

Much of the field instrumentation we deploy and numerical tools we use are constructed/developed in-house.

Models and Software

Finite element mesh of a long tapered part colored by temperature, with a legend in degrees Celsius.

Documentaion and support for UM-developed ice sheet modeling tools

Instrumentation

Instrumentation development begins with testing circuitry design in the lab.

Once tested, instrumentation is built in our lab.

Electronics workbench with a breadboard circuit wired to a red microcontroller board, multimeter leads, and a spool of solder.

Bench testing.

Person working at an electronics bench in a lab workshop with tools and equipment.

Soldering under the fume hood.

Instrumentation moves from the confines of the lab to field deployment.

Final troubleshooting and data collection happens in the field.

Close-up of a hole in packed snow with a probe and cables leading into the water.
Custom built probe for measuring water pressure, temperature, and dye concentration at the bottom of 800m deep borehole.
Person in a red hooded jacket sitting on snow beside camping gear and folding chairs.
Downloading temperature data from a suite of sensors in the upper 20m of the Greenland Ice Sheet