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Brief CV |
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Education
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Research |
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Variability of flow of West Antarctic ice streams
Supervisors:
The Rutford and Evans Ice Streams, West Antarctica, have been examined using SAR interferometry and modelling.
- The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is a marine ice sheet with much of its bed below sea level, and as such is sensitive to climate change because of the possibility of increased areas of the ice sheet becoming ungrounded in the event of sea level rise. Thinning and weakening of the extensive ice shelves surrounding the ice sheet, caused by increasingly warm seawater melting them from beneath, would also allow increases in the velocities of the ice streams and outlet glaciers draining the WAIS because of the decrease in back pressure. The WAIS contains 6 m of potential sea level rise.
- The Rutford Ice Stream drains a 49,000 km2 area of the WAIS, feeds into the Ronne Ice Shelf, and is constrained by the slow moving ice of the Fletcher Promontory on the east side and the Ellsworth Mountains on the west. It has a long history of previous work by the British Antarctic Survey.
- The Evans Ice Stream drains a 104,000 km2 area of the WAIS, and, despite having the largest discharge of any ice stream feeding the Filcher-Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS), is the subject of surprisingly little published work, partly because conditions are unfavourable for fieldwork.
- The remoteness and size of the study area makes it particularly suited to remote sensing methods and modelling.
- Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) interferometry uses the phase difference between successive active microwave satellite scenes to show displacement in the line-of-sight (LOS) direction of the satellite, and topography. The study area is at the southerly limit of coverage by the European Remote-Sensing Satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2. Forty-seven SAR scenes were obtained through the VECTRA project for 1992, 1994 and 1996, the only phases in the satellites' lifetimes with repeat periods permitting coherence, or correlation, between scenes to be maintained. Interferograms have been used to map the grounding zones of both ice streams, and differential interferometry has been used to derive ice velocities.
- The CATS02.01 and t_tide tidal models were used to reconstruct the tidal signal throughout the study periods and at the time of acquisition of each SAR image, allowing tidal height differences for each interferometric pair to be calculated. The width of the grounding zone was also modelled using an elastic beam.
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Teaching and other activities |
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Discover!
I am currently the Mentor/Helper for the Discover! programme, which aims to give year 9 and 10 girls a taste of science and engineering careers that have tradionally been male-dominated, through various exciting hands-on activities.
So far...
- The Stuff of Life - including extracting DNA from strawberries and bananas, making models of the double helix from four colours of marshmallows and strawberry cables, learning what different chromosomes do, and tours of the anatomy labs
- Ice and Oceans - Making glaciers out of glue and borax to see how they flow, examining ocean circulation using food colouring, looking at how Ground Penetrating Radar and remote sensing are used in glaciology, and learning about life in the field
- CSI Swansea Style - reconstructing a 'murder' using materials engineering such as fingerprinting using superglue and silver nitrate, chromatogaphy, fibre analysis, and examining the murder weapon forensically to find out 'whodunnit?'
... plus more to come!
Demonstrating Experience:
Department of Geography, Swansea University
Present:
- GEG108: Geographical Methods 2: Field Project
Previous:
- GEG107: Geographical Methods 1: Practicals (2006 and 2008)
- GEG108: Geographical Methods 2: Field Project (2007 - 2008)
- GEG243: Digital Mapping and Geographical Information Systems (2005 - 2008)
- GEG250: Geographical Research Methods (2007)
- GEG257: Environmental Research Methods (2008)
School of Geography, University of Leeds
- GEOG1230: Analytical Skills in Geography (2005)
- GEOG2750: Earth Observation and GIS of the Physical Environment (2004 - 2005)
- GEOG5020M: Using Databases and GIS (2004)
Other:
Present:
Department of Geography, Swansea University
- Open Days - GIS demo to prospective students and parents; information desk; departmental tours (2005 - present)
- UK Polar Network - Education and Outreach Committee (2007 - present)
Previous:
Department of Geography, Swansea University
- Notetaker, working for Student Services, mainly on the module GEG247: Dangerous Earth (2006)
- Joint Editor, Swansea Geographer (2006)
- Postgraduate Faculty Committee (2005-2006)
I have also been spotted doing other useful things:
- Making bed profiles of Fridtjovbreen and Slakbreen
- Doing GPR at Groundwell Ridge in Swindon, as a field assistant to Adam Booth
- Coring trees (as opposed to peat bogs) near Kinlochewe in Scotland, as a field assistant to Ewan Woodley
- Helping out at the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition on the Swansea Glaciology Group GLIMPSE exhibit about Greenland, in July 2008
School of Geography, University of Leeds
- Invigilating examinations (2005)
- Research Postgraduate Staff Student Committee (2004 - 2005)
- Taught Postgraduate Staff Student Committee (2003 - 2004)
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Presentations |
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IGS British Branch. Swansea, UK. 8th - 9th September 2008
Sykes, H., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. The grounding zone of the Evans Ice Stream, Antarctica, investigated using SAR interferometry and modelling
Oral presentation
IGS International Symposium on Dynamics in Glaciology. Limerick, Ireland. 17th - 22nd August 2008
Sykes, H., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. The grounding zone of the Evans Ice Stream, Antarctica, investigated using SAR interferometry and modelling
Oral presentation
IGS British Branch. Edinburgh, UK. 12th - 13th September 2007
Sykes, H., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. Using control points to unwrap the topography of the Rutford and Evans ice streams, Antarctica
Oral presentation
RSPSoc annual conference - Challenges for Earth Observation. Newcastle, UK. 11th - 14th September 2007
Sykes, H., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. ERS SAR interferometry of the Rutford and Evans Ice Streams, Antarctica.
Oral presentation
IGS British Branch, Keele, UK. 13th-14th September 2006
Sykes, H., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. Tidal motion of the Rutford Ice Stream grounding line observed using differential interferometry
Oral presentation
IGS International Symposium on Cryospheric Indicators of Global Climate Change. Cambridge, UK. 21st - 25th August 2006
Bevan, S., Luckman, A., Murray, T., Sykes, H. and Kohler, J. Positive mass balance during the late 20th century on Austfonna, Svalbard, revealed using satellite radar interferometry
Poster presentation
RSPSoc Student Meeting, Newcastle, UK. 10th-11th April 2006
Sykes, H., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. Tidal motion affecting the Rutford Ice Stream shown by differential interferometry
Oral presentation
EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria. 2nd - 7th April 2006
Sykes, H., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. Interferometry of the Rutford Ice Stream
Poster presentation in session CR11/G12 Observations of glaciers and ice sheets from space
Fringe 2005 workshop, ESRIN, Frascati, Italy. 28th November - 2nd December 2005
Sykes, H., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. Tidal flexure at the grounding line of the Rutford Ice Stream shown by ERS interferometry
Poster presentation
RSPSoc Travel Bursary - Report in the RSPSoc Newsletter No. 20, April 2006, p18-19.
Ice Sheets and Glaciers in the Climate System. Karthaus, Italy
Department of Geography, Swansea University
- Swansea Glaciology Group, 17th December 2007
- Third Year Presentation, 31st January 2007
- Second Year Presentation (Poster), 8th September 2006
- Swansea Glaciology Group, 13th October 2005
- First Year Presentation, 18th May 2005 (Departmental prize)
School of Geography, University of Leeds
- First Year Presentation, 8th March 2005
- Leeds Glaciology Group, 17th February 2005
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Publications |
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In Press: Sykes, H.J., Murray, T. and Luckman, A. (2009) The location of the grounding zone of the Evans Ice Stream, Antarctica, investigated using SAR interferometry and modelling. Annals of Glaciology, 50(52)
Bevan, S.L., Luckman, A., Murray, T., Sykes, H. and Kohler, J. (2007). Positive mass balance during the late 20th century on Austfonna, Svalbard, revealed using satellite radar interferometry. Annals of Glaciology, 46, 117-122.
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Links |
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Swansea Glaciology Group
International
Glaciology Society, British Branch
British Antarctic Survey
National Snow and Ice Data Center
UK Polar Network
MapInfo Tutorial
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