Research highlights 

Selection of Research highlights

Publications 

Fahrner D, González PJ, Mair DWF, Lea JM. Implications of high-resolution velocity and strain rate observations for modelling of Greenlandic tidewater glaciers. Journal of Glaciology. 2024;70:e17. doi:10.1017/jog.2024.63 

Danni M. Pearce, James M. Lea, Douglas W.F. Mair, Brice R. Rea, J. Edward Schofield, Nicholas A. Kamenos, Kathryn M. Schoenrock, Lukasz Stachnik, Bonnie Lewis, Iestyn Barr, Ruth Mottram; Greenland tidewater glacier advanced rapidly during era of Norse settlement. Geology 2022; 50 (6): 704–709. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G49644.1 

Charles Amory, Christo Buizert, Sammie Buzzard, Elizabeth Case, Nicole Clerx, Riley Culberg, Rajashree Tri Datta, Rahul Dey, Reinhard Drews, Devon Dunmire, Clare Eayrs, Nicolaj Hansen, Angelika Humbert, Athul Kaitheri, Kaitlin Keegan, Peter Kuipers Munneke, Jan T. M.Lenaerts, Stef Lhermitte, Doug Mair, Ian McDowell, Jessica Mejia, Colin R. Meyer, Elizabeth Morris, Dorothea Moser, Falk M. Oraschewski, Emma Pearce, Sophie de Roda Husman, Nicole-Jeanne Schlegel, Timm Schultz, Sebastian B. Simonsen, C. Max Stevens, Elizabeth R. Thomas, Megan Thompson-Munson, Nander Wever & Bert Wouters. Firn on ice sheets. Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. 79 – 99, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-023-00507-9 

Wilson, S. F., Hogg, A. E., Rigby, R., Gourmelen, N., Nias, I., & Slater, T. (2025). Detection of 85 new active subglacial lakes in Antarctica from a decade of CryoSat-2 data.. Nature communications, 16(1), 8311. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-63773-9 

Nias, I. J., Nowicki, S., Felikson, D., & Loomis, B. (2023). Modeling the Greenland Ice Sheet's Committed Contribution to Sea Level During the 21st Century. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE, 128(2). doi:10.1029/2022JF006914 

Tuckett, P. A., Sole, A. J., Livingstone, S. J., Jones, J. M., Lea, J. M., & Gilbert, E. (2025). Continent-wide mapping shows increasing sensitivity of East Antarctica to meltwater ponding. Nature Climate Change, 15(7), 775-783. doi:10.1038/s41558-025-02363-5 

Lea, J. M., Fitt, R. N. L., Brough, S., Carr, G., Dick, J., Jones, N., & Webster, R. J. (2024). Making climate reanalysis and CMIP6 data processing easy: two “point-and-click” cloud based user interfaces for environmental and ecological studies. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 12. doi:10.3389/fenvs.2024.1294446 

Goliber, S., Black, T., Catania, G., Lea, J. M., Olsen, H., Cheng, D., Bevan, S., Bjørk, A., Bunce, C., Brough, S., Carr, J. R., Cowton, T., Gardner, A., Fahrner, D., Hill, E., Joughin, I., Korsgaard, N. J., Luckman, A., Moon, T., Murray, T., Sole, A., Wood, M., and Zhang, E.: TermPicks: a century of Greenland glacier terminus data for use in scientific and machine learning applications, The Cryosphere, 16, 3215–3233, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3215-2022, 2022. 

Shiggins, C. J., Lea, J. M., & Brough, S. (2023). Automated ArcticDEM iceberg detection tool: insights into area and volume distributions, and their potential application to satellite imagery and modelling of glacier–iceberg–ocean systems. The Cryosphere, 17(1), 15-32. doi:10.5194/tc-17-15-2023  

Seroussi, H., Pelle, T., Lipscomb, W. H., Abe-Ouchi, A., Albrecht, T., Alvarez-Solas, J., ...Payne, A., et al. (2024). Evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet over the next three centuries from an ISMIP6 model ensemble. Earth's Future, 12, e2024EF004561. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EF004561 

Otosaka, I. N., Shepherd, A., Ivins, E. R., Schlegel, N.-J., Amory, C., van den Broeke, M. R., Horwath, M., Joughin, I., King, M. D., Krinner, G., Nowicki, S., Payne, A. J., Rignot, E., Scambos, T., Simon, K. M., Smith, B. E., Sørensen, L. S., Velicogna, I., Whitehouse, P. L., A, G., Agosta, C., Ahlstrøm, A. P., Blazquez, A., Colgan, W., Engdahl, M. E., Fettweis, X., Forsberg, R., Gallée, H., Gardner, A., Gilbert, L., Gourmelen, N., Groh, A., Gunter, B. C., Harig, C., Helm, V., Khan, S. A., Kittel, C., Konrad, H., Langen, P. L., Lecavalier, B. S., Liang, C.-C., Loomis, B. D., McMillan, M., Melini, D., Mernild, S. H., Mottram, R., Mouginot, J., Nilsson, J., Noël, B., Pattle, M. E., Peltier, W. R., Pie, N., Roca, M., Sasgen, I., Save, H. V., Seo, K.-W., Scheuchl, B., Schrama, E. J. O., Schröder, L., Simonsen, S. B., Slater, T., Spada, G., Sutterley, T. C., Vishwakarma, B. D., van Wessem, J. M., Wiese, D., van der Wal, W., and Wouters, B.: Mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from 1992 to 2020, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1597–1616, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1597-2023, 2023. 

Brough, S., Carr, J. R., Ross, N., & Lea, J. M. (2023). Ocean-Forcing and Glacier-Specific Factors Drive Differing Glacier Response Across the 69°N Boundary, East Greenland. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE, 128(4). doi:10.1029/2022JF006857  

Ashmore, D. W., Mair, D. W. F., Higham, J. E., Brough, S., Lea, J. M., & Nias, I. J. (2022). Proper orthogonal decomposition of ice velocity identifies drivers of flow variability at Sermeq Kujalleq (Jakobshavn IsbrÆ). CRYOSPHERE, 16(1), 219-236. doi:10.5194/tc-16-219-2022  

Grants 

Ice-layer Permeability Controls Runoff from Ice Sheets (IPCRIS) NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL. 2023 - 2026. PI: Mair, D.; Co-I: Nias, I.; Lea, J. 

Glaciers and ice sheets in a warming world. UK RESEARCH AND INNOVATION. 2019 - 2028. PI: Lea, J. 

A flagship glacier-fjord monitoring programme in Nuup Kangerlua. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH COUNCIL. 2023 - 2025. Co PI: Lea, J.; Brough, S. 

Curry Fund. Geologists’ Association. 2024 – 2025. PI: Jones, D.