Alex Robel

Impact of glacial isostatic adjustment on zones of potential grounding line persistence in the Ross Sea Embayment (Antarctica) since the Last Glacial Maximum Abstract. Ice streams in the Ross Sea Embayment (West Antarctica) retreated up to 1000 km since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). One way that bathymetry influenced this retreat was through the presence...

New paper led by Sam Kodama on how glacial isostatic adjustment paced the retreat of WAIS around the Ross Sea since the LGM doi.org/10.5194/tc-1...

The Department of Earth Science & Environmental Change in the School of Earth, Society, and Environment (https://earth.illinois.edu/) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the flagship campus of the University of Illinois System, invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Earth Surface Dynamics, with an emphasis on near-surface geophysics. We seek a scientist whose research addresses the physical, chemical, and biological processes that shape the Earth’s surface and near-surface environments—processes that influence water resources, landscape evolution, ecosystem health, and the mitigation of natural hazards. The full-time, 9-month (academic year) tenure-track faculty appointment is at the Assistant Professor level with a target start date of August 16, 2026. We are particularly interested in candidates who use near-surface geophysical methods—such as seismic, potential field, geodetic, and/or remote sensing techniques—to investigate shallow subsurface structures and link surface processes to deep-time geological or climatic phenomena. We welcome applicants whose work integrates field-based geophysical observations with computational or mathematical modeling, and fosters interdisciplinary connections across hydrology, geomorphology, critical zone science, atmospheric sciences, and engineering. Successful candidates will demonstrate experience with fostering or the ability to foster an inclusive and collaborative teaching, learning, departmental, and research environment where all can thrive. They will also advance the educational mission of the University of Illinois, a land-grant institution committed to access, education, research, and service and to addressing challenges at both local and global scales.

🚨Job Alert🚨
We're hiring in the broad area of *Earth Surface Dynamics Geophysics*

Please help me advertise this (rare) opportunity for a full-time tenure track assistant professorship.

illinois.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

"flood extent is predicted to vary by a factor of six" (!!!) depending on groundwater conditions in Miami rainfall flood testing

Bet things are going to get super weird when sea level rise means groundwater is high all the time then...

✨Dream job alert!✨ Come join our Oceans Department at Stanford University! We are hiring an Assistant Professor. This faculty search focuses on 3 major areas: Oceans & global change, Ocean technologies & solutions, or Human dimensions of oceans 🌊
facultypositions.stanford.edu/en-us/job/49...

The Penn Center referenced in this piece runs an incredible program on how to advocate for historic and environmental protections in coastal communities. Check it out! www.penncenter.com/programs-and...

Class and Identity in Hilton Head: The Gullah v. Wealthy Landowners

Really nice piece on the ongoing conflicts over development on historic Gullah land in the Sea Islands. One aspect not touched on is how sea level driven flooding is made worse by paving over natural drainage and marsh lands on properties adjacent to luxury resorts www.nytimes.com/2025/07/29/u...

Brief communication: Sensitivity of Antarctic ice shelf melting to ocean warming across basal melt models Abstract. The uncertain sensitivity of Antarctic ice shelf basal melt to ocean warming strongly contributes to uncertainties in sea level projections. Here, we explore the response of five basal melt ...

Looking for #holiday #science reading?
Our paper with E. Lambert finally came out a few weeks ago. We investigate the sensitivity of ice-shelf melt to ocean warming in different basal melt models.
Spoiler (or not): it varies a lot!
tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/...
#Antarctica #IceShelves #Modeling

Two-dye laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) thermometry for ice-water systems - Experiments in Fluids We present an extension to the two-dye two-color laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) thermometry technique so that it can be applied to ice-water systems for direct heat flux measurements near the ice-wa...

This is work led by
@gtresearchnews.bsky.social
PhD candidate Muhammad Mustafa and his advisor Chris Lai, funded through our NSF grant on building better understanding and models of glacier discharge plumes doi.org/10.1007/s003...

The cold melt plume dropping off the bottom of freshwater ice, with temperature, salinity and velocity measured to ~0.1 mm spatial resolution (1/10 the ice-water boundary layer thickness) via a new two-dye LIF technique

📣 Job opportunity 📣
Come work with us at Monash as a 3yr Research Fellow on ice sheet-atmosphere coupling!

You'll sit within @arcsaef.bsky.social and be part of the @access-nri.bsky.social ice sheets team, pushing frontiers in Earth System Modelling ❄️🇦🇶

👉 careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo...

And for those interested in a teaching-focused job, UChicago is looking to replace me with a new assistant instructional professor! Review technically already began, but I was a late applicant when I got the job. DM or email if you have questions about the role: apply.interfolio.com/168942

🌊❄️🧪 🇦🇶 Please share:

We have learned that the National Science Foundation is moving ahead with plans to decommission the U.S. Research Vessel/Ice Breaker Nathaniel B. Palmer this October.

If you care about Antarctic research, please read on (1/n)

Florida Keys guts road-raising projects, slashes jobs. Budget cuts derail climate plans Residents are now expected to pick up more of the tab themselves if they want flood protection.

"...Monroe has spent nearly $300 million to raise roads in just seven communities. The total project list...would cost an estimated $4.7 billion — a staggering price for a county of around 80,000 people with an annual budget of about $680 million."
www.miamiherald.com/news/local/e...

Ocean ‘Greening’ at Poles Could Spell Changes for Fisheries

Ocean waters are getting greener near the poles and bluer near the equator, according to Georgia Tech and Duke University scientists. This change reflects shifting concentrations of chlorophyll produced by phytoplankton. Marine food webs and global fisheries may be impacted if the trend continues.

🌊
Looking for a #postdoc to join us at @ipsl.bsky.social within the #ANR project #AIAI (AI to improve coupling between the Antarctic 🧊 and the 🌊/🌧️), a collaboration between @igegrenoble.bsky.social , @lsce-ipsl.bsky.social and #LOCEAN!
Deadline: Aug 8th
Apply here: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...

Extreme Greenland melting event right now: thawing over 80% of the surface. Seen before only once in the record melt summer 2012.

See more at @polarportal.bsky.social!

Thank you! Has been a fun adventure diving into ICESat-2 data 🛰️🛰️

And finally, @dgrau13.bsky.social is looking for postdoctoral fellowships in climate and ice sheet modeling. Please reach out if you are looking for a talented early-career modeler for your project!

a man wearing a beanie and a black jacket is smiling and holding a piece of food . ALT: a man wearing a beanie and a black jacket is smiling and holding a piece of food .

This project started as @dgrau13.bsky.social's REU project and has been funded by NASA’s MAP program since, demonstrating the vital importance of our training programs for getting great science!

a pixel art of the nasa logo on a black background Alt: a pixel art of the nasa logo on a black background

What this work provides: an easy way for models to incorporate the important effects of supraglacial lakes on climate and ice sheets, work @dgrau13.bsky.social is currently leading in collab with NASA’s Model E and ISSM teams

Comparison of predicted (blue shading) and observed (black circles) supraglacial lake depths

She tested these parameterizations against observations and find they work well to predict lake depths, but likely need to be paired with a model for firn percolation to predict lake area fraction reliably

Numerical and parameterized area fraction of supraglacial melt lakes given roughness height and meltwater supply

What results: simple equations describing the average area and depth of supraglacial lakes given surface roughness statistics and the amount of meltwater available for ponding

@dgrau13.bsky.social ran thousands of idealized simulations of water flow on randomly generated self-affine surfaces, creating a dataset of supraglacial melt lakes statistics

The average area and depth of lakes which may eventually fill those depressions can thus be predicted from the statistics of the surface roughness which IceSat-2 is built to measure with its soothing green light (pew pew)

Illustration showing the scaling of depressions and lakes on a self-affine surface

She uses data from NASA’s ICESat-2 altimetry satellite to find that the bumpiness of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is self-affine, meaning that the height and width of surface depressions scale together over a wide range of scales

This is where @dgrau13.bsky.social comes in: she adapts ideas from percolation physics, which studies how stuff (liquid, charge, social interactions) moves over bumpy landscapes or networks

a blue power ranger is standing in front of a blue sky holding a sword . Alt: a blue power ranger is standing in front of a blue sky holding a sword and teleports

However, climate and ice sheet models assume either that all melt immediately teleports to the ocean or piles up forever right where it is created as a uniform sheet of water

Illustration of role of SGLs in ice sheet system, from Pitcher and Smith (2019) - https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-earth-053018-060212

These beautiful lakes are also really important: they absorb more sunlight than ice, they drain to the bottom of the ice sheet changing ice sliding, and they enter surface fractures causing them to propagate deeper

Aerial image of supraglacial melt lake

Meltwater on the surface of ice sheets doesn’t just stay in one place, it flows downhill and either drains off the ice or fills up depressions in the surface, forming beautiful supraglacial lakes

Predicting mean depth and area fraction of Antarctic supraglacial melt lakes with physics-based parameterizations - Nature Communications This study uses the physics of bumpy surfaces to derive simple equations that predict the size of lakes that form from melt on the surface of ice sheets, finding that there are fundamental limits on t...

Thrilled for this paper @natcomms.nature.com led by @dgrau13.bsky.social‬, PhD Candidate @gtsciences.bsky.social, putting forward the first physics-based parameterizations for the area and depth of supraglacial lakes 🧵👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...