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Bryony Freer

Bryony Freer

  • Email: eebidf@leeds.ac.uk
  • Thesis title: Antarctic Grounding Line Migration from ICESat-2 Altimetry
  • Supervisor: Professor Anna E. Hogg, Dr Oliver Marsh (British Antarctic Survey), Prof. Helen Fricker (Scripps Institute of Oceanography)

Profile

In 2018 I graduated from the University of Durham with a BSc in Physical Geography and, having developed a particular interest in glaciology and the polar regions, I travelled to New Zealand to pursue a Postgraduate Certificate in Antarctic Studies at the University of Canterbury. This gave me the incredible opportunity to visit the Ross Ice Shelf on a fieldtrip – an experience that has inspired me to continue a career in this field. There I also completed a research project alongside Dr Wolfgang Rack, in which I compared SSM/I, AMSR2 and Sentinel-1 SAR imagery in the Weddell Sea to assess the algorithms used to develop the NSIDC datasets and implications on reported sea ice trends – the results of which I presented at the 2019 New Zealand Antarctic Science conference. 

Following this, I have recently completed an MSc in Geographic Information Science at the University of Edinburgh. For my dissertation project I investigated the SAR signature of supraglacial lake evolution on the George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, as supervised by Dr Noel Gourmelen. I am looking forward to applying the skills I have developed in in GIS and Remote Sensing to my PhD studies as part of the SENSE Earth Observation CDT. I will be using data from NASA’s recently-launched ICESat-2 mission to assess the dynamics and migration of grounding lines around Antarctica; information that is vital to better understand the current and future stability of the ice sheet and its possible implications for global sea level. 

I will be based primarily at the British Antarctic Survey, but with close links to the Centre for Polar Observation and Monitoring (CPOM) through my second supervisor, Dr Anna Hogg. 

CASE partner: IsardSAT

Twitter: @BryonyFreer

Research interests

  • Earth Observation 
  • The Cryosphere
  • Ice Sheet Dynamics
  • Glaciology
  • ICESat-2
  • Sentinel-1  

Qualifications

  • MSc, Geographic Information Science, University of Edinburgh
  • Postgraduate Certificate, Antarctic Studies, University of Canterbury (New Zealand)
  • BSc, Physical Geography, University of Durham