Directory of Experts
Details for Professor Tony Payne
| Personal details | |
| Name | Professor Tony Payne |
| Job title | Professor of Glaciology & Head of School in Geographical Sciences Head of School |
| Department | School of Geographical Sciences University of Bristol School of Geographical Sciences University of Bristol |
| Contact details | This expert can be contacted via the University of Bristol Public Relations
Office. To help us deal with your request, please mention the Directory of Experts when contacting the Public Relations Office. work+44 (0)117 331 8092 email: public-relations@bristol.ac.uk |
| Qualifications | B.Sc.(Stir.), Ph.D.(Edin.) |
| Professional details | |
| Keywords | glaciology Greenland Antarctica ice sheets glaciers numerical modelling climate change sea level rise |
| Areas of expertise | I am interested in the flow and dynamics of ice sheets, in particular those of Antarctica and Greenland. My early work was aimed at understanding the growth and decay of the ice sheets during the most recent Ice Age. I became interested in flow instabilities within ice sheets that could lead to large-scale surges (an application being the Heinrich Layers found in North Atlantic sediment) and the formation of ice streams (rivers of fast-flowing ice embedded within the typically slow flow of an ice sheet). More recently, my research has concentrated on how the present-day Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets will respond to on-going climate change. This has involved work on modelling the dynamics of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, as well as its coupling to the ocean. I have also been involved in trying to understand the causes of the contemporary thinning of parts of the Greenland ice sheet. |