Unraveling the Dark Side of the Ice
Unraveling the Dark Side of the Ice
Name of applicant
Lou-Anne Chevrollier
Title
Academic employee
Institution
University of Oslo
Amount
DKK 1,829,500
Year
2026
Type of grant
Internationalisation Fellowships
What?
Every summer, the Greenland ice sheet mysteriously darkens, amplifying surface melt and increasing the ice sheet's contribution to sea level rise. This project will address a key knowledge gap by investigating the mechanisms driving the onset and development of surface darkening, as well as its future evolution under a warming climate.
Why?
Predicting sea level rise is critical and of global importance. The Greenland ice sheet is a major contributor to sea level rise, and surface darkening represents a key uncertainty in its future contribution. As glacier darkening gets increasingly reported worldwide, this knowledge gap will only become more important to address to understand the response of the cryosphere to climate change.
How?
Remote sensing, physical modeling and machine learning will be combined to resolve the mechanisms darkening the ice sheet from the turn of the century until now, providing unprecedented insights into the physics and biology of the ice surface. This new knowledge will then be used to inform high-resolution climate models and uncover the future of ice sheet darkening and its role in sea level rise.