Professor Angelika Humbert

Head of the working group on ice sheet modelling at the Alfred Wegener Institute and Professor at the University of Bremen

Angelika Humbert received the Diploma degree in physics from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany, in 1996. She switched here research field to glaciology and completed in 2006 her Ph.D. thesis in ice sheet modeling at the Technical University of Darmstadt.,She moved to the WWU Münster, Münster, Germany, in 2008 and got later appointed in 2010 at the University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany, as a Professor for glaciology. In 2012, she joined the Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany, where she currently leads the Group of Ice Sheet Modelling and Satellite Remote Sensing, Section G laciology.

She is a Professor for ice sheet modeling at the University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany, and is a Guest Lecturer at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Her research focuses on the dynamics of ice sheets, glaciers, and ice shelves, including system studies as well as process studies. She conducts multiscale hybrid-physics modeling of the dynamics of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet, projections of their sea level contribution, ice–ocean interaction, subglacial hydrology, ice fracture mechanics, and viscoelastic modeling. Her second research field is satellite radar remote sensing of ice, including altimetry, SAR and polarimetry of ice. She leads airborne and field expeditions retrieving data that is used in interdisciplinary studies combining glaciological modeling, field observations, and remote sensing to understands processes of ice mechanics.

Implications of the elastic nature of ice

The mechanics of ice sheets, such as the Antarctic or Greenland ice sheets, is basically a gravity-driven lubricated flow of a viscoelastic, non-Newtonian fluid. The elastic deformation played in the history of ice sheet dynamics only a minor role, however, massive crevasse fields, the detachment of icebergs, as well as hydrofracture that leads to supraglacial lake drainage are all phenomena of the elastic nature of ice. Here we present observations of ice shelf cracks of these phenomena, identification of fracture modes and estimates of released energy. The presentation is also concerned with modelling concepts of fracture mechanics of ice and with approaches to simulate calving front motion. Building on both, modelling and observations, we will discuss perspectives on future routes in representing elastic deformation and fracture in ice sheet modelling.