Anna Ruth Halberstadt

I study the sensitivity and evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, using numerical models to reconstruct ice-sheet growth and decay and investigating the factors that influence ice stability.  This work incorporates techniques from many different fields (e.g., glacial geology and geomorphology, ice-sheet modeling, climate modeling, sea level, remote sensing, etc.). 

My research explored paleo-ice-sheet dynamics during a range of past time periods, from the last glacial cycle to previous warm periods such as the mid-Miocene climatic optimum, a possible modern climate analogue. Constraints from past time periods are used to tune model performance, thereby informing model physics and optimizing future ice-sheet and sea-level projections. I collaborated with a wide group of researchers to construct probabilistic sea-level rise projections along global coastlines; we incorporated statistically-robust ice mass loss projections from our ice-sheet model into a probabilistic framework.

Probabilistic projections of local sea level rise and vulnerability along the Northeast coastline