Alex Robel
@iceclimate.bsky.social
Ice sheets, climate, math, coasts, community resilience. Associate Professor
Georgia Tech EAS. Miami born 🇧🇴-🇦🇷-🇺🇸 he/him
Georgia Tech EAS. Miami born 🇧🇴-🇦🇷-🇺🇸 he/him
Excited to be visiting LDEO for the first time in a decade!
November 12, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Excited to be visiting LDEO for the first time in a decade!
Presenting Dr. Ziad Rashed!! 🧊❄️🍾🎉
October 2, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Presenting Dr. Ziad Rashed!! 🧊❄️🍾🎉
New paper from GLACIOME project: laboratory experimental constraints on iceberg mélange rheology led by Kavinda Nissanka from @emoryuniversity.bsky.social doi.org/10.1029/2024...
September 13, 2025 at 3:40 PM
New paper from GLACIOME project: laboratory experimental constraints on iceberg mélange rheology led by Kavinda Nissanka from @emoryuniversity.bsky.social doi.org/10.1029/2024...
The cold melt plume dropping off the bottom of freshwater ice, with temperature, salinity and velocity measured to ~0.1 mm spatial resolution (1/10 the ice-water boundary layer thickness) via a new two-dye LIF technique
July 28, 2025 at 3:22 PM
The cold melt plume dropping off the bottom of freshwater ice, with temperature, salinity and velocity measured to ~0.1 mm spatial resolution (1/10 the ice-water boundary layer thickness) via a new two-dye LIF technique
She tested these parameterizations against observations and find they work well to predict lake depths, but likely need to be paired with a model for firn percolation to predict lake area fraction reliably
July 21, 2025 at 3:46 PM
She tested these parameterizations against observations and find they work well to predict lake depths, but likely need to be paired with a model for firn percolation to predict lake area fraction reliably
What results: simple equations describing the average area and depth of supraglacial lakes given surface roughness statistics and the amount of meltwater available for ponding
July 21, 2025 at 3:44 PM
What results: simple equations describing the average area and depth of supraglacial lakes given surface roughness statistics and the amount of meltwater available for ponding
@dgrau13.bsky.social ran thousands of idealized simulations of water flow on randomly generated self-affine surfaces, creating a dataset of supraglacial melt lakes statistics
July 21, 2025 at 3:38 PM
@dgrau13.bsky.social ran thousands of idealized simulations of water flow on randomly generated self-affine surfaces, creating a dataset of supraglacial melt lakes statistics
The average area and depth of lakes which may eventually fill those depressions can thus be predicted from the statistics of the surface roughness which IceSat-2 is built to measure with its soothing green light (pew pew)
July 21, 2025 at 3:33 PM
The average area and depth of lakes which may eventually fill those depressions can thus be predicted from the statistics of the surface roughness which IceSat-2 is built to measure with its soothing green light (pew pew)
She uses data from NASA’s ICESat-2 altimetry satellite to find that the bumpiness of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is self-affine, meaning that the height and width of surface depressions scale together over a wide range of scales
July 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
She uses data from NASA’s ICESat-2 altimetry satellite to find that the bumpiness of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is self-affine, meaning that the height and width of surface depressions scale together over a wide range of scales
This is where @dgrau13.bsky.social comes in: she adapts ideas from percolation physics, which studies how stuff (liquid, charge, social interactions) moves over bumpy landscapes or networks
July 21, 2025 at 3:25 PM
This is where @dgrau13.bsky.social comes in: she adapts ideas from percolation physics, which studies how stuff (liquid, charge, social interactions) moves over bumpy landscapes or networks
These beautiful lakes are also really important: they absorb more sunlight than ice, they drain to the bottom of the ice sheet changing ice sliding, and they enter surface fractures causing them to propagate deeper
July 21, 2025 at 3:22 PM
These beautiful lakes are also really important: they absorb more sunlight than ice, they drain to the bottom of the ice sheet changing ice sliding, and they enter surface fractures causing them to propagate deeper
Meltwater on the surface of ice sheets doesn’t just stay in one place, it flows downhill and either drains off the ice or fills up depressions in the surface, forming beautiful supraglacial lakes
July 21, 2025 at 3:20 PM
Meltwater on the surface of ice sheets doesn’t just stay in one place, it flows downhill and either drains off the ice or fills up depressions in the surface, forming beautiful supraglacial lakes
Thats it for this year, enjoy this action shot of our audience and speakers chatting about cryo science. It's always helpful to know that regardless of what is happening outside of here, there are always students eager to roll up their sleeves and learn how to do scientific research
July 15, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Thats it for this year, enjoy this action shot of our audience and speakers chatting about cryo science. It's always helpful to know that regardless of what is happening outside of here, there are always students eager to roll up their sleeves and learn how to do scientific research
Our last speaker is Cameron Combs, a rising Sophomore at the University of Houston - Victoria, where he studies computational sciences and enjoys meteorology as a hobby
July 15, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Our last speaker is Cameron Combs, a rising Sophomore at the University of Houston - Victoria, where he studies computational sciences and enjoys meteorology as a hobby
Now we have GT EAS REU intern Jacob Scalabrin, a Rising Junior at Florida State, majoring in computational sciences with a focus on machine learning
July 15, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Now we have GT EAS REU intern Jacob Scalabrin, a Rising Junior at Florida State, majoring in computational sciences with a focus on machine learning
Next up is GT EAS REU intern Juliet Baker, a rising senior at Tufts University studying Climate Science and International Relations
July 15, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Next up is GT EAS REU intern Juliet Baker, a rising senior at Tufts University studying Climate Science and International Relations
First up, we have our first ever high school researcher presenting at the showcase: Raina Banerjee is a rising Sophomore(!) at Wheeler High School here in Atlanta
July 15, 2025 at 5:18 PM
First up, we have our first ever high school researcher presenting at the showcase: Raina Banerjee is a rising Sophomore(!) at Wheeler High School here in Atlanta
4️⃣ Over multi-decadal observational periods (e.g., the satellite record), spurious calving front retreats may arise even in the absence of changes in mean calving rate
July 2, 2025 at 2:58 PM
4️⃣ Over multi-decadal observational periods (e.g., the satellite record), spurious calving front retreats may arise even in the absence of changes in mean calving rate
3️⃣ A change in calving style alone can cause the front of a glacier to retreat, even without a change in the mean rate (i.e., noise-induced drift) - something we also showed in a prior paper doi.org/10.5194/tc-1...
July 2, 2025 at 2:57 PM
3️⃣ A change in calving style alone can cause the front of a glacier to retreat, even without a change in the mean rate (i.e., noise-induced drift) - something we also showed in a prior paper doi.org/10.5194/tc-1...
2️⃣ The state of tidewater glaciers which probably experience calving with a power law size distributions is set by small (i.e., serac-style) events doi.org/10.1017/jog....
July 2, 2025 at 2:55 PM
2️⃣ The state of tidewater glaciers which probably experience calving with a power law size distributions is set by small (i.e., serac-style) events doi.org/10.1017/jog....
1️⃣ Glaciers with infrequent and large calving events (rift-based calving on ice shelves) have a much more variable state than glacier with frequent calving (serac calving)
July 2, 2025 at 2:51 PM
1️⃣ Glaciers with infrequent and large calving events (rift-based calving on ice shelves) have a much more variable state than glacier with frequent calving (serac calving)
However the viscous behavior of ice sheets naturally integrates these rapid events, and so calving can equally be represented by a Binomial process or (only under special circumstances) a Gaussian process
July 2, 2025 at 2:46 PM
However the viscous behavior of ice sheets naturally integrates these rapid events, and so calving can equally be represented by a Binomial process or (only under special circumstances) a Gaussian process
Not a bad way to get to KITP Polar25! Looking forward to some heads-down science and collaboration this month @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social
June 1, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Not a bad way to get to KITP Polar25! Looking forward to some heads-down science and collaboration this month @kitp-ucsb.bsky.social
Proud that two GT Ice & Climate postdocs, Drs. Brian Kyanjo and Paul Summers, won grand prizes at the ADVISER Hackathon! @vanderbilt.edu
April 4, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Proud that two GT Ice & Climate postdocs, Drs. Brian Kyanjo and Paul Summers, won grand prizes at the ADVISER Hackathon! @vanderbilt.edu
A Friday afternoon treat: PhD candidate Angelo Tarzona teaches @gtresearchnews.bsky.social students in our glaciology class about ground/ice-penetrating radar
February 28, 2025 at 6:18 PM
A Friday afternoon treat: PhD candidate Angelo Tarzona teaches @gtresearchnews.bsky.social students in our glaciology class about ground/ice-penetrating radar