Introduction

My name is Peter Kuipers Munneke, working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Ice and Climate research group at IMAU. In the recent past, I have been working on surface mass and energy balance of the ice sheets, snow and ice albedo, solar radiation, and meltwater detection. At the moment, I am looking at the viability of Antarctic ice shelves in a warming climate. My general research interests are polar meteorology, surface mass balance modelling, radiation in polar regions, and radiative transfer.

Automatic Weather Station at Summit, Greenland (PKM 2007)

Melting in Antarctica

Recently, I have established a snowmelt climatology of the Antarctic continent, using satellite observations (SSM/I) and the regional climate model RACMO2/ANT. The latter model has recently been run on a 27x27 km resolution for the period 1979-2010. For the first time, we have quantified the meltwater volume at 89 Gigatonnes per year. This is a minor component of the mass budget of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, as is widely known: the total mass of Antarctica is mainly determined by snowfall (gain) and ice discharge by icebergs (loss). Recent mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet is mainly caused by increased basal melting and ice discharge. The amount of meltwater is relevant however, as it may play an important role in weakening ice shelves. We found no significant change in meltwater volume between 1979 and 2010, partly because of the large interannual variability. A paper on this subject just appeared in Geophysical Research Letters as an Editor Highlight Article.

Larsen C 2011

In January 2011, a large glaciometeorological measurement campaign was held on and around the Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula. We want to understand what the impact of föhn winds is on the surface energy budget of the Larsen Ice Shelf. The experiment was conducted by the BAS (British Antarctic Survey), University of Leeds, Unversity of East Anglia, and the IMAU contributed with instruments for measuring radiation, turbulent fluxes, and liquid water content. A field report is now available. Read more -->

Snow and ice albedo

Much of my research so far has focused on the albedo of snow and ice surfaces. Part of this research was reported in my PhD thesis. As small changes in snow albedo have a profound effect on the radiation budget of a glacier surface, understanding the causes of albedo variations is important. To that end, I study snow albedo, using both models and measurements. Read more -->

Summit Radiation Experiment 2007

In the summer of 2007, a field campaign on the energy and radiation balance of a polar snow surface was conducted at Summit Camp, on the top of the Greenland ice sheet. More about the Summit Radiation Experiment (SURE 07) can be found here -->