I am interested in processes affecting behavior of glaciers and ice sheets under changing conditions, and the complex interactions between ice sheets and the atmosphere, ocean, and land.
- ice sheets
- subglacial hydrology
- sea level rise
- glaciology
- coupled climate system modeling
- paleoclimate
A combination of field observations and numerical modeling is essential for improving our understanding the rapid changes that are occurring now in the polar ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, as well as in the “Third Pole” (high mountain Asia).
Education:
Rice University: Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (2009)
University of Colorado at Boulder: PhD in Civil Engineering (2018)
Publications:
- Sommers, A.N., Otto-Bliesner, B.L., Lipscomb, W.H., Lofverstrom, M., Shafer, S.L., Bartlein, P.J., Brady, E.C., Kluzek, E., Leguy, G., Thayer-Calder, K., Tomas, R.A., van Kampenhout, L. (in preparation). Retreat and regrowth of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Last Interglacial simulated by coupled climate and ice sheet modeling, to be submitted to Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology.
- Otto-Bliesner, B.L., Brady, E.C., Tomas, R.A., Albani, S., Bartlein, P.J., Mahowald, N.M., Shafer, S.L., Kluzek, E., Lawrence, P.J., Leguy, G., Rothstein, M., Sommers, A. (2020). A Comparison of the CMIP6 midHolocene and lig127k simulations in CESM2, submitted to Journal of Advances in Modeling of Earth Systems, Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) Special Issue.
- Yang, K., Sommers, A., Andrews, L.C., Smith, L.C., Lu, X., Fettweis, X. and Li, M. (in press). Inter-comparison of surface meltwater routing models for the Greenland Ice Sheet and influence on subglacial effective pressures. Accepted for publication in The Cryosphere.
- Sommers, A.N., and Rajaram, H. (2020). Energy transfer by turbulent dissipation in glacial conduits, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface.
- Sommers, Aleah N., “Insights into Processes Affecting Greenland Ice Sheet Dynamics in a Changing Climate: Firn Permeability, Interior Thermal State, Subglacial Hydrology, and Heat Transfer Coefficients” (2018). Civil Engineering Graduate Theses & Dissertations. 346.
https://scholar.colorado.edu/cven_gradetds/346 - Sommers, A., Rajaram, H., and Morlighem, M. (2018). SHAKTI: Subglacial Hydrology and Kinetic Transient Interactions v1.0, Geoscientific Model Development.
- de Fleurian, B., Werder, M.A., Beyer, S., Brinkerhoff, D.J., Delaney, I., Dow, C.F., Downs, J. Gagliardini, O., Hoffman, M.J., Hooke, R.L., Seguinot, J., and Sommers, A.N. (2018). SHMIP: The Subglacial Hydrology Model Intercomparison Project, Journal of Glaciology.
- Sommers, A. N., Rajaram, H., Weber, E. P., MacFerrin, M. J., Colgan, W. T., and Stevens, C. M. (2017). Inferring Firn Permeability from Pneumatic Testing: A Case Study on the Greenland Ice Sheet, Frontiers in Earth Science.
- Colgan, W., Sommers, A., Rajaram, H., Abdalati, W. and Frahm, J. (2015). Considering thermal-viscous collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, Earth’s Future.
- Sommers, A.N. and Viswanadham, B.V.S. (2009). Centrifuge model tests on the behavior of strip footing on geotextile-reinforced slopes, Geotextiles and Geomembranes.
