I work as a research scientist at Dartmouth College, and I am interested in processes affecting glaciers and ice sheets under changing conditions. When ice melts on the surface of a glacier, some (or all) of the meltwater drains through the glacier to the bed, where the ice meets rock or sediment. Water pressure under the ice affects how fast the glacier slides by lubricating the bed and reducing friction. Glaciers do not only melt on top; they also melt from below, so some of the water is produced by melting at the bed. In my current research, I use mathematical modeling to simulate water drainage beneath glaciers and ice sheets, ultimately to help make better predictions of sea-level rise.
Topics of interest:
- subglacial hydrology
- glaciers and ice-sheet dynamics
- sea-level rise
- firn permeability
- coupled climate system modeling
- paleoclimate
Education:
Rice University: Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (2009)
University of Colorado at Boulder: PhD in Civil Engineering (2018)
Postdoctoral work:
Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (2019-2020)
Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (2020-2022)
Publications:
- Sommers, A. N., Meyer, C. R., Morlighem, M., Rajaram, H., Poinar, K., Chu, W., & Mejia, J. (2023). Subglacial hydrology modeling predicts high winter water pressure and spatially variable transmissivity at Helheim Glacier, Greenland. Journal of Glaciology.
- 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. (2021). Retreat and regrowth of the Greenland Ice Sheet during the Last Interglacial as simulated by the CESM2-CISM2 coupled climate-ice sheet model. 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. 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. (2020). Inter-comparison of surface meltwater routing models for the Greenland Ice Sheet and influence on subglacial effective pressures, 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.
Aleah Sommers 