Professor David M Holland

My scientific research activities focus on understanding the role of the polar oceans and ice in the global climate system. It is well appreciated that both the Arctic and Antarctic regions represent the wild cards in the prediction of future global climate change and that fundamental research is still much needed to uncover the basic physical mechanisms controlling the climate of those regions . My research methodology is the construction of physically-based numerical models of the ice-ocean component of the global climate system. While sea-ice is fundamentally included in such a modeling approach, also included are the floating extensions of the land ice sheets, known as ice shelves. These thick, floating expanses of glacial ice represent the critical and direct link between the variability of the ocean circulation and the stability or instability of the massive land ice sheets. Development of assimilation techniques of available observational data into the numerical models is also a key aspect of the research program.