Helen Fricker

Last updated
Helen Amanda Fricker
Born (1969-05-03) May 3, 1969 (age 55)
NationalityBritish
Alma materBsc University College London
PhD University of Tasmania
SpouseGlyn Fricker
AwardsMuse Prize (2010)
Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2017)
Scientific career
Fields Glaciology
Oceanography
Institutions Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Thesis Applications of ERS Satellite Altimetry in Lambert-Amery System, Antarctica  (1999)
Website scrippsscholars.ucsd.edu/hafricker

Helen Amanda Fricker (born 1969) is a glaciologist and professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego where she is a director of the Scripps Polar Center. She won the 2010 Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica.

Contents

Early life and education

Helen attended Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, where she encountered Melissa Lord, a brilliant and passionate female physics teacher who steered her onto the path of becoming a scientist. [1]

In 1991, she received her B.Sc. in Mathematics and Physics from University College London (UCL), with first-class honours. [2] In her final year at UCL, she took an Earth science course from a lecturer, Chris Rapley, who was leader of the Remote Sensing Group at UCL and would later become the director of the British Antarctic Survey. Chris Rapley, encouraged her to do a dissertation on using remote-sensing data to track icebergs in the Antarctic during her final year. This course turned her attention toward Antarctica — and got her started on a career in glaciology. [3]

She earned her Ph.D. in glaciology from the Institute of Antarctic and Southern Ocean Studies, University of Tasmania, Australia in 1998. In 1999, Fricker began her work at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography as a postgraduate researcher. Fricker is now a Professor of Geophysics in the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. [4] She and her husband Glyn Fricker have three daughters.

Career and impact

Fricker has authored over 130 publications relating to the satellite remote sensing of Antarctica's ice shelves and active subglacial lakes. [5] Fricker is widely recognized for her discovery of active subglacial lakes using ICESat laser altimetry, [6] and she has shown that these lakes form dynamic hydrologic systems, where one lake can drain into another in a short period of time. [1] Fricker was the first to describe Lake Whillans in 2007, an active subglacial lake in West Antarctica, which was subsequently the first such environment to be sampled and found to contain life. [7]

She is also known for her innovative research into Antarctic ice shelf mass budget processes such as iceberg calving and basal melting and freezing. [2] Her research focuses on ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland and their role in the climate system and on subglacial hydrology. She uses a combination of satellite radar and laser altimetry and other remote-sensing data to understand ice sheet processes. [8] Some specific processes Fricker investigates include subglacial hydrology by monitoring the activity of subglacial lakes under the ice streams, ice flexure from tidal activity in the grounding zone, basal melting and freezing under the ice shelves, and the propagation and evolution of active ice shelf rifts, which eventually lead to iceberg calving. [8]

Fricker was one of the primary investigators on the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project, [9] which became the first group to drill into an Antarctic subglacial lake, Subglacial Lake Whillans, in 2013 [7] [10] [11] Fricker has held numerous positions relating to her study of the cryosphere, including Chair of AGU's Cryospheric Sciences Focus Group from 2004–2006, Elected Member of the NASA ICESat Science Team from 2006–present, as part of the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation (ICESat) mission from 1999–present and the ICESat-2 Science Definition Team and the NASA Sea Level Change Team. She has been Science Team lead for ICESat-2 since May 2023. She co-chairs the Scripps Polar Center at Scripps Institution of Oceanography along with Fiamma Straneo. [12]

The Fricker Ice Piedmont was named after her by the British Antarctic Place-names Committee in 2020. [13]

Awards and honors

Fricker received the Royal Tasmania Society Doctoral Award for her PhD in 2001. [14] She received the NASA Group Achievement Award for her role in the Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) Mission Development Team in 2004. [15] In 2010, she was awarded the Martha T. Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica by the Tinker Foundation and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research [16] [17] She was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2017. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Vostok</span> Antarcticas largest known subglacial lake

Lake Vostok is the largest of Antarctica's 675 known subglacial lakes. Lake Vostok is located at the southern Pole of Cold, beneath Russia's Vostok Station under the surface of the central East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which is at 3,488 m (11,444 ft) above mean sea level. The surface of this fresh water lake is approximately 4,000 m (13,100 ft) under the surface of the ice, which places it at approximately 500 m (1,600 ft) below sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iceberg</span> Large piece of freshwater ice broken off a glacier or ice shelf and floating in open water

An iceberg is a piece of freshwater ice more than 15 m long that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Smaller chunks of floating glacially derived ice are called "growlers" or "bergy bits". Much of an iceberg is below the water's surface, which led to the expression "tip of the iceberg" to illustrate a small part of a larger unseen issue. Icebergs are considered a serious maritime hazard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center</span>

The Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center (BPCRC) is a polar, alpine, and climate research center at Ohio State University founded in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subglacial lake</span> Lake under a glacier

A subglacial lake is a lake that is found under a glacier, typically beneath an ice cap or ice sheet. Subglacial lakes form at the boundary between ice and the underlying bedrock, where pressure decreases the pressure melting point of ice. Over time, the overlying ice gradually melts at a rate of a few millimeters per year. Meltwater flows from regions of high to low hydraulic pressure under the ice and pools, creating a body of liquid water that can be isolated from the external environment for millions of years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thwaites Glacier</span> Antarctic glacier

Thwaites Glacier is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier located east of Mount Murphy, on the Walgreen Coast of Marie Byrd Land. It was initially sighted by polar researchers in 1940, mapped in 1959–1966 and officially named in 1967, after the late American glaciologist Fredrik T. Thwaites. The glacier flows into Pine Island Bay, part of the Amundsen Sea, at surface speeds which exceed 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) per year near its grounding line. Its fastest-flowing grounded ice is centered between 50 and 100 kilometres east of Mount Murphy. Like many other parts of the cryosphere, it has been adversely affected by climate change, and provides one of the more notable examples of the retreat of glaciers since 1850.

Whillans Ice Stream is a glaciological feature of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, formerly known as Ice Stream B, renamed in 2001 in honor of Ohio State University glaciologist Ian Whillans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Totten Glacier</span> Glacier in Antarctica

Totten Glacier is a large glacier draining a major portion of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, through the Budd Coast of Wilkes Land in the Australian Antarctic Territory. The catchment drained by the glacier is estimated at 538,000 km2 (208,000 sq mi), extending approximately 1,100 km (680 mi) into the interior and holds the potential to raise sea level by at least 3.5 m (11 ft). Totten drains northeastward from the continental ice but turns northwestward at the coast where it terminates in a prominent tongue close east of Cape Waldron. It was first delineated from aerial photographs taken by USN Operation Highjump (1946–47), and named by Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) for George M. Totten, midshipman on USS Vincennes of the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–42), who assisted Lieutenant Charles Wilkes with correction of the survey data obtained by the expedition.

There are hundreds of antarctic lakes in Antarctica. In 2018 researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research published a study they claimed cast doubt on the earlier estimate that there were almost 400 subglacial antarctic lakes. Antarctica also has some relatively small regions that are clear of ice and snow, and there are some surface lakes in these regions. They called for on the ground seismic studies, or drilling, to determine a more reliable number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Whillans</span>

Lake Whillans is a subglacial lake in Antarctica. The lake is located under the Whillans Ice Stream at the southeastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf in the west of the continent. The lake surface is 800 m (2,600 ft) beneath the surface of the ice and the lake covers an estimated area of 60 km2 (20 sq mi). Lake depths measured thus far have been around 2 metres. Its temperature is −0.49 °C, below 0 °C because of the high pressure.

Lake CECs is a subglacial lake in Antarctica at approximately latitude 80°S. It has an estimated area of 18 km2. The territory where the lake is located, some 160 km from Union Glacier, is claimed only by Chile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jemma Wadham</span> British glacial biogeochemist

Jemma L Wadham is a British glacial biogeochemist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liu Yan (scientist)</span> Chinese Antarctic researcher

Liu Yan is a Chinese Antarctic researcher best known for her work on iceberg calving. She is an associate professor of geography in the College of Global Change and Earth System Science (GCESS) and Polar Research Institute, Beijing Normal University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cristina Takacs-Vesbach</span> American microbial ecologist

Cristina Takacs-Vesbach is an American microbial ecologist conducting research on the productivity, diversity, and function of microbial communities living at the two extremes of temperature found on Earth-Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys and Yellowstone National Park's thermal springs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trista Vick-Majors</span> American Antarctic biogeochemist and microbial ecologist

Trista Vick-Majors is an American Assistant Professor in Biological Sciences at Michigan Tech. She is an Antarctic biogeochemist and microbial ecologist, best known for her work showing that microorganisms are present under the Antarctic ice sheet.

Martin J. Siegert is a British glaciologist, and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter. He co-Chairs the Diversity in Polar Science Initiative, and has spoken about socio-economic inclusion in Polar Science and indeed broader society.

Sophie Marie Jeanne Nowicki, is Empire Innovation Professor in the Department of Geology of the University at Buffalo. She does research on the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, focusing on their connections to global climate and sea level. Before that, she was physical scientist at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre, investigating ice sheet changes.

Mercer Subglacial Lake is a subglacial lake in Antarctica covered by a sheet of ice 1,067 m (3,501 ft) thick; the water below is hydraulically active, with water replacement times on the order of a decade from the Ross Sea. Studies suggest that Mercer Subglacial Lake as well as other subglacial lakes appear to be linked, with drainage events in one reservoir causing filling and follow-on drainage in adjacent lakes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Subglacial lakes on Mars</span>

Salty subglacial lakes are controversially inferred from radar measurements to exist below the South Polar Layered Deposits (SPLD) in Ultimi Scopuli of Mars' southern ice cap. The idea of subglacial lakes due to basal melting at the polar ice caps on Mars was first hypothesized in the 1980s. For liquid water to persist below the SPLD, researchers propose that perchlorate is dissolved in the water, which lowers the freezing temperature, but other explanations such as saline ice or hydrous minerals have been offered. Challenges for explaining sufficiently warm conditions for liquid water to exist below the southern ice cap include low amounts of geothermal heating from the subsurface and overlying pressure from the ice. As a result, it is disputed whether radar detections of bright reflectors were instead caused by other materials such as saline ice or deposits of minerals such as clays. While lakes with salt concentrations 20 times that of the ocean pose challenges for life, potential subglacial lakes on Mars are of high interest for astrobiology because microbial ecosystems have been found in deep subglacial lakes on Earth, such as in Lake Whillans in Antarctica below 800 m of ice.

Sinéad Louise Farrell is a British-American space scientist who is Professor of Geographic Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research considers remote sensing and climate monitoring. She was science lead for the ICESat-2 Mission, which used laser altimetry to make height maps of Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catherine Walker (US scientist)</span> American Earth and planetary scientist

Catherine Walker is an American Earth and planetary scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she is on the scientific staff in the Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering. Her research spans fracture mechanics and dynamics in ice, cryosphere change, physical oceanography, and geomorphology on Earth and other planets and moons using a variety of methodologies including remote sensing.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Antarctic Sun: News about Antarctica – Taking the Prize". antarcticsun.usap.gov. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  2. 1 2 "Bio". Research Profiles. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  3. ↑ Gewin, Virginia (2010-09-15). "Helen Amanda Fricker". Nature. 467 (7313): 359. doi: 10.1038/nj7313-359a .
  4. ↑ "Research Profiles". Research Profiles. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  5. ↑ "Publications". glaciology.weebly.com. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  6. ↑ Fricker, Helen Amanda; Scambos, Ted; Bindschadler, Robert; Padman, Laurie (2007-03-16). "An Active Subglacial Water System in West Antarctica Mapped from Space". Science. 315 (5818): 1544–1548. Bibcode:2007Sci...315.1544F. doi:10.1126/science.1136897. PMID   17303716. S2CID   35995169.
  7. 1 2 Kaufman, Marc (5 February 2013). "Life Found Deep Under Antarctic Ice for First Time?". National Geographic Daily News. Archived from the original on February 7, 2013. Retrieved 2013-02-20.
  8. 1 2 "Projects". glaciology.weebly.com. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  9. ↑ "Personnel | WISSARD". www.wissard.org. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  10. ↑ Fox, Douglas (2014-08-21). "Lakes under the ice: Antarctica's secret garden". Nature. 512 (7514): 244–246. Bibcode:2014Natur.512..244F. doi: 10.1038/512244a . PMID   25143097.
  11. ↑ Amos, Jonathan (28 January 2013). "Drill reaches Antarctica's under-ice Lake Whillans". BBC . Retrieved 22 June 2016.
  12. ↑ "People". Scripps Polar Center. 2019-05-09. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  13. ↑ "Latest Additions to BAT Gazetteer". Antarctic Place-names Committee. British Antarctic Survey - NERC. Retrieved 5 December 2020.
  14. ↑ "Past Recipients". rst.org.au. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  15. ↑ "NASA – Biographies". www.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  16. ↑ "Tinker-Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica". www.museprize.org. Archived from the original on 2017-09-14. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  17. ↑ "Scripps Glaciologist Awarded 2010 Muse Prize for Science and Policy in Antarctica | Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego". scripps.ucsd.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  18. ↑ "Fellows Winner Search". Honors Program. Retrieved 2018-12-15.
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