CPOM Staff based at UCL
Daniel Feltham
| email: dlf |
tel: 020.7679.3017 |
| fax: 020.7679.7883 |
Daniel Feltham was appointed BAS Reader in Polar Oceanography in September 2005.
Danny has a BSc. in Theoretical Physics from Durham University (first class) and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cambridge University, awarded in 1998. His PhD was on the Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Sea Ice.
Danny's expertise is in the construction and analysis of new mathematical models of physical processes in the cryosphere, using the principles of continuum mechanics and thermodynamics. His research combines the development of new theory with numerical simulations and laboratory experiments, and utilises field measurements and remotely-sensed observations.
Danny leads a group devoted to research in polar oceanography, with particular focus on sea ice. Together with his postdoctoral fellows and PhD students, Danny performs research in the following areas:
Interaction of ice with the polar ocean - including frazil ice formation and mixed layer properties, salinity-driven deep water formation, ice shelf-ocean interaction and marine ice deposition, numerical simulation of density-driven flows;
Sea ice thermodynamics - including mushy layer theory, ice-ocean interface dynamics, freezing and melting/dissolving, melt pond formation and spreading and impact on albedo and Arctic mass balance; and
Sea ice dynamics and rheology - including kinetic granular flows and ice edge jets in the Marginal Ice Zone, isotropic sea ice rheology incorporating sliding friction and deformation partition coefficients, anisotropic sea ice rheology using structure tensors, discrete element modelling of floe aggregate formation, and experimental determination of the relationship sea ice rheology and friction (see my Ann. Rev. Fluid. Mech. review paper).
A recurring theme in Danny's research is the modelling and analysis of cryospheric processes at multiple scales, with particularly good examples in modelling sea ice rheology and melt ponds. Scalability, homogenisation, isotropy, and continuity are frequently occurring issues. Typically, one starts with the scale at which the process is manifest (say, 1 mm to 10 km), and from this develop an understanding and model of how the process may be incorporated into Global Climate Models as parameterisations.
Maintaining a CPOM version of the Los Alamos CICE sea ice climate model component allows Danny's group to make Arctic climate predictions and provides a route for "pull through" from fundamental process studies to climate models.
Currently, Danny supervises four postdoctoral fellows, Dr Daniela Flocco, Dr David Schroeder, Dr Michel Tsamados and Dr Alexander Wilchinsky, and three PhD students, Harold Hoerton, Nikhil Radia and Alek Petty.
In November 2006, Danny was awarded the Leverhulme Prize for major contributions to our understanding of the formation of ice in polar seas.
Danny teaches the 3rd Earth Sciences course, GEOL3039 - Physics of Oceans, Ice sheets and Climate.
Please click here for a list of Danny's publications.