Dr Nick Rutter

I am interested in the hydrology of cold environments and how the frozen land surface interacts with the atmosphere. Most of my current research focuses on making improved field measurements of seasonal snow and applying this knowledge in order to better constrain uncertainties in environmental models. Models I work with include catchment scale glacio-hydrological models, snow-forest-atmosphere components of climate models, and radiative transfer models used in microwave remote sensing of snowpacks.

I have extensive experience of making snow measurements in boreal and mid-latitude forests (e.g. Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Rocky Mountains in Canada and USA), Arctic and sub-Arctic tundra (Alaska, USA, and Manitoba, Canada), sea ice (Canadian high-Arctic), and on Alpine and Polar glaciers (e.g. Switzerland, Svalbard). As many of these environments are rapidly responding to a warming climate, better measurement, modelling and critical evaluation of variations in seasonal snow contribute to improved projections of climate change and our understanding of cold regions hydrology.

• Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
• Advances in the observation and simulation of the snowpack: Implications and applications for permafrost monitoring, Rutter, N., Mann, P. 5 Feb 2023, EUCOP 2023: 6th European Conference on Permafrost
• Canopy structure and air temperature inversions impact simulation of sub-canopy longwave radiation in snow-covered boreal forests, Rutter, N., Essery, R., Baxter, R., Hancock, S., Horton, M., Huntley, B., Reid, T., Woodward, J. 27 Jul 2023, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
• Evaluating Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) model emissivities with 89 to 243 GHz observations of Arctic tundra snow, Wivell, K., Fox, S., Sandells, M., Harlow, C., Essery, R., Rutter, N. 7 Sep 2023, In: The Cryosphere
• Airborne SnowSAR data at X- and Ku- bands over boreal forest, alpine and tundra snow cover, Lemmetyinen, J., Cohen, J., Kontu, A., Vehviläinen, J., Hannula, H., Merkouriadi, I., Scheiblauer, S., Rott, H., Nagler, T., Ripper, E., Elder, K., Marshall, H., Fromm, R., Adams, M., Derksen, C., King, J., Meta, A., Coccia, A., Rutter, N., Sandells, M., Macelloni, G., Santi, E., Leduc-Leballeur, M., Essery, R., Menard, C., Kern, M. 1 Sep 2022, In: Earth System Science Data
• Are vegetation influences on Arctic–boreal snow melt rates detectable across the Northern Hemisphere?, Kropp, H., Loranty, M., Rutter, N., Fletcher, C., Derksen, C., Mudryk, L., Todt, M. 1 Oct 2022, In: Environmental Research Letters
• Characterizing tundra snow sub-pixel variability to improve brightness temperature estimation in satellite SWE retrievals, Meloche, J., Langlois, A., Rutter, N., Royer, A., King, J., Walker, B., Marsh, P., Wilcox, E. 6 Jan 2022, In: The Cryosphere
• Global Monitoring of Snow Water Equivalent using High Frequency Radar Remote Sensing, Tsang, L., Durand, M., Derksen, C., Barros, A., Kang, D., Lievens, H., Marshall, H., Zhu, J., Johnson, J., King, J., Lemmetyinen, J., Sandells, M., Rutter, N., Siqueira, P., Nolin, A., Osmanoglu, B., Vuyovich, C., Kim, E., Taylor, D., Merkouriadi, I., Brucker, L., Navari, M., Dumont, M., Kelly, R., Kim, R., Liao, T., Xu, X. 2 Sep 2022, In: The Cryosphere
• High-resolution snow depth prediction using Random Forest algorithm with topographic parameters: a case study in the Greiner Watershed, Nunavut, Meloche, J., Langlois, A., Rutter, N., McLennan, D., Royer, A., Billecocq, P., Ponomarenko, S. Mar 2022, In: Hydrological Processes
• Impact of measured and simulated tundra snowpack properties on heat transfer, Dutch, V., Rutter, N., Wake, L., Sandells, M., Derksen, C., Walker, B., Gosselin, G., Sonnentag, O., Essery, R., Kelly, R., Marsh, P., King, J., Boike, J. 11 Oct 2022, In: The Cryosphere
• Time-lapse photogrammetry reveals hydrological controls of fine scale High-Arctic glacier surface roughness evolution, Irvine-Fynn, T., Holt, T., James, T., Smith, M., Rutter, N., Porter, P., Hodson, A. 1 May 2022, In: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms

• Amy Clark Forest disturbance effects on snow hydrology in an operational runoff forecast model Start Date: 01/10/2023
• Jonathan Rutherford Simulating Carbon Emissions Across the Arctic Boreal-Tundra Ecotone Start Date: 01/10/2022
• Georgina Woolley Measurement and Modelling of Snow in Arctic Tundra and Taiga Biomes Start Date: 01/10/2021
• Markus Todt Impact of longwave enhancement by forests on snow cover in a global climate model Start Date: 01/02/2016 End Date: 10/05/2019
• Clare Webster Measurement and modelling of sub-canopy radiation to seasonal snow in alpine forests Start Date: 01/12/2013 End Date: 20/04/2017
• Thomas Watts Influence of Stratigraphy and Heterogeneity on Simulated Microwave Brightness Temperatures of Shallow Snowpacks Start Date: 01/02/2011 End Date: 12/11/2015
• Victoria Dutch Seasonal snow and wintertime carbon emissions in Arctic shrub tundra Start Date: 01/10/2019 End Date: 26/05/2023
• Johanna Malle Wintertime land surface albedo of forested environments Start Date: 01/10/2017 End Date: 21/01/2021

Geography DPhil June 30 2002