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Professor Andrew Shepherd

Head Of Department

Department: Geography and Environmental Sciences

I am Head of the Department of Geography and Environment at Northumbria, Director of the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, Principal Scientific Advisor to the European Space Agency's CryoSat satellite mission, co-leader of the ESA-NASA Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise, and a contributing author to IPCC assessment reports.

I use satellites to study Earth's climate, and my main contributions to science have involved developing remote observations of the cryosphere - especially using radar altimetry. I have led field campaigns in Europe, Africa, the Arctic, and in Antarctica to calibrate and validate satellite sensors.

I studied in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester, and I have held academic posts at University College London, and the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Leeds.

Andrew Shepherd

My research focusses on measuring changes of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, on understanding their interaction with the global climate system, and on establishing their contribution to global sea level rise. I also have a keen interest in the calibration and validation of satellite systems, and in the development of novel satellite sensors to tackle problems in geophysical research. To do this, I work closely with technical experts in space agencies and in the space industrial sector, with scientific collaborators in glaciology, meteorology, oceanography, and ice sheet modelling, and with government agencies.

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • A Simulation of Snow on Antarctic Sea Ice Based on Satellite Data and Climate Reanalyses, Lawrence, I., Ridout, A., Shepherd, A., Tilling, R. 1 Jan 2024, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
  • Detecting sea ice leads and floes in the Northwest Passage using CryoSat-2, Swiggs, A., Lawrence, I., Ridout, A., Shepherd, A. 20 Nov 2024, In: IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
  • Publisher Correction: Remotely sensing potential climate change tipping points across scales, Lenton, T., Abrams, J., Bartsch, A., Bathiany, S., Boulton, C., Buxton, J., Conversi, A., Cunliffe, A., Hebden, S., Lavergne, T., Poulter, B., Shepherd, A., Smith, T., Swingedouw, D., Winkelmann, R., Boers, N. 1 Mar 2024, In: Nature Communications
  • Remotely sensing potential climate change tipping points across scales, Lenton, T., Abrams, J., Bartsch, A., Bathiany, S., Boulton, C., Buxton, J., Conversi, A., Cunliffe, A., Hebden, S., Lavergne, T., Poulter, B., Shepherd, A., Smith, T., Swingedouw, D., Winkelmann, R., Boers, N. 6 Jan 2024, In: Nature Communications
  • The effect of landfast sea ice buttressing on ice dynamic speedup in the Larsen B embayment, Antarctica, Surawy-Stepney, T., Hogg, A., Cornford, S., Wallis, B., Davison, B., Selley, H., Slater, R., Lie, E., Jakob, L., Ridout, A., Gourmelen, N., Freer, B., Wilson, S., Shepherd, A. 4 Mar 2024, In: The Cryosphere
  • Heat stored in the Earth system 1960-2020: where does the energy go?, Von Schuckmann, K., Minière, A., Gues, F., Cuesta-Valero, F., Kirchengast, G., Adusumilli, S., Straneo, F., Ablain, M., Allan, R., Barker, P., Beltrami, H., Blazquez, A., Boyer, T., Cheng, L., Church, J., Desbruyeres, D., Dolman, H., Domingues, C., García-García, A., Giglio, D., Gilson, J., Gorfer, M., Haimberger, L., Hakuba, M., Hendricks, S., Hosoda, S., Johnson, G., Killick, R., King, B., Kolodziejczyk, N., Korosov, A., Krinner, G., Kuusela, M., Landerer, F., Langer, M., Lavergne, T., Lawrence, I., Li, Y., Lyman, J., Marti, F., Marzeion, B., Mayer, M., MacDougall, A., McDougall, T., Monselesan, D., Nitzbon, J., Otosaka, I., Peng, J., Purkey, S., Roemmich, D., Sato, K., Sato, K., Savita, A., Schweiger, A., Shepherd, A., Seneviratne, S., Simons, L., Slater, D., Slater, T., Steiner, A., Suga, T., Szekely, T., Thiery, W., Timmermans, M., Vanderkelen, I., Wjiffels, S., Wu, T., Zemp, M. 17 Apr 2023, In: Earth System Science Data
  • Insights into the vulnerability of Antarctic glaciers from the ISMIP6 ice sheet model ensemble and associated uncertainty, Seroussi, H., Verjans, V., Nowicki, S., Payne, A., Goelzer, H., Lipscomb, W., Abe-Ouchi, A., Agosta, C., Albrecht, T., Asay-Davis, X., Barthel, A., Calov, R., Cullather, R., Dumas, C., Galton-Fenzi, B., Gladstone, R., Golledge, N., Gregory, J., Greve, R., Hattermann, T., Hoffman, M., Humbert, A., Huybrechts, P., Jourdain, N., Kleiner, T., Larour, E., Leguy, G., Lowry, D., Little, C., Morlighem, M., Pattyn, F., Pelle, T., Price, S., Quiquet, A., Reese, R., Schlegel, N., Shepherd, A., Simon, E., Smith, R., Straneo, F., Sun, S., Trusel, L., Van Breedam, J., Van Katwyk, P., van de Wal, R., Winkelmann, R., Zhao, C., Zhang, T., Zwinger, T. 7 Dec 2023, In: Cryosphere
  • Mapping the extent of giant Antarctic icebergs with deep learning, Braakmann-Folgmann, A., Shepherd, A., Hogg, D., Redmond, E. 9 Nov 2023, In: Cryosphere
  • Mass balance of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets from 1992 to 2020, Otosaka, I., Shepherd, A., Ivins, E., Schlegel, N., Amory, C., Van Den Broeke, M., Horwath, M., Joughin, I., King, M., Krinner, G., Nowicki, S., Payne, A., Rignot, E., Scambos, T., Simon, K., Smith, B., Sørensen, L., Velicogna, I., Whitehouse, P., Geruo, A., Agosta, C., Ahlstrøm, A., Blazquez, A., Colgan, W., Engdahl, M., Fettweis, X., Forsberg, R., Gallée, H., Gardner, A., Gilbert, L., Gourmelen, N., Groh, A., Gunter, B., Harig, C., Helm, V., Khan, S., Kittel, C., Konrad, H., Langen, P., Lecavalier, B., Liang, C., Loomis, B., McMillan, M., Melini, D., Mernild, S., Mottram, R., Mouginot, J., Nilsson, J., Noël, B., Pattle, M., Peltier, W., Pie, N., Roca, M., Sasgen, I., Save, H., Seo, K., Scheuchl, B., Schrama, E., Schröder, L., Simonsen, S., Slater, T., Spada, G., Sutterley, T., Vishwakarma, B., Van Wessem, J., Wiese, D., Van Der Wal, W., Wouters, B. 20 Apr 2023, In: Earth System Science Data
  • Assimilation of sea ice thickness derived from CryoSat-2 along-track freeboard measurements into the Met Office's Forecast Ocean Assimilation Model (FOAM), Fiedler, E., Martin, M., Blockley, E., Mignac, D., Fournier, N., Ridout, A., Shepherd, A., Tilling, R. 6 Jan 2022, In: Cryosphere

  • Amy Swiggs Exploring Arctic sea ice variability using satellite and meteorological records Start Date: 01/07/2023
  • Natasha Lee The Effect of Climate Change on Icelandic Ice Caps and Glaciers. Start Date: 28/03/2023

My work is often reported in the media, and you can see me in a range of TV programmes including:

Prizes and Awards

I have been awarded the following prizes:

  • 2008: Philip Leverhulme Prize
  • 2014: Royal Society Woldfson Research Merit Award
  • 2021: International Glaciology Society Richardson Medal (share of)

Physics PhD January 01 1998

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