Dr Ethan Lee

Tropical glaciers

Tropical glaciers are extremely sensitive to global temperature variations, reacting earlier than mid- and high-latitude glaciers, making them perfect physical indicators of current and past climate change. Their susceptibility to insolation forcing and localised effects of sea surface temperatures (SST), can make tropical glaciers an ideal study region for understand climate changes during the Late Quaternary. We can also use low elevation glaciations within the tropics, that incurred during the Last Glacial Maximum, to disentangle Late Pleistocene climate change from Holocene climate fluctuations.

Mountain glaciations

Mountain glaciers are currently in rapid decline globally due to climate change. In many regions across the world these act as natural water towers that are important for their downstream communities. I am interested in both the past and future extents of these glaciers, with my previous research on Himalayan glaciers. Using both geomorphological evidence of their past positions to aid in training numerical models to understand and predict their future extent and dynamics.

Glacial geomorphology

Palaeoglacial geomorphological evidence can provide information on past glacial extents. They can also be used to provide an indication on past climate. My work on my PhD used geomorphological evidence, not only to provide delineations of pass glacial positions, but a first-order estimate on temperature cooling. Mapping of evidence can also provide confirmations of glacial influence in a region this is entirely deglaciated, for example my work looking at the Putorana Region in Russia, and looking at previously unidentified palaeoglacial cirques.