Sanne Veldhuijsen is a PhD researcher since January 2021. She has a background in Earth Sciences with a specialisation in Hydrology. 

Project

Her PhD is part of the HiRISE project that focuses on the stability of Antarctica’s ice shelves, the gatekeepers between the continent's ice sheet and the ocean, which play a major role in determining Antarctica's contribution to sea level rise. Within the HiRISE project she works on modelling the state and fate of the Antarctic firn layer using numerical and machine learning models.

Research

Firn is the intermediate stage between fresh snow and glacial ice and it currently covers 99% Antarctic ice sheet. Firn is important as surface meltwater can be retained and refrozen in the pore space. This is especially crucial over ice shelves, where meltwater accumulation can lead to ice shelf collapse, thereby accelerating future Antarctic mass loss and sea level rise. Sanne her research shows which ice shelves are potentially vulnerable to collapse in the next century either by depletion or saturation of the firn layer.