Dr James O'Neill

I am a postdoctoral researcher interested in the Antarctic ice sheet, potentially the largest but also most uncertain component of future sea level, and climate system. I use computer models of the climate and ice sheet, along with observations to test how well models capture ice sheet dynamics. By linking the Antarctic ice sheet response to past warm climates with it's recent evolution and future trajectory, my work aims to explore the question - how will the ice sheet respond to anthropogenic climate change?

I joined University of Exeter in September of 2022, working with Dr Ed Gasson on a project focussed on the 2002 collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf with the Penn State University ice sheet model. Before joining the University of Exeter, I completed my PhD at King's college London. My PhD used the BISICLES ice sheet model to explore uncertainty in the Antarctic response to warm Pliocene climate - the last period in Earth's history when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were higher than today, but sea levels were many metres higher. It also projected century scale contribution of the Antarctic ice sheet to future sea level. 

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher on the GEOICE project, working with Dr Ed Gasson at Exeter and a team of collaborators at other institutions. GEOICE uses geological data to constrain the response of the Antarctic ice sheet to late Pleistocene climate, when warming was at times comparable to what we could see this century. My role is to run ice sheet model simulations which will be linked with geological data, with the aim of exploring Antarctic patterns of retreat and re-advance.