Ruth Mottram

Mottram uses the regional atmospheric climate model HIRHAM5. HIRHAM combines HIRLAM (High Resolution Limited Area Model, a short-range weather forecasting system), and ECHAM, a global climate model. She is based at the Danish Meteorological Institute where she primarily carries out research into the interactions between atnmosphere and ice sheet.^[4] but also contributes to the WCRP's CORDEX initiative, making regional climate simulations in the polar regions.^{[citation needed]}

Recently^[when?] she has been part of the HCLIM consortium, developing one of a new generation of flexible atmospheric climate models that can be applied at scales ranging from tens of kilometres down to hundreds of metres.^{[citation needed]}

Mottram is part of the Polar Portal team that carries out near real-time monitoring of the Arctic cryosphere, including live updates of satellite datasets of sea ice, icebergs, permafrost and Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance. She is also part of the European Space Agency's climate change initiative for the Greenland ice sheet, under which she has contributed to IMBIE, a large international initiative aimed at quantifying the loss of the ice sheet, and published several articles comparing satellite data with climate models. Her work also aims to run climate models to assess the likely future evolution of both the Greenland ice sheet,^[5][6] and the Antarctic ice sheet. She is frequently cited in the media^[7][8] on topics related to Arctic climate change and the Greenland ice sheet and contributes an annual update on the state of the ice sheet to the Carbon Brief news site. She is also interested in glacier processes and her research testing numerical models of crevasse depths directly led to a well-used technique to estimate the frequency of calving in ice sheet models.^{[citation needed]}

She has said, "The sea ice surrounding Greenland is also changing. It is thinner, it breaks up earlier, and opens up more frequently,".^[9] The ice sheet is the world's second largest ice body and has a considerable impact on global climate. Mottram studied the Kangiata Nunaata Sermia, a large tidewater glacier in Greenland, as part of a wider team of scientists. Such glaciers are not constrained to the lab and extend to the ocean or sea, and calve to form icebergs.^[10] They made observations of the tidewater glacier, identifying sedimentary sequences and identifying that during the 12th century the glacier advanced 15 km.^[10] She looks to understand the long-term glacial dynamics of the Greenland ice sheet.

• Douglas I. Benn; Charles R. Warren; Ruth H. Mottram (June 2007). "Calving processes and the dynamics of calving glaciers". Earth-Science Reviews. 82 (3–4): 143–179. Bibcode:2007ESRv...82..143B. doi:10.1016/J.EARSCIREV.2007.02.002. ISSN 0012-8252. Wikidata Q59485637.
• IMBIE Team (10 December 2019). "Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018". Nature. 579 (7798): 233–239. doi:10.1038/S41586-019-1855-2. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 31822019. Wikidata Q91848628.
• Douglas I. Benn; Nicholas R.J. Hulton; Ruth H. Mottram (2007). "'Calving laws', 'sliding laws' and the stability of tidewater glaciers". Annals of Glaciology. 46: 123–130. Bibcode:2007AnGla..46..123B. doi:10.3189/172756407782871161. ISSN 0260-3055. Wikidata Q109916137.