Space based Earth observation techniques have been key technologies in understanding the Earth system and climate change over the last two decades. Our future understanding lies primarily in how we use these technologies in the next. Two NERC studentships are available within the geomatics research group that will utilise the latest techniques to address topics of great importance to modern society: sea level rise, plate tectonics/geohazards, and quantification of the global water cycle. You will join not only the internationally recognised geomatics team at the Newcastle University but a network of international collaborators including leading scientists from the USA and Europe. For more information about Newcastle University research in satellite geodesy go to http://www.ceg.ncl.ac.uk/geodesy.

Using GPS geodesy to observe tectonics, post-glacial rebound, and long-term changes in the water cycle (Dr David Lavallée, Dr Peter Clarke and Prof. Phil Moore)
The primary objective of this project is to study long term changes in the Earth's shape driven by the water cycle, plate tectonics and postglacial rebound. The catalyst for this studentship has been exciting developments in the way we can use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to measure subtle changes in the Earth's shape in response to the water cycle, tectonic motions and post-glacial rebound. The novel use of GPS adds considerable data strength to gravity observations coming from the latest NASA-European satellite gravity missions such as GRACE (Gravity Research and Climate Experiment) as well as augmenting traditional geodetic observations of the Earth's shape, rotation and gravity field such as Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).,

Analysis of integrated geodetic facilities for quantifying sea-level change Prof. Phil Moore and Dr Peter Clarke, with Dr Simon Williams, NERC Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory.
Sea-level rise due to climate change is a combination of 1) melting ice and river run-off and 2) the expansion of the oceans due to temperature change. This studentship will investigate how satellite and in situ data can be used to separate these two components. Since 1) is associated with a mass change the redistribution will be 'sensed' by techniques that measure gravity; the combined effect of 1) and 2) is observed with tide gauges. Gravity data can be collected by satellites and with satellite tracking techniques such as laser ranging, and can also be obtained directly and potentially more accurately by using ground-based absolute gravimeters. Such instruments are currently of limited deployment since they are costly, require careful maintenance and consideration of all contributing mass change effects. The objective of this studentship is to investigate a futuristic approach to resolve gravitational and non-gravitational signals in tide gauge time series. The study will consider integrated techniques (GPS, SLR, absolute gravimeters, dedicated gravity field missions, tide gauges) to quantify the inherent accuracies of each technique, either alone or in combination, with the long-term objective of resolving the non-gravitational effect as a contribution to sea-level rise due to climate change.