PhD at University of Lausanne

Subglacial channels and rapid glacier retreat

Ice-marginal subglacial channels and their influence on the rapid retreat of temperate Alpine glaciers

This project aims at determining the structure and geometry of subglacial channels of an Alpine temperate glacier with the help of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), UAV-based glacier surface measurements, manual measurements of ablation as well as channel exploration. We attempt to demonstrate the development of efficient, fast-flowing subglacial channels over the course of a melt season, as it has been previously suggested from tracer experiments (Nienow et al., 1998), and to show the implications of ice marginal subglacial channel collapse on rapid glacier retreat (Stocker-Waldhuber et al., 2017 ).

More details on our research can be found on our group webpage and on my UNIL site.

Download science CV here

Recently published articles:

Characterization of subglacial marginal channels

Egli, P., Irving, J., & Lane, S. (2021). Characterization of subglacial marginal channels using 3-D analysis of high-density ground-penetrating radar data. Journal of Glaciology, 1-14. doi:10.1017/jog.2021.26

Alpine glacier snout collapse features

Egli, P. E., Belotti, B., Ouvry, B., Irving, J., & Lane, S. N. (2021). Subglacial channels, climate warming, and increasing frequency of Alpine glacier snout collapse. Geophysical Research Letters, e2021GL096031.

Image 1 in 'Subglacial Channels, Climate Warming and...": Overview of 22 glaciers in the Swiss Alps. Glaciers with collapse features are in dark blue.

Image 2 in 'Subglacial Channels, Climate Warming and...": The frequency of channel collapse feature as compared to mean summer air temperature over time.

Radar surveys on the glacier in April 2017

Examples of collapse features at different Swiss Alpine glaciers

Pascal's Master's thesis in the domain of Turbulence Modelling at UBC Vancouver and EPFL Lausanne:

Effects of trees on mean wind, turbulence and momentum exchange within and above a real urban environment

Giometto Marco Giovanni, Christen Andreas, Egli Pascal Emanuel, Schmid Manuel, Tooke Rory, Coops Nicholas, Parlange Marc B., 2017/06/28. Advances in Water Resources, 106 pp. 154-168.

Link to the article

Link to the Master thesis

Horizontal velocity field u [m/s] displayed for two vertical planes on top of the modelling domain with the urban canopy of Vancouver Sunset area.

Scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals

Egli, P. E., Irving, J., & Lane, S. N. (2021). Characterization of subglacial marginal channels using 3-D analysis of high-density ground-penetrating radar data. Journal of Glaciology, 1-14.

Giometto, M. G., Christen, A., Egli, P. E., Schmid, M. F., Tooke, R. T., Coops, N. C., & Parlange, M. B. (2017). Effects of trees on mean wind, turbulence and momentum exchange within and above a real urban environment. Advances in Water Resources, 106, 154-168.

Ayala, A., Pellicciotti, F., MacDonell, S., McPhee, J., Vivero, S., Campos, C., & Egli, P. (2016). Modelling the hydrological response of debris‐free and debris‐covered glaciers to present climatic conditions in the semiarid Andes of central Chile. Hydrological Processes, 30(22), 4036-4058.

Conference presentations:

Egli, P., Lane, S., Irving, J., & Belotti, B. (2021). Temperate Alpine glacier surface dynamics linked to collapsing subglacial conduits (No. EGU21-535). Copernicus Meetings.

Egli, P., Sala, M., Irving, J., & Lane, S. (2019). Using GPR to investigate the subglacial hydrology of an alpine glacier. IGS Symposium on Glacial Erosion and Sedimentation, Madison/WI. (oral presentation)

Egli, P., Sala, M., Irving, J., & Lane, S. (2018). Using densely spaced GPR surveys to investigate the subglacial hydrology of an alpine glacier. Polar Science Conference 2018, Davos. (oral presentation)

Egli, P., Sala, M., Irving, J., & Lane, S. (2018). Using densely spaced GPR surveys and mapping of the Shreve potential to investigate the subglacial hydrology of an alpine glacier. Alpine Glaciology Meeting, Chamonix. (poster presentation)

Lane, S., Egli, P., & Irving, J. (2017). River conferences under temperate valley glaciers. RCEM meeting. (oral presentation)

Egli, P., Mankoff, K., Mettra, F., & Lane, S. (2017, April). Determination of sub-daily glacier uplift and horizontal flow velocity with time-lapse images using ImGRAFT. In EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts (p. 6095). (conference poster)