Precipitation and clouds over Antarctica from an observational and modelling perspective

The overall goal is to identify the role of precipitation and clouds in the East Antarctica, where little is known about the interaction between clouds, precipitation and their effect on the surface mass balance. Moreover there is a large uncertainty about relating local surface mass balance measurements to the mass gain or loss of the ice sheet due to the process of snowdrift. This is unfortunate, as the Antarctic ice sheet is expected to become a dominant contributor to sea level rise in the 21st century. The candidate will focus on the cloud  and precipitation processes by using both observational data and a regional climate model.