MSc. Anneke Vries

Anneke Vries works as a PhD student for NIOZ and Utrecht University. She is very excited about the physics of ice and the ocean, and that is why she studies glacier-fjord interaction in Greenland.

Greenland's ice sheet has been melting and a large part can be attributed to marine-terminating glaciers ending up in one of the many fjords that surround Greenland. The melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet has consequences for the global mean sea level, might impact the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning circulation and hence the climate of Europe, but also impacts local ecosystem through retreat of the glaciers and hence threatens livelihoods of it's inhabitants.

In order to further understand glacier-fjord interaction that ultimately dominate ocean-ice interaction, Anneke focusses on fjord circulation through observations done by the Greenland Climate Research Centre in Nuup Kangerdlua, under supervision of Lorenz Meire. These Arctic fjords have long been under-studied because they are hard to access and especially in winter the conditions are harsh. Anneke maps and quantifies heat fluxes to understand potential for melt, fresh water fluxes to understand retainment and transformation of water masses and fjord circulation to understand patterns in the fjord.

Anneke started her academic career at Amsterdam University College studying Earth and Environmental Science, and moved to Utrecht to do a master in Climate Physics. Both her bachelor and master thesis were related to sea ice and oceans. After a couple of years at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency quantifying and estimating the future emissions of the electricity sector in the Netherlands and Europe,  she started a PhD at NIOZ and Utrecht University.