David Lilien

University of Manitoba

Biography

I’m a Research Associate in glaciology at the University of Manitoba. I study the dynamics of ice streams and outlet glaciers using numerical models, remote sensing, and field data. My primary interest is understanding how recent changes to large outlet glaciers will propagate upstream; this involves simulating modern changes as well as contextualize current retreat by understanding past ice flow.

Find my C.V. here.

Interests

Glaciology
Ice-stream dynamics
Antarctica
Greenland

Education

PhD in Earth and Space Sciences, 2019

University of Washington
BS in Mathematics and Physics, 2013

Yale University

Academic Appointments

Research Associate

Centre For Earth Observation Science, University of Manitoba

Oct 2021 – Present Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Research focusing on outlet glacier in the Canadian Arctic and Western Greenland. Responsible for planning and preparation for radar surveying on Muller Ice Cap.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

May 2019 – Aug 2021 Copenhagen, Denmark

Research focused on modeling of ice-crystal fabric.

Projects

Müller Ice Cap

Preparing for an ice core on Müller Ice Cap

Ice-crystal fabric

Improving models of fabric and anisotropy to learn about ice flow

Radar processing

Tools for processing radar data

Retreat of Smith Glacier, Antarctica

Understanding the retreat of Amundsen Sea ice shelves/streams

South Pole Geophysics

Investigating ice flow upstream of South Pole

Recent Publications

Accelerating ice flow at the onset of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

Mass loss near the ice-sheet margin is evident from remote sensing as frontal retreat and increases in ice velocities. Velocities in …

Aslak Grinsted, Christine S. Hvidberg, David A. Lilien, Nicholas M. Rathmann, Nanna B. Karlsson, Tamara A. Gerber, Helle A. Kjær, Paul Vallelonga, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

DOI

Crystal fabric anisotropy causes directional hardening of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

The dynamic mass loss of ice sheets due to ice flow constitutes one of the biggest uncertainties in projections of ice-sheet evolution …

Tamara A. Gerber, David A. Lilien, Nicholas M. Rathmann, Steven Franke, Tun Jan Young, Fernando Valero-Delgado, Reza Ershadi, Reinhard Drews, Ole Zeising, Angelika Humbert, Nicolas Stoll, Ilka Weikusat, Aslak Grinsted, Christine S. Hvidberg, Daniela Jansen, Heinrich Miller, Veit Helm, Daniel Steinhage, Charles O’Neill, Prasad Gogineni, John Paden, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Olaf Eisen

Project DOI

On the nonlinear viscosity of the orthotropic bulk rheology

We compare different ways the bulk flow nonlinearity of glacier ice can be captured in an orthotropic rheology. Specifically, we …

Nicholas M. Rathmann, David A. Lilien

Project DOI

On the Limitations of Using Polarimetric Radar Sounding to Infer the Crystal Orientation Fabric of Ice Masses

We introduce a transfer matrix model for radio-wave propagation through layered anisotropic ice that permits an arbitrary dielectric …

Nicholas M. Rathmann, David A. Lilien, Aslak Grinsted, Tamara A. Gerber, Tun Jan Young, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

Project DOI

Inferred basal friction and mass flux affected by crystal-orientation fabrics

We investigate the errors caused by neglecting the crystal-orientation fabric when inferring the basal friction coefficient field, and …

Nicholas M. Rathmann, David A. Lilien

Project DOI

See all publications

Photos

EastGRIP

Little Dome C

South Pole

Around the Cascades

Glaciers and geology while traveling

UAF Summer School 2014

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Modeling ice-crystal fabric as a proxy for ice-stream stability

The crystal structure within an ice sheet evolves in response to deformation, so ice-crystal fabric records ice-flow history. However, …

Dec 8, 2020 8:30 AM — 10:15 AM Online

David A. Lilien, Nicholas Rathmann, Christine S. Hvidberg, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

Melt at Grounding line controls observed and future retreat of Smith, Pope, and Kohler Glaciers

May 6, 2020 2:00 PM — 3:45 PM Now online

David A. Lilien, Ian Joughin, Benjamin Smith, Noel Gourmelen

Project Slides

Modeling fabric development using coupled non-parametric orientation and lattice strain-energy distribution functions

May 6, 2020 8:30 AM — 10:15 AM Now online

Nicholas Rathmann, Aslak Grindsted, Sérgio H. Faria, David A. Lilien, Christine S. Hvidberg, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

Using ice-flow models to understand and contextualize modern ice-stream retreat

Ice-sheet mass balance, and thus contribution to global sea-level rise, is largely controlled by the dynamics of fast flowing ice …

Feb 3, 2020 3:30 PM — 4:30 PM University of Wisconsin

David Lilien

Poster: ImpDAR: an open-source impulse radar processor in Python

Despite the widespread use of radio-echo sounding data in glaciology, there is no community standard for processing software. This …

Jul 8, 2019 Stanford, CA

Joshua Driscol, David A. Lilien, Benjamin Hills, Robert Jacobel, Knut Christianson

Project

Recent Posts

Finally made it to Greenland!

I was supposed to go in Greenland in 2019, but that was canceled after there were issues with the force required to break the ice core. …

Jul 20, 2022

Heading to Little Dome C

I’m really excited to get to be a part of the final surveys for selecting the site of the Beyond Epica Oldest Ice core. The …

Oct 18, 2019

I moved to Denmark

I’ve started a postdoc in Denmark, at the Center for Ice and Climate (now called Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth). I am really …

Aug 5, 2019

2019 South Pole field season

In December, I headed to the South Pole for a third field season, wrapping our survey of regional ice flow. Like last year, this was a …

David Lilien

Jan 28, 2019

Radar processing

I’ve been doing some work to bring the St. Olaf deep radar processor (StODeep) up into this decade. I’ve had some time …

Aug 10, 2018