My name is Will Harcourt and I am an interdisciplinary Fellow at the University of Aberdeen. The research of our group spans across multiple disciplines and primarily within the subject areas of the cryosphere, remote sensing, and machine learning. We welcome anyone who is interested in our research topics to get in touch, we’ll be more than happy to discuss potential synergies and research opportunities. For prospective undergraduate / postgraduate taught students interested in undertaking dissertations with us, please get in touch and we can discuss potential ideas. We’ll also be more than happy to discuss possibilities of internships, developing a PhD project and postdoctoral research with us (e.g. PDRAs, fellowships). We are also happy to host PhD students and more senior academics to initiate new collaborations.
This website provides details of our groups activities. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you want to find out more.
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New paper out in Journal of Glaciology!
We have a new paper out! Work with Leigh Stearns, Michael Shahin, and Sid Shankar studying the potential of new ICEYE SAR satellite imagery to study the dynamic behaviour of ice mélange around the margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The higher resolution enhances surface texture and improves accuracy of iceberg classification. Through the enhanced Read more
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EGU Contributions!
Next week we will be at EGU in Vienna presenting some of our teams exciting new research! Please come and talk to us: Poster #1 🧊 The distribution of glacier surge behaviour in Svalbard and implications for understanding unstable ice flow📅 Poster | Monday, 28 Apr, 10:45–12:30 (CEST), Hall X5, X5.125📰 Abstract: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/EGU25-12624.html✍ Authors: William Harcourt, Danni Read more
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New ESA Project!
We are pleased to share our new project that officially kicked off in 2025: ‘Svalbard Cryosphere Digital Twin (SvalbardDT)’. Website here: https://svalbarddt.org/ The SvalbardDT project will build a Digital Twin Component (DTC) as part of the European Space Agency’s (ESAs) Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative to build a digital twin of the Earth. We will construct Read more
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New paper on snow in Scotland!
Happy new year and with it brings a new paper published in IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing entitled: “Spatial and temporal variations in 94 GHz radar backscatter from a springtime snowpack”. You can access the paper here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10816080 In this study, we used the AVTIS2 94 GHz FMCW Read more
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New paper in Science!
I was involved in a paper published in Science last week that studied a tsunami that occurred in a fjord in East Greenland. That tsunami was caused by a huge rockslide that fell onto a small valley glacier and travelled into the fjord, creating a ‘seiche’ which is back and forth movement of water, kind Read more
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Svalbard – continued monitoring of Borebreen’s surge!
March and April were hectic with Arctic Science Summit Week, then fieldwork in Svalbard and a trip to Vienna for the annual EGU Assembly. The most exciting trip was, of course, our campaign to Svalbard to continue our monitoring of Borebreen’s active surge. In April, me and colleagues ventured back up to Svalbard to undertake Read more
Research Page: William D. Harcourt 