New review of surging glaciers in Svalbard!

I am pleased to share our new paper in which we review the current distribution of surging glaciers in Svalbard! Published in Earth Science Reviews, you can find the full paper here: The surging Borebreen in 2024. In this review, we analyse the methods use to detect glacier surges in the past and present using remote sensing techniques, geophysical methods, and palaeo-glaciological analysis such as landforms, historical…

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2026/03/19/new-review-of-surging-glaciers-in-svalbard/

SvalbardDT at ESA Workshop

So much has been happening that I have not had a chance to keep up with posts on this website! You'll be seeing updates very soon... Let's start with the most recent - this week, SvalbardDT attended the ESA Digital Twin Earth Components: Open Science Meeting 2026' in Frascati, updating on the development of SvalbardDT. Lots of good discussion on the current prototype and ideas for the upcoming phases of the project. More info on that project…

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2026/02/05/svalbarddt-at-esa-workshop/

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 image textures, with found distinct 'banding' in the mélange related to changes ice…

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2025/10/14/new-paper-out-in-journal-of-glaciology/

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: Authors: William Harcourt, Danni Pearce, Wojciech Gajek, Harold Lovell, Andreas Kääb, Doug Benn, Adrian Luckman, Richard Hann, Jack Kohler,…

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2025/04/25/egu-contributions/

New ESA Project!

We are pleased to share our new project that officially kicked off in 2025: 'Svalbard Cryosphere Digital Twin (SvalbardDT)'. Website here: 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 a new DTC of the ice and snow of Svalbard’s cryosphere in the 21st Century through an automated data management…

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2025/03/17/new-esa-project/

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: In this study, we used the AVTIS2 94 GHz FMCW radar to map snow-covered mountain terrain in the Cairngorms, Scotland.

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2025/01/06/new-paper-on-snow-in-scotland/

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 of like what you get in a bathtub.

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2024/09/29/new-paper-in-science/

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 our second season of monitoring Borebreen.

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2024/05/08/svalbard-continued-monitoring-of-borebreens-surge/

Visit to Robert Gordon’s College

Will Harcourt and Morrigan Jones from the Department of Geography, University of Aberdeen, visited Robert Gordon’s College on Wednesday 21st February 2024 to discuss their research on glaciers; both on Earth and Mars! Will Harcourt discussed the importance of glaciers to our society and showcased some amazing stories of his fieldwork in locations such as Svalbard. The students were amazed to see the spectacular pictures of glaciers up…

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2024/02/26/visit-to-robert-gordons-college/

New Paper in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing!

We have a new paper out in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGARS) entitled: "3D terrain mapping and filtering from coarse resolution data cubes extracted from real-aperture 94 GHz radar". Link here: We developed a new workflow to extract point clouds from 3D data cubes acquired using 94 GHz radar, specifically that of the AVTIS radar (details on the radar system…

http://williamharcourt.co.uk/2024/02/11/new-paper-in-ieee-transactions-on-geoscience-and-remote-sensing/