Dr Jowan Barnes

Research Fellow

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

I am a postdoctoral research fellow currently attached to the PRECISE project (PREdicting Changes in Ice Sheets on Earth), in partnership with collaborators in Copenhagen. My work focuses on using mathematical models to study processes of ice dynamics and how we can better represent them for future predictions of both Greenland and Antarctica. My interests include inversion procedures, basal sliding laws, calving, ice shelf basal melt and ice-ocean coupling.

I graduated from the University of Reading with an MMath degree in 2014, and went on to study for a PhD in oceanography with the National Oceanography Centre and Newcastle University, from where I graduated in 2019. During this time, I modelled the effects of geothermal heating on the abyssal ocean, with a particular interest in hydrothermal vent systems as a source of heat at the seabed.

At Northumbria, I have previously been involved in the PROPHET project (PROcesses, drivers, Prediction: modelling the History and Evolution of Thwaites), part of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, as well as PROTECT.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Modelling the sensitivity of ice loss to calving front retreat rates in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica, Barnes, J., Gudmundsson, G., Goldberg, D., Sun, S. 29 Jan 2026, In: The Cryosphere
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet may not be vulnerable to marine ice cliff instability during the 21st century, Morlighem, M., Goldberg, D., Barnes, J., Bassis, J., Benn, D., Crawford, A., Gudmundsson, G., Seroussi, H. 23 Aug 2024, In: Science Advances
In the Quest of a Parametric Relation Between Ice Sheet Model Inferred Weertman's Sliding‐Law Parameter and Airborne Radar‐Derived Basal Reflectivity Underneath Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica, Das, I., Morlighem, M., Barnes, J., Gudmundsson, G., Goldberg, D., Dias dos Santos, T. 28 May 2023, In: Geophysical Research Letters
Limited impact of Thwaites Ice Shelf on future ice loss from Antarctica, Gudmundsson, H., Barnes, J., Goldberg, D., Morlighem, M. 16 Jun 2023, In: Geophysical Research Letters
The predictive power of ice sheet models and the regional sensitivity of ice loss to basal sliding parameterisations: a case study of Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers, West Antarctica, Barnes, J., Gudmundsson, G. 13 Oct 2022, In: The Cryosphere
Drivers of Change of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica, Between 1995 and 2015, Dias Dos Santos, T., Barnes, J., Goldberg, D., Gudmundsson, G., Morlighem, M. 28 Oct 2021, In: Geophysical Research Letters
The transferability of adjoint inversion products between different ice flow models, Barnes, J., Dias Dos Santos, T., Goldberg, D., Gudmundsson, H., Morlighem, M., De Rydt, J. 23 Apr 2021, In: The Cryosphere
Idealised modelling of ocean circulation driven by conductive and hydrothermal fluxes at the seabed, Barnes, J., Morales Maqueda, M., Polton, J., Megann, A. 1 Feb 2018, In: Ocean Modelling