Liu Yan () is a Chinese

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and o ...

researcher best known for her work on

iceberg calving Ice calving, also known as glacier calving or iceberg calving, is the breaking of ice chunks from the edge of a glacier.Essentials of Geology, 3rd edition, Stephen Marshak It is a form of ice ablation or ice disruption. It is the sudden release ...

. She is an associate professor of

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, a ...

in the College of Global Change and Earth System Science (GCESS) and Polar Research Institute,

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Chin ...

Early life and education

Liu received her B.Sc., as an outstanding graduate, in

photogrammetry Photogrammetry is the science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting photographic images and patterns of electromagnetic radiant ima ...

and remote sensing from

Wuhan University Wuhan University (WHU; ) is a public research university in Wuhan, Hubei. The university is sponsored by the Ministry of Education. Wuhan university was founded as one of the four elite universities in the early republican period of China and i ...

in 2003, her M.Sc. in

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an ...

and geographical information system from the Institute of Remote Sensing Application,

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Repub ...

in 2006, and her Ph.D. in global environmental change from

in 2013. She carried out post-doctoral research work at the GCESS between 2013 and 2015 and took charge of NSFC project: Mass balance and its change of Antarctic ice shelves in 2014.

Career and impact

Liu began her Antarctic research in 2009 after working as a technical manager in the field of

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring information about Ear ...

applications for three years. Her research focuses on

ice shelves An ice shelf is a large floating platform of ice that forms where a glacier or ice sheet flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface. Ice shelves are only found in Antarctica, Greenland, Northern Canada, and the Russian Arctic. The ...

in Antarctica and their responses to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. She uses a combination of satellite radar and

altimetry An altimeter or an altitude meter is an instrument used to measure the altitude of an object above a fixed level. The measurement of altitude is called altimetry, which is related to the term bathymetry, the measurement of depth under water. The m ...

and other remote sensed data to understand ice shelf dynamic processes. She is known for high impact research into Antarctic ice shelf mass loss, especially

and basal melting. She published the dataset of Antarctic iceberg calving in Chinese National Arctic and Antarctic Data Center. Liu is one of core members of Xiao Cheng's polar remote sensing research group at

. This group has used remote sensed data to contribution extensively to Antarctic land cover mapping and to provide the monitoring and supporting for navigation of XUELONG icebreaker in the Chinese Antarctic expeditions since 2011. They provided the efficient data for XUELONG icebreaker successfully getting out of the trouble after Antarctica rescue in January 2014. Liu's work on iceberg calving and ice shelf retreat in Antarctica used satellite images to measure all icebergs larger than 1 km² calving from the entire Antarctic coastline, and the state of health of all the ice shelves. Some large ice shelves are growing while many smaller ice shelves are shrinking. They found high rates of iceberg calving from Antarctic ice shelves that are undergoing basal melt-induced thinning, which suggests the fate of ice shelves may be more sensitive to ocean forcing than was previously thought.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Yan Chinese women geologists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Women Antarctic scientists Chinese Antarctic scientists Chinese glaciologists Wuhan University alumni Beijing Normal University alumni Academic staff of Beijing Normal University Women glaciologists