Results of an inter-laboratory round-robin study of the application of time-resolved emission spectroscopy (TRES) to the speciation of uranium(VI) in aqueous media are presented. The round-robin study involved 13 independent laboratories, using various instrumentation and data analysis methods. Samples were prepared based on appropriate speciation diagrams and, in general, were found to be chemically stable for at least six months. Four different types of aqueous uranyl solutions were studied: (1) acidic medium where UO22+aq is the single emitting species, (2) uranyl in the presence of fluoride ions, (3) uranyl in the presence of sulfate ions, and (4) uranyl in aqueous solutions at different pH, promoting the formation of hydrolyzed species. Results between the laboratories are compared in terms of the number of decay components, luminescence lifetimes, and spectral band positions. The successes and limitations of TRES in uranyl analysis and speciation in aqueous solutions are discussed.

Masters Research - Masters of Philosophy / INTRODUCTION: Level III dosimetric intercomparison studies test the entire radiotherapy patient treatment chain from diagnostic imaging to treatment delivery and verification imaging at multiple radiotherapy centres. The anthropomorphic phantom employed in an intercomparison needs to meet specific criteria including portability, tissue equivalence and accommodation of radiation detectors to ensure clinical relevance and dosimetric accuracy. The proposition that a purpose-built phantom can encompass all the attributes necessary for precise Level III dosimetric intercomparisons for prostate cancer is the premise of this body of work. METHODS: Organ outlines were generated from a human computed tomography image set and incorporated into the phantom design to replicate human anatomy as closely as possible. Twenty-five points of interest were located throughout the dataset to identify where point-dose values could be measured with thermoluminescence dosimeters. The centre of the prostate was identified as the location for measurement with a small-volume ionization chamber. The materials used in this phantom were tested against water to determine relative attenuation, density and Hounsfield Units. Three materials were chosen to mimic bone, organs, and a backfill material and the phantom was manufactured using modern prototyping techniques into five separate coronal slices. Time lines and resource requirements for the phantom design and manufacture were recorded. The ability of the phantom to mimic the entire treatment chain was tested at the Calvary Mater Newcastle Hospital. RESULTS: The phantom CT images indicated the densities and organ geometries were comparable to the original patient. The phantom proved simple to load for dosimetry and rapid to assemble. Measurements indicated the reproducibility to be in the order of 1% for the ionization chamber measurement and within 3% for thermoluminescence dosimeters. Due to heat release during manufacture, small airgaps were present throughout the phantom producing artifacts on lateral images. The overall cost for production of the prototype phantom was comparable to other commercial anthropomorphic phantoms ($AU45,000). The phantom was shown to be suitable for use as a “patient” to mimic the entire treatment chain for typical external beam radiotherapy for prostate and rectal cancer. Outlining of relevant structures by a radiation oncologist was uncomplicated and the computerised treatment plan compared well with the dose measured using ionisation chambers and thermoluminescence dosimeters. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS: The phantom constructed for the present study incorporates all characteristics necessary for accurate Level III intercomparison studies and will be an effective tool for an intercomparison of pelvic treatments in Australasia. These results may benefit analysis of outcomes for prostate cancer treatments, especially in the clinical trial environment. It will be of significant interest in the future to use the phantom to assess advanced radiotherapy delivery techniques such as Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT).

Tendo em vista a importância da calibração de instrumentos medidores de radiação e do conhecimento das principais características destes instrumentos, diversos tipos de câmaras de ionização foram intercomparados em termos de seus coeficientes de calibração e dependência energética, em feixes padrões de raios X, níveis radioterapia, radiodiagnóstico e radioproteção. Foi realizada uma intercomparação de activímetros utilizados em medicina nuclear, com três radionuclídeos: 67Ga, 201Tl e 99mTc. Todos os activímetros que participaram da intercomparação apresentaram resultados dentro dos limites recomendados pela norma CNEN-NE-3.05. Para completar o conjunto de qualidades de radiação do Laboratório de Calibração de Instrumentos do IPEN, foram estabelecidos feixes de radiação-X, nível radioproteção e radioterapia de energias baixas, seguindo recomendações internacionais. Três metodologias para a obtenção de coeficientes de calibração de câmaras de ionização não seladas em feixes de radiação-X foram estudadas e comparadas. Um conjunto de câmaras de ionização Victoreen, especialmente projetado para uso em intercomparações laboratoriais, foi submetido a testes de caracterização. O desempenho destas câmaras mostrou que elas podem ser utilizadas em feixes de radiação-X nível radioproteção de maneira segura, visto que nestes feixes estas câmaras apresentaram resultados em conformidade com recomendações internacionais. No entanto, seu uso em feixes de radioterapia e de radiodiagnóstico deve ser feito com algumas considerações, pois especialmente nos testes de dependência energética e de tempo de estabilização, estas câmaras não atenderam às respectivas recomendações internacionais. Este trabalho apresenta dados sobre o desempenho de diversos modelos de câmaras de ionização em diferentes feixes de radiação-X, fornecendo uma ferramenta para a escolha do instrumento mais adequado para a realização de medições em feixes de radiação ionizante / Since the calibration of radiation measurement instruments and the knowledge of their major characteristics are very important subjects, several different types of ionization chambers were intercompared in terms of their calibration coefficients and their energy dependence, in radiotherapy, diagnostic radiology and radioprotection standard beams. An intercomparison of radionuclide calibrators for nuclear medicine was performed, using three radionuclides: 67Ga, 201Tl and 99mTc; the results obtained were all within the requirements of the national standard CNEN-NE-3.05. In order to complete the range of radiation qualities of the Calibration Laboratory of IPEN, standard radiation beam qualities, radiation protection and low energy radiation therapy levels, were established, according international recommendations. Three methodologies for the calibration of unsealed ionization chambers in X-ray beams were studied and compared. A set of Victoreen ionization chambers, specially designed for use in laboratorial intercomparisons, was submitted to characterization tests. The performance of these Victoreen ionization chambers showed that they are suitable for use in radioprotection beams, because the results obtained agree with international recommendations. However, these Victoreen ionization chambers can be used in radiotherapy and diagnostic radiology beams only with some considerations, since their performance in these beams, especially in relation to the energy dependence and stabilization time tests, did not agree with the international recommendations for dosimeters used in radiotherapy and diagnostic radiology beams. This work presents data on the performance of several types of ionization chambers in different X-ray beams, that may be useful for choosing the appropriate instrument for measurements in ionizing radiation beams.

This work has focused on showing the differences among four different NMHC oxidation mechanisms: GT Lurmann, CBIV, RACM, and SAPRC mechanisms. This study was carried out to characterize these mechanisms using both specified NOx/NMHC gas mixtures and observational data from NASAs TRACE-P campaign. The differences among these mechanisms were found to be mainly driven by the use of different kinetic data and the specifics of each oxidation scheme. In the test runs, the differences between mechanisms were shown to be dependent on the levels of NOx and NMHC, as well as the reactivity of NMHC species used. Typically, propane had the smallest impact on all product species, whereas propene had the largest. Differences in the predicted levels of OH and HO2 were much smaller compared to those for CH3O2 and CH2O due to the fact that HOx species were generally less sensitive to the presence of NMHCs. During TRACE-P, which involved flights over only marine areas that were slightly polluted by the inflow of pollutants, the alkanes were the dominant NMHC family. Thus, most of the model runs involved relatively low levels of NMHCs and NOx. Therefore, the levels of OH, HO2, CH3O2, and CH2O predicted by the four mechanisms were not dramatically different. A net O3 increase was found only in areas where the NMHC reactivity was high. Because of the similar O3 destruction rates given by all four mechanisms, the difference in O3 tendency among these mechanisms was mainly determined by the O3 formation rate. A significantly higher (e.g., ~30%) O3 formation was found in the Lurmann mechanism than in CBIV due to the stronger contribution from the NO/RO2 channel in this mechanism. This resulted in a difference in the O3 tendency of a factor of 1.5. A major need in terms of future studies will be that of examining these same four mechanisms with a data set that enfolds observations in more polluted regions.

Tendo em vista a importância da calibração de instrumentos medidores de radiação e do conhecimento das principais características destes instrumentos, diversos tipos de câmaras de ionização foram intercomparados em termos de seus coeficientes de calibração e dependência energética, em feixes padrões de raios X, níveis radioterapia, radiodiagnóstico e radioproteção. Foi realizada uma intercomparação de activímetros utilizados em medicina nuclear, com três radionuclídeos: 67Ga, 201Tl e 99mTc. Todos os activímetros que participaram da intercomparação apresentaram resultados dentro dos limites recomendados pela norma CNEN-NE-3.05. Para completar o conjunto de qualidades de radiação do Laboratório de Calibração de Instrumentos do IPEN, foram estabelecidos feixes de radiação-X, nível radioproteção e radioterapia de energias baixas, seguindo recomendações internacionais. Três metodologias para a obtenção de coeficientes de calibração de câmaras de ionização não seladas em feixes de radiação-X foram estudadas e comparadas. Um conjunto de câmaras de ionização Victoreen, especialmente projetado para uso em intercomparações laboratoriais, foi submetido a testes de caracterização. O desempenho destas câmaras mostrou que elas podem ser utilizadas em feixes de radiação-X nível radioproteção de maneira segura, visto que nestes feixes estas câmaras apresentaram resultados em conformidade com recomendações internacionais. No entanto, seu uso em feixes de radioterapia e de radiodiagnóstico deve ser feito com algumas considerações, pois especialmente nos testes de dependência energética e de tempo de estabilização, estas câmaras não atenderam às respectivas recomendações internacionais. Este trabalho apresenta dados sobre o desempenho de diversos modelos de câmaras de ionização em diferentes feixes de radiação-X, fornecendo uma ferramenta para a escolha do instrumento mais adequado para a realização de medições em feixes de radiação ionizante / Since the calibration of radiation measurement instruments and the knowledge of their major characteristics are very important subjects, several different types of ionization chambers were intercompared in terms of their calibration coefficients and their energy dependence, in radiotherapy, diagnostic radiology and radioprotection standard beams. An intercomparison of radionuclide calibrators for nuclear medicine was performed, using three radionuclides: 67Ga, 201Tl and 99mTc; the results obtained were all within the requirements of the national standard CNEN-NE-3.05. In order to complete the range of radiation qualities of the Calibration Laboratory of IPEN, standard radiation beam qualities, radiation protection and low energy radiation therapy levels, were established, according international recommendations. Three methodologies for the calibration of unsealed ionization chambers in X-ray beams were studied and compared. A set of Victoreen ionization chambers, specially designed for use in laboratorial intercomparisons, was submitted to characterization tests. The performance of these Victoreen ionization chambers showed that they are suitable for use in radioprotection beams, because the results obtained agree with international recommendations. However, these Victoreen ionization chambers can be used in radiotherapy and diagnostic radiology beams only with some considerations, since their performance in these beams, especially in relation to the energy dependence and stabilization time tests, did not agree with the international recommendations for dosimeters used in radiotherapy and diagnostic radiology beams. This work presents data on the performance of several types of ionization chambers in different X-ray beams, that may be useful for choosing the appropriate instrument for measurements in ionizing radiation beams.

Regulatory Agencies are responsible for monitoring the performance of particular measurement communities. In order to achieve their objectives, they sponsor Intercomparison exercises between the members of these communities. The Intercomparison Exercise Program for Organic Contaminants in the Marine Environment is an ongoing NIST/NOAA program. It was started in 1986 and there have been 19 studies to date. Using this data as a motivation we review the theory and practices applied to its analysis. It is a common practice to apply some kind of filter to the comparison study data. These filters go from outliers detection and exclusion to exclusion of the entire data from a participant when its measurements are very “different". When the measurements are not so “different" the usual assumption is that the laboratories are unbiased then the simple mean, the weighted mean or the one way random effects model are applied to obtain estimates of the true value. Instead we explore methods to analyze these data under weaker assumptions and apply them to some of the available data. More specifically we explore estimation of models assessing the laboratories performance and way to use those fitted models in estimating a consensus value for new study material. This is done in various ways starting with models that allow a separate bias for each lab with each compound at each point in time and then considering generalizations of that. This is done first by exploiting models where, for a particular compound, the bias may be shared over labs or over time and then by modeling systematic biases (which depend on the concentration) by combining data from different labs. As seen in the analyses, the latter models may be more realistic. Due to uncertainty in the certified reference material analyzing systematic biases leads to a measurement error in linear regression problem. This work has two differences from the standard work in this area. First, it allows heterogeneity in the material being delivered to the lab, whether it be control or study material. Secondly, we make use of Fieller's method for estimation which has not been used in the context before, although others have suggested it. One challenge in using Fieller's method is that explicit expressions for the variance and covariance of the sample variance and covariance of independent but non-identically distributed random variables are needed. These are developed. Simulations are used to compare the performance of moment/Wald, Fieller and bootstrap methods for getting confidence intervals for the slope in the measurement model. These suggest that the Fieller's method performs better than the bootstrap technique. We also explore four estimators for the variance of the error in the equation in this context and determine that the estimator based on the modified squared residuals outperforms the others. Homogeneity is a desirable property in control and study samples. Special experiments with nested designs must be conducted for homogeneity analysis and assessment purposes. However, simulation shows that heterogeneity has low impact on the performance of the studied estimators. This work shows that a biased but consistent estimator for the heterogeneity variance can be obtained from the current experimental design.

Ce travail traite de la simulation numérique du climat des grandes calottes de glace, en particulier des calottes de l'Antarctique et du Groenland, toujours existantes, dans des conditions climatiques différentes, à l'aide de modèles de circulation générale de l'atmosphère (MCGA). Le MCGA à grille variable LMDz a été adapté aux spécificités du climat polaire et validé pour le climat actuel. L'approche d'une grille variable, qui permet d'utiliser le MCGA à haute résolution spatiale (autour de 100 km) sur la région d'intérêt à un coût numérique raisonnable, a été validée en analysant la dynamique atmosphérique au bord de la région ciblée à l'aide d'un schéma de suivi des cyclones individuels. Des simulations du climat du Dernier Maximum Glaciaire (DMG) ont été faites pour le Groenland et l'Antarctique et analysées en tenant compte des archives glaciaires disponibles. Une explication possible des différences entre les deux méthodes principales de reconstruction des paléotempératures - l'analyse des isotopes de l'eau et la mesure directe de la température de la glace dans le trou de forage - au centre du Groenland a pu être proposée. Cette explication est basée sur des changements de paramètres climatiques locaux. C'est la première fois que l'approche de grille variable a été utilisée dans un MCGA pour des simulations du climat polaire à l'échelle de quelques années. Les simulations paléoclimatiques faites avec LMDz sont à une résolution spatiale inégalée à ce jour. Finalement, le climat du DMG, simulé par plusieurs MCGA dans le cadre du projet international PMIP (Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Programme), a été analysé, et des implications des résultats pour l'interprétation des enregistrements glaciaires ont été discutées.

Uncertainty in rainfall forecasts affects the level of quality and assurance for decisions made to manage water resource-based systems. However, eliminating uncertainty in a complete manner could be difficult, decision-makers thus are challenged to make decisions in the light of uncertainty. This study provides statistical models as an approach to cope with uncertainty, including: a) a statistical method relying on a Gaussian mixture (GM) model to assist in better characterize uncertainty in climate model projections and evaluate their performance in matching observations; b) a stochastic model that incorporates the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle to narrow uncertainty in seasonal rainfall forecasts; and c) a statistical approach to determine to what extent drought events forecasted using ENSO information could be utilized in the water resources decision-making process. This study also investigates the relationship between calibration and lead time on the ability to narrow the interannual uncertainty of forecasts and the associated usefulness for decision making. These objectives are demonstrated for the northwest region of Costa Rica as a case study of a developing country in Central America. This region of Costa Rica is under an increasing risk of future water shortages due to climate change, increased demand, and high variability in the bimodal cycle of seasonal rainfall. First, the GM model is shown to be a suitable approach to compare and characterize long-term projections of climate models. The GM representation of seasonal cycles is then employed to construct detailed comparison tests for climate models with respect to observed rainfall data. Three verification metrics demonstrate that an acceptable degree of predictability can be obtained by incorporating ENSO information in reducing error and interannual variability in the forecast of seasonal rainfall. The predictability of multicategory rainfall forecasts in the late portion of the wet season surpasses that in the early portion of the wet season. Later, the value of drought forecast information for coping with uncertainty in making decisions on water management is determined by quantifying the reduction in expected losses relative to a perfect forecast. Both the discrimination ability and the relative economic value of drought-event forecasts are improved by the proposed forecast method, especially after calibration. Positive relative economic value is found only for a range of scenarios of the cost-loss ratio, which indicates that the proposed forecast could be used for specific cases. Otherwise, taking actions (no-actions) is preferred as the cost-loss ratio approaches zero (one). Overall, the approach of incorporating ENSO information into seasonal rainfall forecasts would provide useful value to the decision-making process - in particular at lead times of one year ahead.

The work presented in the thesis focuses on systematically documenting the multi scale nature of the temporal persistence and spatial coherence of tropical rainfall. There are three parts to the thesis: The first two parts utilize satellite-retrieved rainfall at multiple observational resolutions to characterize the space-time organization of rain; the third part assesses the ability of state-of-the-art coupled models to reproduce some of the observed features. In the first part of the study, which focuses on the temporal persistence of rain, we analyze the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) satellite-based observations to compare and contrast wet and dry spell characteristics over the tropics (30 S-30 N). Defining a wet (dry) spell as the number of consecutive rainy (nonrainy) days, we find that the distributions of wet spells (independent of spatial resolution) exhibit universality in the following sense. While both ocean and land regions with high seasonal rainfall accumulation (humid regions) show a predominance of 2-4 day wet spells, those regions with low seasonal rainfall accumulation (arid regions) exhibit a wet spell duration distribution that is essentially exponential in nature, with a peak at 1 day. The behaviour that we observed for wet spells is reversed for dry spell distributions. The total rainfall accumulated in each wet spell has also been analyzed, and we find that the major contribution to seasonal rainfall for arid regions comes from very short length wet spells; however, for humid regions, this contribution comes from wet spells of duration as long as 30 days. An exhaustive sensitivity study of factors that can potentially affect the wet and dry spell characteristics (e.g., resolution) shows that our findings are robust. We also explore the role of chance in determining the 2-4 day mode, as well as the inuence of organized convection in separating reality from chance. The second part deals with the spatial coherence of tropical rain. We take two different approaches, namely, a global and local view. The global view attempts to quantify the con-ventional view of rain, i.e., the dominance of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), while the local view tries to answer the question: if it rains, how far is the influence felt in zonal and meridional directions? In both approaches, the classical e-folding length for spatial decorrelation is used as a measure of spatial coherence. The major finding in the global view approach is that, at short timescales of accumulation (daily to pentad to even monthly), rain over the Equator shows the most dominant zonal scale. It is only at larger timescales of accumulation (seasonal or annual) that the dominance of ITCZ around 7 N is evident. In addition, we also find a semi-log linearity between the spatial scales, seen from afar, and timescale of accumulation, with a break in linearity around typical synoptic timescales of 5-10 days. The local view quantifies the dominance of the zonal scale in the tropical ocean convergence zones, with an anisotropy value (ratio of zonal to meridional scales) of 3-4. Over land, on the other hand, the zonal and meridional scales are comparable in magnitude, suggesting that rain tends to be mostly isotropic over continental regions. This latter finding holds true, irrespective of the spatial and temporal resolutions at which rain is observed. Interestingly, the anisotropy over ocean, while invariant with spatial resolution, is found to be a function of temporal resolution: from a value of 3-4 at daily timescale, it decreases to around 1.5 at 3-hourly resolution, suggesting that perhaps rain fundamentally might be isotropic in nature at an event scale. The final part analyses a few models from the suite of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) models, to evaluate their ability to reproduce some of these aforementioned features. For all the strong biases that models are known to have, some of the observed features are captured well by the models. Specifically, on the temporal persistence front, the observed 2-4 day mode of wet (dry) spells of rain over humid (arid) regions is also seen in models. The overestimation of longer duration wet spells appears to be the primary cause of a positive bias in the number of rainy days from the models. In general, the tendency of models to not stop raining results in lower and higher number of shorter and longer duration wet spells, respectively, and consequently an overall reduction in dry spells of all durations. On the spatial coherence front, the main finding from the global view approach is that the observed semi-log linearity of the zonal spatial scale of rainfall as a function of timescale of accumulation is strikingly well-reproduced by the models. Even more remarkable is that the models are able to mimic the break in this linearity around 5 days (typical synoptic scale). What the models fail to do prominently is the transition of the dominance of equatorial rain at smaller timescales of accumulation to the dominance of ITCZ at around 7 N at higher timescales of accumulation. Based on the local view approach, we find that, in general, even though the zonal and meridional scales are overestimated, the observed isotropy of continental rain is captured very well by the models. Over the oceans, the success is less prominent, especially with the core of the ITCZ showing much larger ratios than those observed. Thus, the models seem to be able to reproduce the anisotropy for the wrong reasons, and the proposed anisotropy ratio could be a useful metric in further diagnosis of climate models.

Since the mid-20th century, global average temperatures have dramatically risen mostly due to the increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The effects of this recent global warming are already evident and could be exacerbated in the near future if no real action is taken. Recent ice loss in West Antarctica, monitored by satellite measurements and other techniques, gives cause for concern in such a warming world. A major part of this loss has been driven by warm water masses penetrating underneath the ice shelves in this region. This has led to a flow acceleration of the inland outlet glaciers and a greater discharge of ice to the ocean. The actual resulting contribution of West Antarctica to sea-level rise is estimated to be around 0.2 mm per year between 1992 and 2011, i.e. about one third of the ice-sheet contribution (Antarctica and Greenland), and is expected to increase in the near future.<p><p>In this thesis, we first clearly demonstrate that modeling grounding-line (the boundary between grounded and floating ice) migration depends on both the numerical approach and the physical approximation of the ice-sheet model used. Ice-sheet models prescribing the ice flux at the grounding line and using appropriate physical level and numerical approach converge to the same steady-state grounding-line position irrespective of the grid size used. However, the transient behavior of those models is less accurate than other models and leads to an overestimated grounding-line discharge. Therefore, they need to be used with particular attention on short time scales. Furthermore, the non-inclusion of vertical shear stress in those models increases the effective viscosity and gives steady-state grounding-line positions further downstream when compared to full-Stokes models.<p><p>The second major finding of this thesis is the high control of geometry (glacier width and bedrock topography) on Thwaites Glacier, one of the fastest-flowing outlet glaciers in West Antarctica. A flowline finite-difference Shallow-Shelf Approximation (SSA) model is applied to the glacier and shows that ice-flow convergence (through width parameterization) slows down the grounding-line retreat when compared to simulations where the width is constant. A new buttressing parameterization is also tested on the glacier and permits a better understanding of this effect. Finally, the three-dimensional version of the model above is applied to Thwaites Glacier and highlights the strong control of lateral variations in bedrock topography on grounding-line migration./Depuis le milieu du 20e siècle, les températures moyennes globales ont fortement augmenté principalement à cause de l'augmentation des émissions de gaz à effet de serre d'origine humaine. Les effets de ce réchauffement global récent sont déjà détectables et pourraient s'accentuer dans un futur proche si aucune mesure réelle n'est prise. La perte récente de glace en Antarctique de l'Ouest, enregistrée par mesures satellites et d'autres techniques, est préoccupante dans un monde qui se réchauffe. Une grande partie de cette perte de glace est due à la pénétration de masses d'eau chaude sous les plateformes de glace flottante dans cette région. Cela engendre une accélération de l'écoulement des glaciers émissaires et une plus grande décharge de glace vers l'océan. Ainsi, la contribution récente à la hausse du niveau de la mer de l'Antarctique de l'Ouest s'élève à environ 0.2 mm par an entre 1992 et 2011, c'est-à-dire près du tiers de la contribution des calottes glaciaires (Antarctique et Groenland). On estime que cette contribution va continuer à augmenter dans le futur proche.<p>Dans cette thèse, nous démontrons clairement que la modélisation de la migration de la ligne d'ancrage (frontière entre glaces posée et flottante) dépend de l'approche numérique et de l'approximation physique du modèle cryosphérique utilisé. Les modèles cryosphériques qui prescrivent le flux glaciaire à la ligne d'ancrage et qui utilisent un niveau de physique et une approche numérique appropriés convergent vers la même position d'équilibre de la ligne d'ancrage quelle que soit la taille de maille utilisée. Cependant, le comportement transitoire de ces modèles est moins précis que d'autres modèles et mène à une surestimation du flux à la ligne d'ancrage. Dès lors, ces modèles doivent être utilisés avec précaution sur de courtes périodes de temps. De plus, la non inclusion des contraintes verticales de cisaillement dans ces modèles augmente la viscosité effective et donne des positions d'équilibre de la ligne d'ancrage plus en aval en comparaison avec les modèles « full-Stokes ».<p>La seconde découverte majeure de cette thèse est le contrôle important exercé par la géométrie (largeur du glacier et topographie du lit rocheux) sur Thwaites Glacier, l'un des glaciers émissaires les plus rapides en Antarctique de l'Ouest. Un modèle « Shallow-Shelf Approximation » (SSA) résolvant les différences finies le long d'une ligne d'écoulement est appliqué au glacier et montre que la convergence de l'écoulement glaciaire (au travers de la paramétrisation de la largeur) ralentit le retrait de la ligne d'ancrage comparé aux simulations où la largeur est constante. Une nouvelle paramétrisation de l'effet arc-boutant est testée sur le glacier et permet de mieux comprendre cet effet. Finalement, la version en trois dimensions du modèle ci-dessus est appliquée à Thwaites Glacier et met en évidence le contrôle important des variations latérales de l'altitude du lit rocheux sur la migration de la ligne d'ancrage. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished