Dr Petra Heil

Dr Petra Heil

Dr Heil works as a senior research scientist within the Climate Processes and Change program of the Australian Antarctic Division, and the Climate Variability and Change group of the ACE CRC. Her research concerns physical sea-ice processes, which she investigates using in situ or remotely sensed information and numerical modelling.

Her current research interests include:

  - investigation of sea-ice drift and deformation (drifting buoys and
  remotely sensed);
  - sea-ice modelling (stand-alone and coupled codes, decadal modelling
  and short-term forecasting);
  - fast-ice studies (in situ and remotely sensed) including mixed-layer
    processes;
  - spatio-temporal variability in Antarctic and Arctic sea ice, and their
    interaction with polar oceans and atmosphere; and
  - polar atmospheric processes.

Dr Heil holds a PhD (1999) by research from the Institute for Antarctic and
Southern Ocean Studies, Australia. Her thesis research was on sea-ice growth,
drift and deformation off East Antarctica. She also holds degrees (1994) in
physics and oceanography, both from the Christian Albrechts University, Kiel,
Germany.

Her previous work experience includes high-performance numerical modelling
of the coupled Earth System, based at the Tasmanian Partnership for Advanced
Computing, Australia (2002-2004), and improving the treatment of sea-ice
dynamics in numerical models, based at the International Arctic Research
Center at the University of Faisbanks, Alaska.

T: +61 3 6226 7243
E: petra.heil@utas.edu.au

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