Marika Holland is a scientist at the

National Center for Atmospheric Research The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR ) is a US federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) managed by the nonprofit University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and funded by the National Science Foundatio ...

known for her work on modeling sea ice and its role in the global climate.

Education and career

Holland has a B.A. and a Ph.D. (1997) from the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

. Following her Ph.D. Holland was a postdoctoral fellow at the

University of Victoria The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...

until 1999 when she joined the staff at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Holland was Chief Scientist for the

Community Earth System Model The Community Earth System Model (CESM) is a fully coupled numerical simulation of the Earth system consisting of atmospheric, ocean, ice, land surface, carbon cycle, and other components. CESM includes a climate model providing state-of-art simul ...

(CESM) from 2012 until 2014 and received the CESM Distinguished Achievement Award for her work in 2014.

Research

Holland is known for her research predicting sea ice on different time scales. Holland's modeling of sea ice began with considerations of the processes that define the actions of sea ice in climate models. In 2003, Holland and Celia Bitz modeled how changes in the Arctic climate alter the degree of

polar amplification Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance (for example greenhouse intensification) tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than in the planetary average. This is commonly referred to a ...

in climate models. Holland's work on future sea ice predict an ice-free Arctic Ocean by 2040, research that was broadly covered in the news. Research by Holland and others then showed that sea ice was declining faster than the predictions. Holland has also worked with biologists to assess how changes in sea ice impact

Emperor penguins The emperor penguin (''Aptenodytes forsteri'') is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching in length and weighing from . Feathers of th ...

and

Adelie penguins Adelie or Adélie may refer to: * Adélie Land, a claimed territory on the continent of Antarctica * Adelie Land meteorite Adelie Land is a meteorite discovered on December 5, 1912, in Antarctica by Francis Howard Bickerton (1889-1954), a membe ...

. Holland has been a contributing author on the third, fourth, and fifth assessment reports from the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to advance scientific knowledge about climate change caused by human activities. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) a ...

. In 2020 Holland was named an elected fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

who cited her "for sustained contributions in polar research and climate modeling".

Selected publications

* * * *

Awards and honors

*Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow, National Academy of Sciences (2002, 2006) *CESM Distinguished Achievement Award (2014) *Fellow,

(2020) *IASC medal,

International Arctic Science Committee The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) is a non-governmental organization which is composed of international science groups participating in arctic science research. IASC is an International Scientific Associate of ICSU, and was establ ...

(2019) *Fellow,

American Meteorological Society The American Meteorological Society (AMS) is the premier scientific and professional organization in the United States promoting and disseminating information about the Atmospheric sciences, atmospheric, Oceanography, oceanic, and Hydrology, hydr ...

(2021)

References

External links

* * May 31, 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Marika Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contributing authors University of Colorado Boulder alumni National Center for Atmospheric Research faculty Women climatologists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people