About

Peter Neff is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He is a glaciologist and climate scientist whose primary focus is on developing glacier ice core records of past climate, environmental conditions, and atmospheric chemistry. His research aims to better understand recent climate changes in coastal regions of West Antarctica, which significantly contribute to the uncertainty in future sea level rise projections. Additionally, he works to capture the last 200-500 years of hydroclimate variability in southwestern British Columbia, Canada, by recovering and developing the southernmost annually-resolved ice core record in North America from Mount Waddington in the Coast Mountains. Peter is also the Director of Field Research and Data for the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration (COLDEX), a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center dedicated to finding the oldest ice core records of past climate preserved in Antarctica. He shares his expertise widely through social media platforms such as Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.

Research topics

• Geology
• Geomorphology
• Computer Science
• Geography
• Oceanography
• Data Mining
• Physical geography
• Nuclear physics
• Computer graphics (images)
• Meteorology
• Remote sensing
• Data science
• Earth science
• Atmospheric sciences
• World Wide Web
• Cartography
• Climatology
• Physics
• Database
• Environmental science

Selected publications

• Miocene and Pliocene ice and air from the Allan Hills blue ice area, East Antarctica

  2025-02-07 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Antarctic ice cores provide a unique archive of Earth's atmosphere and its largest ice sheet. The oldest continuous Antarctic ice core extends to 800,000 years before present, though discontinuous ice cores from the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area (BIA) have been shown to preserve snapshots of ice and air back to at least 2.7 million years ago (Ma). Here we

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Miocene and Pliocene ice and air from the Allan Hills blue ice area, East Antarctica

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-10-28 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Antarctic ice cores provide a unique archive of Earth’s atmosphere and its largest extant ice sheet. The oldest continuous ice core extends back 800 ky, though discontinuous ice cores from the Allan Hills blue ice area (BIA) have been shown to preserve snapshots of ice and air back to at least 2.7 million years ago (Ma). Here, we provide snapshots of putatively Miocene and Pliocene ice and air from shallow ice cores drilled in the Allan Hills BIA. The ice, dated using the deficit in 40 Ar in ancient air compared to the modern atmosphere, is stratigraphically complex. Nevertheless, surface temperatures inferred from water isotopes correlate with sample age and indicate 12 ± 2 °C of cooling in Antarctica between 6 Ma and the late Pleistocene. Basal ice is nearly devoid of gases and remains to be dated with existing methods. This undated ice is characterized by an isotopic temperature 5 ± 1 °C warmer than the oldest dated (6 million year old) sample. We speculate that this ice reflects surface snowpack or permafrost that was preserved by the growth of the East Antarctic ice sheet in the Middle to Late Miocene.

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• Rising Seas: Representations of Antarctica, Climate Change, And Sea Level Rise in U.S. Newspaper Coverage

  Environmental Communication · 2025-06-09

  article

  A changing Antarctica carries large implications for global climate systems and sea level rise. However, how climate change is altering Antarctica and how these changes are communicated in news media remains unclear. This article explores how Antarctica, climate change, and sea level rise are portrayed in digital print news media by conducting a content analysis of Antarctic climate coverage in seven U.S. newspapers between March 2007 and December 2022. Findings suggest that newspaper reporting of Antarctica’s changing climate is limited, and that framed coverage about Antarctica, climate change, and sea level rise primarily emphasizes scientific and ecological implications.

  PublisherDOI

• Towards an improved understanding of the Antarctic coastal zone and its contribution to future global sea level

  2025-07-13 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Understanding the coastal zone of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, where it interacts with the Southern Ocean and warmer air masses, is crucial for predicting Antarctica's influence on the global climate. This region has multiple tipping mechanisms that could trigger large, rapid, and potentially irreversible changes in the coming centuries. The Antarctic Ice Sheet remains the largest source of uncertainty in future sea-level projections. Insufficient knowledge of bed topography beneath the ice shelves and the coastal ice sheet is not yet well documented, but is a major source of this uncertainty. This review assesses current knowledge of the coastal zone and highlights methods to investigate it, including aerogeophysical surveys, ground- and ship-based measurements, satellite observations, and computer modeling. An ensemble analysis of published bed topography datasets identifies significant data gaps and their regional distribution, framed in the context of current ice-sheet behavior and potential instability. We propose scientific priorities and guidelines for future aerogeophysical surveys, advocating for a comprehensive, coordinated international effort to build a next-generation dataset of Antarctic bed properties. Such an initiative would significantly advance understanding of the role of coastal processes in ice-sheet dynamics, reducing uncertainties in sea-level rise projections and enhancing predictions of future ocean and climate changes.

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• Social network analysis to understand participant engagement in transdisciplinary team science: a large U.S. Science and Technology Center case study

  Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · 2025-03-20 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Funding agencies like the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) increasingly fund transdisciplinary research collaboratives to tackle complex societal problems and accelerate innovation. Initiatives such as the NSF Science and Technology Centers (STCs) convene researchers from diverse disciplines to collaborate to address scientific challenges at the nexus of science and technology innovation. The longitudinal evolution of a Center’s social network offers a valuable evaluative tool for understanding how different Center activities and participant identities foster/inhibit an environment conducive to transdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. Given that STC members participate in Center activities with different degrees of involvement, understanding the varying relationships and levels of engagement exhibited within a Center can help to evaluate the effectiveness of team science collaborations in realizing their goals and objectives in real time. A driving question is whether the whole of an interdisciplinary team is greater than the sum of its parts. In this article, a Science of Team Science mixed-methods social network analysis (SNA) approach is used to evaluate participation and provide data-driven evidence into how relational connections facilitate or hinder pathways for knowledge exchange in an STC called the Center for Oldest Ice Exploration. Using SNA, we establish a set of baseline “participation typologies” with which to measure the evolution of connectivity across the lifetime of the Center. These typologies indicate that pathways to engagement and collaboration are enabled through one’s connection or exposure to different research teams across the Center, as well as through the quality of connection reported between Center participants. Insights from early career researcher participation show how early investment in such activities can strengthen a participant’s connection quality and expose different disciplines to alternative approaches. This methodology can be applied to other large transdisciplinary endeavors to provide real-time evaluation and inform interventions to improve cross-team connections and collaboration.

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• Climate Controls on Snowfall at Coastal West Antarctic Ice Rises - Potential Ice Core Sites

  2025-12-17

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is a dynamic system where interactions between ice, ocean, and atmosphere drive significant ice mass loss, raising concerns of irreversible retreat and sea-level rise. Long-term observational records of variability and change along the WAIS coast are largely restricted to satellite observations, but more direct observations are needed, given this region’s present and future societal impact. Coastal ice rises, grounded domes of ice embedded in or along the margins of ice shelves, preserve in their accumulated snowfall high-resolution records of past climate variability that can be recovered by ice coring. These potential ice core sites offer unique opportunities to reconstruct key drivers of regional change, including modes of atmosphere-ocean variability described by the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL), and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)—and warrant exploration via climate reanalysis to assess the relative balance of climate controls at any potential ice core site. This study uses ERA5 and MERRA-2 reanalysis to evaluate the climate controls on interannual snowfall variability at thirteen WAIS coastal ice rises over the satellite era (1979–2022). Results highlight longitudinal differences in how interannual snowfall variability at coastal ice rises is influenced by SAM, ENSO, and Bellingshausen Sea atmospheric pressure anomalies. Snow accumulation (precipitation) as resolved in atmospheric reanalysis suggests that, as potential ice core sites, Dean Island and Guest Peninsula, located in the West Sector of the WAIS coast, are strongly influenced by broad Southern Hemisphere westerly wind anomalies suppressing local precipitation, making them ideal for isolating this mode of variability in paleoclimate reconstructions. In contrast, Farwell Island in the East Sector exhibits a positive relationship between precipitation and cyclonic activity associated with Bellingshausen Sea pressure variability, making it a key site for reconstructing the influence of synoptic-scale pressure systems on coastal accumulation in this region. These findings inform future ice core studies aimed at understanding WAIS climate dynamics, with implications for projections of Antarctic stability and global sea-level rise.

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• Fine-scale Climate Projections over Minnesota for the 21st Century 

  2025-03-15 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Global warming has its largest amplitude in the higher latitude regions of the Northern Hemisphere. This is especially the case during winter months when reduced reflectivity from diminished snow cover leads to higher average temperatures. This process has led to warming at twice the rate as the rest of the planet. In addition to accelerated warming from local snow melt, this Arctic warming is contributing to strong warming over Minnesota, especially during winter, when Minnesota is one of the states that is warming the strongest within the contiguous United States. We have previously emphasized this strong warming in our study on high-resolution climate projections over Minnesota with CMIP5, and we are now producing an updated dataset with higher spatial resolution and with input from six CMIP6 global climate models (GCMs), namely BCC-CSM2-MR, CESM2, CMCC-ESM2, CNRM-ESM2-1, IPSL-CM6A-LR, and MIROC-ES2L.   We use ensemble climate simulations over Minnesota with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to compute downscaled versions of the comprehensive global climate projections for the 20-year periods 2040-2059, 2060-2079, and 2080-2099. We also perform model integrations over the historical period of 1995-2014 in order to assess any systematic model uncertainties. These projections build on our previous results at 10-km resolution, but now we use a higher 4-km horizontal resolution over Minnesota nested in a 20-km grid over the contiguous USA and southern Canada with 38 vertical levels in the atmosphere and a sophisticated representation of the many lakes that exist in Minnesota. Our final results will show a more detailed representation of the ongoing warming for individual counties in Minnesota in all seasons, especially in winter. We expect conditions near the end of the 21st century that are significantly different from current climate. Our results will influence regional decision-making related to agriculture, infrastructure, water resources, and other sectors.

  PublisherDOI

• The Extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica “Heat” Wave. Part I: Observations and Meteorological Drivers

  Journal of Climate · 2023 · 70 citations

  • Climatology
  • Environmental science
  • Geology

  Abstract Between 15 and 19 March 2022, East Antarctica experienced an exceptional heat wave with widespread 30°–40°C temperature anomalies across the ice sheet. This record-shattering event saw numerous monthly temperature records being broken including a new all-time temperature record of −9.4°C on 18 March at Concordia Station despite March typically being a transition month to the Antarctic coreless winter. The driver for these temperature extremes was an intense atmospheric river advecting subtropical/midlatitude heat and moisture deep into the Antarctic interior. The scope of the temperature records spurred a large, diverse collaborative effort to study the heat wave’s meteorological drivers, impacts, and historical climate context. Here we focus on describing those temperature records along with the intricate meteorological drivers that led to the most intense atmospheric river observed over East Antarctica. These efforts describe the Rossby wave activity forced from intense tropical convection over the Indian Ocean. This led to an atmospheric river and warm conveyor belt intensification near the coastline, which reinforced atmospheric blocking deep into East Antarctica. The resulting moisture flux and upper-level warm-air advection eroded the typical surface temperature inversions over the ice sheet. At the peak of the heat wave, an area of 3.3 million km 2 in East Antarctica exceeded previous March monthly temperature records. Despite a temperature anomaly return time of about 100 years, a closer recurrence of such an event is possible under future climate projections. In Part II we describe the various impacts this extreme event had on the East Antarctic cryosphere. Significance Statement In March 2022, a heat wave and atmospheric river caused some of the highest temperature anomalies ever observed globally and captured the attention of the Antarctic science community. Using our diverse collective expertise, we explored the causes of the event and have placed it within a historical climate context. One key takeaway is that Antarctic climate extremes are highly sensitive to perturbations in the midlatitudes and subtropics. This heat wave redefined our expectations of the Antarctic climate. Despite the rare chance of occurrence based on past climate, a future temperature extreme event of similar magnitude is possible, especially given anthropogenic climate change.

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• Using ice core measurements from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica, to calibrate in situ cosmogenic ¹⁴ C production rates by muons

  ˜The œcryosphere · 2023 · 5 citations

  • Geology
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Geomorphology

  Abstract. Cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere produce showers of secondary particles such as protons, neutrons, and muons. The interaction of these particles with oxygen-16 (16O) in minerals such as ice and quartz can produce carbon-14 (14C). In glacial ice, 14C is also incorporated through trapping of 14C-containing atmospheric gases (14CO2, 14CO, and 14CH4). Understanding the production rates of in situ cosmogenic 14C is important to deconvolve the in situ cosmogenic and atmospheric 14C signals in ice, both of which contain valuable paleoenvironmental information. Unfortunately, the in situ 14C production rates by muons (which are the dominant production mechanism at depths of >6 m solid ice equivalent) are uncertain. In this study, we use measurements of in situ 14C in ancient ice (>50 ka) from the Taylor Glacier, an ablation site in Antarctica, in combination with a 2D ice flow model to better constrain the compound-specific rates of 14C production by muons and the partitioning of in situ 14C between CO2, CO, and CH4. Our measurements show that 33.7 % (±11.4 %; 95 % confidence interval) of the produced cosmogenic 14C forms 14CO and 66.1 % (±11.5 %; 95 % confidence interval) of the produced cosmogenic 14C forms 14CO2. 14CH4 represents a very small fraction (<0.3 %) of the total. Assuming that the majority of in situ muogenic 14C in ice forms 14CO2, 14CO, and 14CH4, we also calculated muogenic 14C production rates that are lower by factors of 5.7 (3.6–13.9; 95 % confidence interval) and 3.7 (2.0–11.9; 95 % confidence interval) for negative muon capture and fast muon interactions, respectively, when compared to values determined in quartz from laboratory studies (Heisinger et al., 2002a, b) and in a natural setting (Lupker et al., 2015). This apparent discrepancy in muogenic 14C production rates in ice and quartz currently lacks a good explanation and requires further investigation.

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• The Extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica “Heat” Wave. Part II: Impacts on the Antarctic Ice Sheet

  Journal of Climate · 2023-11-15 · 51 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Between 15 and 19 March 2022, East Antarctica experienced an exceptional heat wave with widespread 30°–40°C temperature anomalies across the ice sheet. In Part I, we assessed the meteorological drivers that generated an intense atmospheric river (AR) that caused these record-shattering temperature anomalies. Here, we continue our large collaborative study by analyzing the widespread and diverse impacts driven by the AR landfall. These impacts included widespread rain and surface melt that was recorded along coastal areas, but this was outweighed by widespread high snowfall accumulations resulting in a largely positive surface mass balance contribution to the East Antarctic region. An analysis of the surface energy budget indicated that widespread downward longwave radiation anomalies caused by large cloud-liquid water contents along with some scattered solar radiation produced intense surface warming. Isotope measurements of the moisture were highly elevated, likely imprinting a strong signal for past climate reconstructions. The AR event attenuated cosmic ray measurements at Concordia, something previously never observed. Last, an extratropical cyclone west of the AR landfall likely triggered the final collapse of the critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf while further reducing an already record low sea ice extent. Significance Statement Using our diverse collective expertise, we explored the impacts from the March 2022 heat wave and atmospheric river across East Antarctica. One key takeaway is that the Antarctic cryosphere is highly sensitive to meteorological extremes originating from the midlatitudes and subtropics. Despite the large positive temperature anomalies driven from strong downward longwave radiation, this event led to huge amounts of snowfall across the Antarctic interior desert. The isotopes in this snow of warm airmass origin will likely be detectable in future ice cores and potentially distort past climate reconstructions. Even measurements of space activity were affected. Also, the swells generated from this storm helped to trigger the final collapse of an already critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf while further degrading sea ice coverage.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Nancy A. N. Bertler

  48 shared

• Anaïs Orsi

  University of British Columbia

  42 shared

• Eric J. Steig

  University of Washington

  32 shared

• Andrea Tuohy

  27 shared

• Jeffrey P. Severinghaus

  University of California, San Diego

  26 shared

• T. J. Fudge

  Earth and Space Research

  24 shared

• Inès Ollivier

  Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives

  24 shared

• Christo Buizert

  Oregon State University

  23 shared

Labs

• UMN Minnesota NICE LabPI

  Dr. Peter D. Neff (he/him) Assistant Professor

Education

• PhD, Geology, Antarctic Research Centre

  Victoria University of Wellington

  2015

• MSc, Geological Sciences, Earth & Space Sciences

  University of Washington

  2012

• BSc, Earth & Space Sciences

  University of Washington

  2009

Awards & honors

• null