Dr Nick Rutter

Associate Professor

Department: Geography and Environmental Sciences

I am interested in the hydrology of cold environments and how the frozen land surface interacts with the atmosphere. Most of my current research focuses on making improved field measurements of seasonal snow and applying this knowledge in order to better constrain uncertainties in environmental models. Models I work with include catchment scale glacio-hydrological models, snow-forest-atmosphere components of climate models, and radiative transfer models used in microwave remote sensing of snowpacks.

I have extensive experience of making snow measurements in boreal and mid-latitude forests (e.g. Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Rocky Mountains in Canada and USA), Arctic and sub-Arctic tundra (Alaska, USA, and Manitoba, Canada), sea ice (Canadian high-Arctic), and on Alpine and Polar glaciers (e.g. Switzerland, Svalbard). As many of these environments are rapidly responding to a warming climate, better measurement, modelling and critical evaluation of variations in seasonal snow contribute to improved projections of climate change and our understanding of cold regions hydrology.

Campus Address

A215, Ellison Building
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST

Email Nick

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

I am interested in the hydrology of cold environments and how the frozen land surface interacts with the atmosphere. Most of my current research focuses on making improved field measurements of seasonal snow and applying this knowledge in order to better constrain uncertainties in environmental models. Models I work with include catchment scale glacio-hydrological models, snow-forest-atmosphere components of climate models, and radiative transfer models used in microwave remote sensing of snowpacks.

I have extensive experience of making snow measurements in boreal and mid-latitude forests (e.g. Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Rocky Mountains in Canada and USA), Arctic and sub-Arctic tundra (Alaska, USA, and Manitoba, Canada), sea ice (Canadian high-Arctic), and on Alpine and Polar glaciers (e.g. Switzerland, Svalbard). As many of these environments are rapidly responding to a warming climate, better measurement, modelling and critical evaluation of variations in seasonal snow contribute to improved projections of climate change and our understanding of cold regions hydrology.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
A Flexible Snow Model (FSM 2.1.1) including a forest canopy, Essery, R., Mazzotti, G., Barr, S., Jonas, T., Quaife, T., Rutter, N. 18 Jun 2025, In: Geoscientific Model Development
Impact of snow thermal conductivity schemes on pan-Arctic permafrost dynamics in the Community Land Model version 5.0, Damseaux, A., Matthes, H., Dutch, V., Wake, L., Rutter, N. 14 Apr 2025, In: The Cryosphere
Snow thermal conductivity controls future winter carbon emissions in shrub-tundra, Rutherford, J., Rutter, N., Wake, L., Cannon, A. 9 Jul 2025, In: Biogeosciences
Exploring the decision-making process in model development: focus on the Arctic snowpack, Menard, C., Rasmus, S., Merkouriadi, I., Balsamo, G., Bartsch, A., Derksen, C., Domine, F., Dumont, M., Ehrich, D., Essery, R., Forbes, B., Krinner, G., Lawrence, D., Liston, G., Matthes, H., Rutter, N., Sandells, M., Schneebeli, M., Stark, S. 9 Oct 2024, In: The Cryosphere
Multi-physics ensemble modelling of Arctic tundra snowpack properties, Woolley, G., Rutter, N., Wake, L., Vionnet, V., Derksen, C., Essery, R., Marsh, P., Tutton, R., Walker, B., Lafaysse, M., Pritchard, D. 6 Dec 2024, In: The Cryosphere
Simulating net ecosystem exchange under seasonal snow cover at an Arctic tundra site, Dutch, V., Rutter, N., Wake, L., Sonnentag, O., Hould Gosselin, G., Sandells, M., Derksen, C., Walker, B., Meyer, G., Essery, R., Kelly, R., Marsh, P., Boike, J., Detto, M. 15 Feb 2024, In: Biogeosciences
Simulation of Arctic snow microwave emission in surface-sensitive atmosphere channels, Sandells, M., Rutter, N., Wivell, K., Essery, R., Fox, S., Harlow, C., Picard, G., Roy, A., Royer, A., Toose, P. 4 Sep 2024, In: The Cryosphere
Canopy structure and air temperature inversions impact simulation of sub-canopy longwave radiation in snow-covered boreal forests, Rutter, N., Essery, R., Baxter, R., Hancock, S., Horton, M., Huntley, B., Reid, T., Woodward, J. 27 Jul 2023, In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Environmental controls of winter soil carbon dioxide fluxes in boreal and tundra environments, Mavrovic, A., Sonnentag, O., Lemmetyinen, J., Voigt, C., Rutter, N., Mann, P., Sylvain, J., Roy, A. 20 Dec 2023, In: Biogeosciences
Evaluating Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) model emissivities with 89 to 243GHz observations of Arctic tundra snow, Wivell, K., Fox, S., Sandells, M., Harlow, C., Essery, R., Rutter, N. 13 Oct 2023, In: The Cryosphere

PGR Supervision

Gabriel Hould Gosselin Measurement and modelling of carbon emissions in snow-covered Arctic tundra and taiga biomes Start Date: 01/10/2023
Amy Clark Forest disturbance effects on snow hydrology in an operational runoff forecast model Start Date: 01/10/2023
Jonathan Rutherford Simulating Arctic snow using process-based and machine learning approaches for future carbon flux projections Start Date: 01/10/2022
Georgina Woolley Measurement and modelling of Arctic snow across the forest-tundra ecotone Start Date: 01/10/2021 End Date: 27/06/2025