Birger Hansen

CV

Personal data and education
1973 Student Slagelse Gymnasium 
1973-1976 Military Service
1976 Matriculated at University of Copenhagen,
1985 M.Sc. in physical geography, Snow monitoring and modeling. University of Copenhagen, 
1991 Ph.D. in physical geography, Biomass monitoring/modeling and remote sensing. Univ. of Copenhagen,

Positions
1979-1981 Assistant at the climatological, hydrological and soil science research at the terrastic
ecological program in the Suså-Vendebæk area.
1981-1982 Assistant at the pedological soil profile investigations along the main gas pipeline system
across Denmark and the mapping of potentially acid sulphate soils in Jutland established by the Bureau of Land Data, Ministry of Agriculture.
1982-1983 Assistant at the snow load project established by the Danish Meteorological Institute.
1979-1987 Assistant at the climatological, hydrological, glaciological and soil science seminars at IGCU.
1985-1986 Consultant at the hydroelectric power section at the Greenland Technical Organisation.
1986-1987 Consultant in the research group of environment and sheepfarming in Southern Greenland for
the Homerule of Greenland and the Ministry of Greenland.
1987-1988 Research fellow in climatology/remote sensing, IGCU.
1988-1990 Ph.D. scholarship at IGCU.
1991-1995 Assistant professor in climatology and plant geography at IGCU.
1995- Associate professor in climatology and plant geography at IGCU

Scientific projects and fundings:
1979-1981 Climatological, hydrological and soil science research at the terrastic ecological program in
the Suså-Vendebæk area.
1981-1982 Pedological soil profile investigations along the main gas pipeline system across Denmark
and the mapping of potentially acid sulphate soils in Jutland established by the Bureau of
Land Data, Ministry of Agriculture.
1982-1983 Snow load project established by the Danish Meteorological Institute.
1986-1990 Satellite monitoring of climate and biomass production in the sheepfarming area in Southern
Greenland.
1988 The Greenland Field Experiment integrated in the International Satellite Land Surface
Climatology Project (ISLSCP).
1990-1993 Use of NOAA AVHRR data to monitor snow cover and spring meltoff in wildlife habitats in
Jameson Land,East Greenland.
1990-1993 Comparison of satellite imagery and infrared aerial photography as vegetation methods in an
Arctic study area.
1992 Climate and vegetation studies at Zackenberg, NE Greenland. DANCEA-projekt
1993-1995 Holocene landscape evolution in the Disko area, West Greenland and in the Sermilik
area, East Greenland, (Danish Natural Science Research Council)
1994-1997 Spectral signatures of agricultural crops during the Danish Multisensor Airborne Campaign.
1995-1999 The Arctic Landscape: Interactions and feedbacks among physical geographical and biological processes biological and geoenvironmental Arctic system research project. (Danish Natural Science Research Council)
1996-1999 Energy and gas flux modelling in the EC-sponsored LAPP-project (Land Arctic Physical
Processes).
1997-1999 Satellite monitoring of wildlife habitats in Western Greenland, DANCEA-sponsored
RENVEG-project.
2000-2003 HYPERZAC - Hyperspectral monitoring of Arctic vegetation, HYMAP-project.
(Danish Natural Science Research Council) 2003-2007 SCHAPPE - Spectral Calibration for High Arctic Primary Production Estimation. (Danish
Natural Science Research Council)
2004-2007 Snow and temperature control of biochemical oxidation processes in natural and managed
high Arctic ecosystems (Danish Natural Science Research Council)
2005-2008 Maglemosen: Oxygen availability controlling the dynamics of buried organic carbon pools
and greenhouse gas emissions (Danish Natural Science Research Council)
2003- Zackenberg GeoBasis - Geoscience processes in a High Arctic Ecosystem (Danish
Environmental Protection Agency)
2007- Nuuk GeoBasic - Geoscience processes in a Low Arctic Ecosystem (Danish
Environmental Protection Agency)

Professional activities
1990-1994 Member of the EDB administrationgroup at IGCU
1991-1993 Vice chairman in steering committee of the Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations.
1993-1994 Chairman in steering committee of the Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations.
1991 Member of the working group of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Project (AMAP).
1994-1996 Substitute for trade union representative
1992- Member of employment boards at Universities and Research Institutes in Denmark, Swedden
and Norway
1992- Member of Ph.D.evaluation boards in Denmark and Norway.
1993- Referee at the following scientific journals: Geografisk Tidsskrift, Meddelelser om
Grønland,Arctic and Alpine Research, Arctic, Polar Research,Polar Records, International
Journal of Remote Sensing
1994-1998 Member of the working group of the Danish Multisensor Airborne Campaign (DANMAC).
1994-1998 Member of the steering committee of the Danish Multisensor Airborne Campaign (DANMAC).
1995- Member of the Danish censor corps in Geography
1996-2004 Vice course supervisor
1996-1999 Principal investigator of Energy and gas flux modelling in the EC-sponsored LAPP-project
(Land Arctic Physical Processes)
1997-1999 Member of steering committee of Satellite monitoring of wildlife habitats in Western
Greenland, DANCEA-sponsored RENVEG-project.
2003- GeoBasis-manager for the Zackenberg Research Program and member of the steering committee of ZERO (Zackenberg Ecological Research Operations).
2004- Substitute for trade union representative
2005- GeoBasis-manager for the Nuuk Research Program and member of the steering committee of NERO (Nuuk Ecological Research Operations).
2007- Member of the board for education, Institute of Geography and Geology,

Field work:
Participated in more then 25 expeditions to Greenland since 1979. Have field experience from Svalbard and Northern Scandinavia.

Supervision:
Supervisor for 25 M. Sc. Projects and 5 Ph.d. projects. Currently superviser for 2 ongoing M.Sc. projects and 1 Ph.d. project.

Short presentation

I teach and research in physical geography with a preference to climatology and hydrology

Since 1985, I have worked with the processes that control the energy exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere. Vegetation classification, biomass production and snow cover classification in Arctic ecosystems have been the major focus mainly in Greenland, but also on Svalbard and Northern Scandinavia. Spatiotemporal active layer thicknesses in Greenland have been estimated using a simple numerical model bases on Stefans solution. The model is working with GIS based input variables for spatial distributed air temperatures, snow water equivalents and vegetation/soil properties. The model can run in a high resolution upscaling mode from point to landscape scale and on a low resolution downscaling mode from region to landscape scale based on input data from satellites and drones.