Mel Sandells

Mel Sandells serves as Associate Professor at Northumbria University within the School of Geography and Natural Sciences. Her research focuses on applying physics principles to interpret cryospheric changes through computer simulations of microwave scattering in snow, supporting ground-based, airborne, and satellite remote sensing observations.

Her research interests center on snow microwave radiative transfer modeling, particularly through the Snow Microwave Radiative Transfer (SMRT) Model developed since 2015. She investigates how snow microstructure measurements inform simulations of microwave behavior in snow, land ice, and sea ice. Current projects include:

• AKROSS: Fieldwork in Eureka, Canada evaluating SMRT in altimetry mode for sea ice thickness retrievals
• AESOP: Using SMRT to remove snow influence on satellite observations for numerical weather prediction
• SCANSAS: Dual active-passive SMRT evaluation with Swiss Alps data

Her publication trends show consistent focus on cryospheric remote sensing, with recent work emphasizing continental-scale snow modeling (2025), North American snow water equivalent uncertainty (2021), and fundamental improvements to snow emission models (2019-2016). Key research themes span microwave radiative transfer theory, snow microstructure characterization, and satellite data interpretation for climate monitoring.

Professional activities include active collaboration across international research networks as evidenced by multi-institutional publications, though specific awards aren't documented in available sources. Her supervised work includes at least one graduate project, though student names aren't listed in the source material.

Sandells' work operates at the intersection of computational physics and environmental monitoring, with ongoing fieldwork components in Arctic and Alpine regions supporting model validation efforts for satellite-based cryospheric observation systems.