Dr. Catania's research involves understanding ice sheet and glacier changes both from natural variability and climate forced variability. This involves improving the observational data sets that quantify cyrosphere change but she is also very interested in an improved understanding of the dynamical processes that control ice flow. In particular, her research focuses on basal processes, the flow of water through and beneath glaciers and ice sheets, ice-ocean interactions, and the role of sedimentation processes in glacier stability. Dr. Catania has used a suite of observational tools from in-situ instruments (GPS, seismic, radar, borehole geophysics) to satellite-based observations to understand ice flow. All of these methods are improved through collaboration with ice-sheet modelers (a unique individual adept at simplifying complex problems!) and she attempts to verify each aspect of her work with models in some way.