Maximilian Lowe

PhD Student

Maximilian Lowe

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Maximilian Lowe

Biography

Maximilian Lowe is a PostDoc in potential field geophysics at Kiel University and a BAS Honorary Researcher.

Max did his PhD at BAS as a University of Edinburgh registered NERC SENSE CDT student under the supervision of Tom Jordan, Rob Larter, Chris Green and Jörg Ebbing. After his PhD, Max worked briefly as Aerogeophysical Data Modeller at BAS. Here he worked on the NERC funded SWARM project. In particular he worked on the first large scale gravity and magnetic airborne survey conducted with an UAV in Antarctica.

Prior to his PhD, Max gained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Kiel University, and worked as a researcher in the satellite and aerogeophysics group.

Max’s main research interests are 3D lithospheric modelling with satellite and airborne gravity & magnetic data, Solid Earth – Cryosphere interactions, heat flow in polar regions, probabilistic modelling and inversion, and tectonophysics.

 

Grants awarded:

 

Experiences:

  • 10/2024 – 04/2024: PostDoc: Kiel University, working group: Satellite and Aerogeophysics.
  • 06/2024 – 09/2024: PostDoc: Aerogeophysical Data Modeller, British Antarctic Survey
  • 07/2023: IHFC Heat Flow Summer School 2023
  • 03/2021: ESA 3D Earth Spring School – Geodynamics and Solid Earth
  • 10/2020 – 06/2024: PhD student, University of Edinburgh & British Antarctic Survey.
  • 11/2019 – 09/2020: Researcher, Kiel University, working group: Satellite and Aerogeophysics.
  • 10/2016 – 09/2019: Msc. Geophysics, University of Kiel.
  • 10/2013 – 09/2016: Bsc. Geosciences, University of Kiel.

 

Teaching:

  • Winter term (Lent term) 2024, demonstrator for cartography and GIS practicals, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • Winter term 2018/2019, demonstrator for gravimeter and magnetic practicals, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.
  • Winter term 2018/2019, demonstrator for gravimeter and magnetic field measurements, Kiel University, Germany.
  • Winter term 2017/2018, demonstrator for gravimeter and magnetic practicals, Kiel University, Germany.
  • Winter term 2017/2018, demonstrator for gravimeter and magnetic field measurements, Kiel University, Kiel, Germany.

 

Memberships:

2025 – present: SCAR INSTANT: Sub-committee ABC

2023 -present: Royal Astronomical Society Fellow

2023 – present: British Geophysical Association 

2020 – 2022: American Geophysical Union

2020 – present: European Geosciences Union

2018 – present: Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (German Geophysical Association)

Research interests

  • Airborne and satellite geophysics
  • Lithospheric properties
  • Probabilistic modelling and joint inversion
  • Antarctic heat flow
  • Tectonophysics
  • Solid Earth – Cryosphere interaction

Collaborations

Google Scholar, ORCID,  ResearcherID, scopus, GitHub, ResearchGate, LinkedIn.

 

Research articles:

  • Jordan, T. A., Robinson, C., Reed, T., Toomey, R., Jelev, N., Waters, J., Fenny, N., Weiss, A. I., and Lowe, M. (20225): Successful deployment of a large UAV for multi-disciplinary science from Rothera Research Station Antarctica; 2024 season overview and lessons learned, Antarctic Science, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102025000136.
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J., Koglin, N., Ruppel, A., Moorkamp, M., Läufer, A., Green, C., Liebsch, J., Ginga, M. and Larter, R. (2024), Comparing geophysical inversion and petrophysical measurements for northern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Geophysical Journal International, https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggae272.
  • Lowe, M., Jordan T., Moorkamp M., Ebbing J., Green C., Lösing, M., Teal, R. and Larter R. (2024): The 3D crustal structure of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, East Antarctica, using Variation of Information joint inversion of gravity and magnetic data. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JB027794.
  • Lowe, M., Mather, B., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R. (2023): Anomalously high heat flow regions beneath the Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin in East Antarctica inferred from Curie depth, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JB025423.
  • Lowe, M., Ebbing, J., El-Sharkawy, A. and Meier, T. (2021): Gravity effect of Alpine slab segments based on geophysical and petrological modelling, Solid Earth, 12, 691–711, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-691-2021.

 

Articles under review:

  • Jordan, T. A., Lowe, M. and Riley, T. R. (2024): Joint inversion of magnetic and gravity data from UAV survey provides new insights into magmatism in Marguerite Bay, Western Antarctic Peninsula. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth.

 

Data sets: 

  • Lowe, M., & Jordan, T. (2024). 3D density and susceptibility distribution model derived from 2024 gravity and magnetic surveys of Marguerite Bay, West Antarctica (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/4c8cfe1b-f426-4cc7-819b-236d1058ea0d.
  • Jordan, T., Lowe, M., Robinson, C., Reed, T., & Toomey, R. (2024). Processed aeromagnetic line data flown from Rothera station with a Windracers Ultra UAV (2023/24 season) (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/4bcc9b4e-fab5-46cd-aac3-56c28e61cff1
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J., Koglin, N., Ruppel, A., Moorkamp, M., Green, C., Laufer, A., Liebsch, J., Ginga, M., & Larter, R. (2024). Density and susceptibility catalogue of 320 rock samples from northern Victoria Land, East Antarctica (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/9ac70954-80aa-45af-b70f-e4e45efa8293
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J., Koglin, N., Ruppel, A., Moorkamp, M., Green, C., Laufer, A., Liebsch, J., Ginga, M., & Larter, R. (2024). 3D susceptibility distribution model derived from 2010 BGR magnetic survey of the Mesa Range in northern Victoria Land, East Antarctica (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/ff3798b8-146f-42c2-870e-64c738970350
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Moorkamp, M., Ebbing, J., Green, C., Losing, M., & Larter, R. (2023). 3D density and susceptibility distribution of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin and Transantarctic Mountains in East Antarctica. (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/5e1424e7-124d-4cc3-ba06-b2285c0b458c
  • Lowe, M., Mather, B., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J., & Larter, R. (2022). Curie Point Depths  and Geothermal heat flow estimates from spectral analysis of magnetic data in the Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin region. (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/b8dcbaa9-3ac0-42bd-95a5-6b5961cbcb7e

 

Talks (first author only)

  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T.,  Ebbing, J., Moorkamp, M., Green, C., Lösing, M., Teal, R., and Larter, R.: The 3D Crustal Structure of Wilkes Subglacial Basin and Transantarctic Mountains in East Antarctica – inferred from Joint Inversion of airborne gravity and magnetic data, EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 2025. (Invited keynote talk) [slides]
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Moorkamp, M., Ebbing, J., Green, C., Lösing, M., Teal, R., and Larter, R.: BAS paper of the month: October 2024 [slides]
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T,. Moorkamp, M., Ebbing, J., Koglin, N., Ruppel A., Green, C., Liebsch, J., Ginga, M. and Larter, R.: Verification of susceptibility and density relationship from 3D joint inversion of airborne magnetic and gravity data in northern Victoria Land, East Antarctica, with petrophysical measurements, EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 2024. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Constraining subglacial geology with geophysical joint inversion of airborne gravity and magnetic data combined with petrophysical measurements in Victoria Land and the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, East Antarctica, Geo-Seminar at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Dublin, Ireland, 9th of April 2024. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Constraining subglacial geology with geophysical joint inversion of airborne gravity and magnetic data combined with petrophysical measurements in Victoria Land and the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, East Antarctica, Earth Science Research Group Seminar, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 3rd of April 2024. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J., Moorkamp, M., Green C., Koglin N., Ruppel A., Läufer, A., Liebsch, J., Lösing M., Liebsch, J., Ginga, M., and Larter R.: Constraining subglacial geology with airborne geophysics, SENSE CDT x British Antarctic Survey Networking Day, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 02/2024.
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Moorkamp, M., Ebbing, J., Green C., Koglin N., Liebsch, J., Lösing M., Ruppel A. and Larter R.: Constraining subglacial geology with geophysical joint inversion and petrophysics in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin and Transantarctic Mountains, SCAR INSTANT, Trieste, Italy, 09/2023. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Mather, B., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R.: Anomalously high heat flow regions beneath the Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin in East Antarctica inferred from Curie depth, Antarctica heat flow workshop, Potsdam, Germany, 07/2023. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Moorkamp, M., Ebbing, J., Green, C., Lösing, M., and Larter, R.: The 3D crustal structure of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin in East Antarctica and its implication on local geothermal heat flow, BAS Science symposium, Cambridge, UK, 06/2023. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Mather, B., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R.: Anomalously high heat flow regions beneath the Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin in East Antarctica inferred from Curie depth, Palaeo Environments, Ice Sheets and Climate Change team (PICC) seminar, Cambridge, UK, 06/2023. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Jordan, T., Moorkamp, M., Ebbing, J., Ruppel, A., Koglin, N., Green, C., Lösing, M., and Larter, R.: Constraining subglacial geology using mutual information inversion of gravity and magnetic data in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin and Transantarctic Mountains of East Antarctica, EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 2023. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Mather, B., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J., Goldberg, D., and Larter, R.: Constraining geothermal heat flow beneath the Antarctic ice sheet using gravity and magnetic data, SENSE Industry Symposium, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2022. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Mather, B., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R.: Hot Mountains in Antarctica: high heat flow imaged beneath the northern Transantarctic Mountains from Curie Point depths estimations, BAS Student Symposium, Cambridge, United Kingdom, October 2022. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Mather, B., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R.: Hot Mountains in Antarctica, The British Geophysical Association (BGA) Postgraduate Research in Progress (PGRiP), Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2022. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Mather, B., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R.: Elevated heat flow beneath the northern Transantarctic Mountains imaged by spectral analyses of high-resolution aeromagnetic measurements, SCAR Open Science Conference (digital), 2022. [Slides]
  • Lowe, M., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R.: Geothermal heat flux in Wilkes Subglacial Basin and Transantarctic Mountains, Working group: Satellite and Aerogeophysics, Kiel University, 2022.
  • Lowe, M., Green, C., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J., Goldberg, D. and Larter, R.: Unveiling lithosphere heterogeneity and thermal structures beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, Postgraduate Research Conference, School of GeoScience, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, digital, 2021.
  • Lowe, M., Ebbing J., El-Sharkawy A. and Meier T., From seismological imaging to geophysical and petrological modelling of the subducting lithosphere in the Alpine region, DGG General Assembly, Germany, digital, 2020.
  • Lowe, M., Sudhaus, H. and Ebbing, J.: Searching regional slow ground motion using velocities of German SAPOS stations, Arbeitskreis Geodäsie/Geophysik, Zugspitze, Germany, 2018
  • Lowe, M., Sudhaus, H. and Ebbing, J.: Searching regional slow ground motion using velocities of German SAPOS stations, Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, 2018

 

Poster (first author only)

  • Lowe, M., Szwillus, W., Aitken, A., Lösing, M., Li, L., Eagles, G., and Ebbing, J.: Equivalent source inversion to homogenise magnetic airborne surveys in Antarctica flown on irregular flight lines, line spacing, heights and decades, EGU General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 2025.
  • Lowe, M.: Imagining crustal properties using gravity and magnetic data coupled with petrological information in East Antarctica, SENSE Industry Symposium, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, November 2023.
  • Lowe, M., Green, C., Mather, B., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R.: Geothermal heat flow beneath the Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin, SENSE Industry Symposium, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2022. [Poster]
  • Lowe, M., Green, C., Mather, B., Jordan, T., Ebbing, J. and Larter, R.: Geothermal heat flow beneath the Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin, Living Planet Symposium, Bonn, Germany, May 2022. [Poster]
  • Lowe, M., Ferraccioli, F., Later, R., Green, C., Goldberg, D. and Ebbing, J.: Estimating geothermal heat flow in Antarctica based on integrated geophysical modelling, BAS Student Symposium, Cambridge, United Kingdom, October 2021.  [Poster]
  • Lowe, M., Ferraccioli, F., Young, D., Blankenship, D., Armadillo, E., Siegert, M. and Ebbing, J.: Unveiling lithosphere heterogeneity beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, EGU General Assembly, digital, 2021. [Poster]
  • Lowe M.,  Ferraccioli F., Armadillo E., Young D. A., Blankenship D. D., Siegert M. J. and Ebbing J. – New study targets modelling crust and lithosphere heterogeneity in the Wilkes Subglacial Basin of East Antarctica, AGU General Assembly, digital, 2020. [Poster]
  • Lowe M., Ebbing J., El-Sharkawy A. and Meier T. – Gravity effect of Alpine slab segments based on geophysical and petrological modelling, EGU General Assembly, digital, 2020. [Poster]
  • Lowe M., Ebbing J., Szwillus W., Spooner C., El-Sharkawy A. and Meier T. – Testing the Alpine slab hypotheses with gravity data, AlpArray & SPP 4DMB Scientific Meeting, Frankfurt (Main), Germany, 2019. [Poster]
  • Lowe M., Ebbing J., El-Sharkawy A. and Meier T. – Sensitivity study on separation of crustal and mantle contribution to the Alpine gravity Field, DGG General Assembly, Braunschweig, Germany, 2019. [Poster]

Publications from NERC Open Research Archive

2025

Jordan, Tom ORCIDORCID record for Tom Jordan, Robinson, Carl ORCIDORCID record for Carl Robinson, Reed, Tom, Toomey, Rebecca, Jelev, Nickolay, Waters, Jonathon, Fenney, Nathan ORCIDORCID record for Nathan Fenney, Weiss, Alexandra ORCIDORCID record for Alexandra Weiss, Lowe, Maximilian ORCIDORCID record for Maximilian Lowe. (2025) Successful deployment of a large uncrewed aerial vehicle for multidisciplinary science from Rothera Research Station, Antarctica: 2024 season overview and lessons learned. Antarctic Science, (). 18 pp. 10.1017/S0954102025000136

2024

Lowe, Maximilian ORCIDORCID record for Maximilian Lowe. (2024) Crustal properties and heat flow in Victoria Land and Wilkes Subglacial Basin, Antarctica – forward and inverse modelling of gravity and magnetic data coupled with petrological measurements. University of Edinburgh, PhD thesis

Lowe, Maximilian ORCIDORCID record for Maximilian Lowe, Jordan, Tom ORCIDORCID record for Tom Jordan, Ebbing, Jörg, Koglin, Nikola, Ruppel, Antonia, Moorkamp, Max, Läufer, Andreas, Green, Chris, Liebsch, Jonas, Ginga, Mikhail, Larter, Robert ORCIDORCID record for Robert Larter. (2024) Comparing geophysical inversion and petrophysical measurements for northern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Geophysical Journal International, 239 (). pp. 10.1093/gji/ggae272

Lowe, Maximilian ORCIDORCID record for Maximilian Lowe, Jordan, Tom ORCIDORCID record for Tom Jordan, Moorkamp, Max, Ebbing, Jörg, Green, Chris, Lösing, Mareen, Riley, Teal ORCIDORCID record for Teal Riley, Larter, Robert ORCIDORCID record for Robert Larter. (2024) The 3D Crustal Structure of the Wilkes Subglacial Basin, East Antarctica, Using Variation of Information Joint Inversion of Gravity and Magnetic Data. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 129 (). 24 pp. 10.1029/2023JB027794

2023

Lowe, Maximilian ORCIDORCID record for Maximilian Lowe, Mather, Ben, Green, Chris, Jordan, Tom A. ORCIDORCID record for Tom A. Jordan, Ebbing, Jörg, Larter, Robert ORCIDORCID record for Robert Larter. (2023) Anomalously high heat flow regions beneath the Transantarctic Mountains and Wilkes Subglacial Basin in East Antarctica inferred from Curie depth. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 128 (). 20 pp. 10.1029/2022JB025423

2021

Lowe, Maximilian ORCIDORCID record for Maximilian Lowe, Ebbing, Jörg, El-Sharkawy, Amr, Meier, Thomas. (2021) Gravity effect of Alpine slab segments based on geophysical and petrological modelling. Solid Earth, 12 (). pp. 10.5194/se-12-691-2021