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 also focusing on improved understanding of the dynamical processes that control ice flow. In particular, her research focuses on basal processes, the flow of water on top of, through and beneath ice and understanding the history of ice motion so that modern ice sheet changes can be put into context.

The main research tools used by Catania's research group include ice-penetrating radar to image internal layers in the ice and quantify the properties of the basal interface; simple kinematic models to interpret internal layer stratigraphy; GPS to measure changes in ice motion; borehole observations to directly sense the englacial and subglacial environment; remote sensing of ice sheet changes and physical models to reproduce ice dynamical processes in the laboratory.