Tropical Glaciers and Climate

这是EAR8317722的续签。该项目关注的是热带冰川及其对气候强迫的反应。根据十多年来在热带各个高山地区的工作，未来几年的研究将集中在肯尼亚山的冰川上，并在较小程度上对秘鲁科迪勒拉布兰卡的冰块进行研究。到1990年要完成的一项主要任务是绘制肯尼亚山所有冰川的1.5 000比额图。与1963年的测绘相结合，这将记录过去四分之一世纪的冰川变化，并作为最近和未来终点变化测量的控制。这项任务需要在1987- 1989年期间通过地面调查和1989- 1990年期间通过空中摄影测量建立控制点。刘易斯冰川将按照1990年3月基准面按1:25 500比例尺重新绘制。对刘易斯冰川的降水、净平衡和冰流速度的观测将继续进行。这些构成了在质量和热量收支方面定量表述强迫-响应关系的基础。此外，长达十年的净平衡记录以及基岩和地表地形的评估以及冰流测量将作为预测冰变薄和冰流减缓的空间格局的输入。对这些预报的验证是对了解热带气候-冰冻圈关系的严格检验。

This is a renewal of EAR8317722. The project is concerned with tropical glaciers and their reponse to climatic forcing. Drawing on more than a decade's work in various high mountain regions of the tropics, research over the next few years will concentrate on the glaciers of Mount Kenya, and to a lesser extent on the ice masses of Peru's Cordillera Blanca. A major task to be accomplished by 1990 is the mapping of all of Mount Kenya's glaciers at scale l:5,000. In conjunction with a 1963 mapping this will document the glacier changes over the past quarter century and serve as control for recent and future measurements of terminus variations. This task entails the establishement of control points through ground surveys during 1987-89, and airborne photogrammetry in 1989-90. The Lewis Glacier shall be re-mapped for the March 1990 datum at scale 1:2,500. The observations of preceipitation, net balance, and ice flow velocity on the Lewis Glacier will continue. These form the basis for the quantitative formulation of forcing-response relationships in terms of the mass and heat budgets. Also, the decade-long net balance record along with the assessments of bedrock and surface topography and ice flow measurements will serve as input for predictions of the spatial pattern of ice thinning and slowdown of the ice flow. Verification of these forecasts represents a stringent test for an understanding of tropical climate-cryosphere relationships.