Modeling Maximum and Minimum Neogene Antarctic Ice Sheets

大约240万年前，我们的相对温暖的植物和局限于南极洲的冰预算被推入了新生代晚期的全球冰期，两极的冰盖都在脉动。一个基本的科学问题是，在这一变化之前的几百万年里，暖地球气候动力学的性质。该项目的目的是利用南极冰盖的有限元模型，对新近纪晚期最大和最小冰盖结构的主要假设进行检验。南极大陆冰川地质学、深海18-0记录和冰物理学之间的协同作用提供了足够的约束条件，可以显著限制可能的冰盖变化。由此产生的数值冰盖重建结果将最好地满足现有数据，并对我们对全球环境变化的理解产生影响。

About 2.4 million years ago, our relatively warm plant with an ice budget confined to Antarctica was thrust into late Cenzoic global ice ages with pulsating ice sheets at both poles. A fundamental scientific question is the nature of warm-earth climate dynamics in the few million years preceding this change. The objective of this project is to test the primary hypotheses for maximum and minimum ice sheet configuration during the late Neogene using a finite-element model of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The synergism that will be applied between Antarctic continent glacial geology, the deep-sea 18-0 record, and ice physics provides constraints sufficient to limit significantly possible ice sheet variations. The numerical ice sheet reconstructions that result will best satisfy available data and have an impact on our understanding of global environmental change.