Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR)

该合作协议支持极地地球科学和极地冰川学计划中几个项目所需的航空地球物理设施的技术基础。该机构被称为SOAR，即航空地球物理研究支持办公室。SOAR的功能是促进南极洲大陆上空的航空地球物理研究，以了解冰盖的动态行为和冰盖下岩石圈的性质。SOAR将支持需要高精度激光测高、重力、磁力和导航数据集的同行评议研究。SOAR的任务将每年协商。第一个得到支持的项目是在南极洲西部的调查。南极洲西部以两种地球上最具活力的系统为特征，一种是大陆裂谷（南极西部裂谷系统），另一种是海洋冰原，南极西部冰原（WAIS）。活跃的大陆裂谷系统是由分裂的板块运动引起的，导致大陆地壳变薄。与薄地壳相关的是断界沉积盆地、活火山活动和高热流。海洋冰盖的特点是快速移动的冰流穿透并排出缓慢移动的冰库。过去的海洋冰盖留下的证据表明，它们可能对长期气候变化有强烈的非线性反应，从而导致大量和迅速的冰排放。了解冰流系统的演变及其与内部冰的相互作用是理解这种非线性响应的关键。除了这些具体的项目，SOAR还将为南极西部冰芯的选址决策提供必要的信息，以及为积雪地震样带的选址提供关键信息。SOAR代表了美国南极计划研究支持的独特实验。它有可能彻底改变南极洲的地球科学和冰川学研究。

This award for a cooperative agreement supports the technical foundation of an aerogeophysical facility that is required for several projects within the Polar Earth Sciences and Polar Glaciology Programs. The facility is referred to as SOAR, the Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research. The function of SOAR is to facilitate aerogeophysical research over continental Antarctica toward an understanding of the dynamic behavior of the ice sheet and the nature of the lithosphere beneath the ice sheet. SOAR will support peer-reviewed research requiring high precision laser altimetery, gravity, magnetics and navigational data sets. Tasking for SOAR will be negotiated annually. The first projects to be supported are investigations in West Antarctica. West Antarctica is characterized by two kinds of the Earth s most dynamic systems, a continental rift (the West Antarctic Rift System) and a marine based ice sheet, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). Active continental rift systems, caused by divergent plate motions, result in thinned continental crust. Associated with the thin crust are fault-bounded sedimentary basins, active volcanism, and elevated heat flow. Marine ice sheets are characterized by rapidly moving streams of ice, penetrating and draining a slowly moving ice reservoir. Evidence left by past marine ice sheets indicates that they may have a strongly non-linear response to long-term climate change which results in massive and rapid discharges of ice. Understanding the evolution of the ice stream system and its interaction with the interior ice is the key to understanding this non-linear response. In addition to these specific projects, SOAR will provide information essential to site selection decisions for a West Antarctic ice core as well as critical information for selection of locations of over-snow seismic transects. SOAR represents a unique experiment in research support for the US Antarctic program. It has the potential to revolutionize the conduct of Earth Science and Glaciology research in Antarctica.