U.S.-China Cooperative Research: Optical Astrometric Observations as Measures of Global Change

*9520484威尔逊该奖项支持德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校地质科学系的克拉克·威尔逊和中国科学院上海天文台的李正新就光学天体观测作为全球变化衡量标准开展的为期三年的合作。该项目涉及使用纬度的光学天体观测来调查这种测量是否提供了气候变异性的有用测量。上海天文台被指定为这些光学记录的国际存储和分析中心，李教授对这些数据的分析揭示了有趣的波动，这些波动似乎与公认的气候变化有关，例如厄尔尼诺/南方涛动。合作将把独特的上海光学天体测量数据收集和李教授的经验与德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的地球物理、计算和气候数据资源结合起来。拟议研究的目的是确定是否有物理基础来解释气候变化和光学天体数据之间的明显相关性，并根据这种物理关系解释历史的光学和与气候有关的时间序列。虽然在监测地球自转方面，空间大地测量已经取代了精度较低的光学天体测量，但过去的光学数据仍然具有相当大的价值。当将这些数据组合在一起形成前空间大地测量时期的极移时间序列时，这些数据特别有用，因为已经表明，在几乎没有与气候有关的观测资料的情况下，极移衡量了过去一个世纪空气和水的分布的全球性质。***

*** 9520484 Wilson This award supports a three year collaboration between Clark Wilson, Geological Sciences Department, University of Texas at Austin, and Li Zhengxin, Shanghai Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, on optical astromeric observations as measures of global change. The project involves use of optical astromeric observations of latitude to investigate whether such measurements provide useful measures of climate variability. Shanghai Observatory has been designated as the international repository and analysis center for these optical records, and analysis of the data by Professor Li has revealed intriguing fluctuations which appear correlated with recognized climate variations such as the El Nino/Southern Oscillation. The collaboration will combine the unique Shanghai optical astrometry data collection and the experience of Professor Li with the geophysical, computational and climate data resources at the University of Texas at Austin. The objectives of the proposed research are to determine whether there is a physical basis to account for apparent correlations between climate change and optical astromeric data, and to interpret historical optical and climaterelated time series in light of such physical relationships. Although space geodesy has replaced less accurate optical astrometry in monitoring the rotation of the earth, the optical data of the past remain of considerable value. These data are especially useful when combined to form a polar motion time series for the pre-space geodetic period, because it has been shown that polar motion measures global properties of the distribution of air and water over the past century when few climate-related observations are available. ***