Climate and Ice-Core Records: Quelccaya and Kilimanjaro

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This award will help improve the accuracy of paleoclimate proxies via a spatial perspective on modern climate conditions. The researcher and his colleagues will examine the modern conditions, interactions, and sensitivities of glaciers to climate-forcing factors and to examine the range of variability of parameters measured in the cores (i.e., stable isotopes, dust concentration). Ice cores from the tropics, mountain glaciers, and ice caps, provide high-resolution records of environmental data. The two sites that are targeted by this research, Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru and the Northern Ice Field of Kilimanjaro in eastern Africa, have satellite-linked weather stations already installed by the researchers. These stations measure a range of variables required to model the exchange of energy and mass of snow and/or ice at high elevations. The awarded funds will be used to continue operating the weather stations and to expand the glacier mass balance research. In general, the researcher aims to characterize local and regional-scale modern climate, examine the variability at each site, and quantify exchanges of mass and energy at each glacier through measurements and modeling. The research will provide insight into how climate forcing mechanisms, interactions, and feedbacks are reflected in tropical ice-core records. The analytical results will help place modern conditions in the context of processes acting on longer time scales.