Collaborative Research: Gases in Firn Air and Shallow Ice at the Proposed WAIS Drilling Site

该奖项支持一个项目，以测量的元素和同位素组成的积雪空气和闭塞的空气在浅钻孔和冰芯从WAIS分水岭网站，一个深冰取芯计划的位置计划在2006-07年和随后的季节。 三个主要目标是：1）确定现场的积雪空气运动和捕获的性质，以帮助解释来自深芯的气体数据; 2）扩大可以在冰中测量的大气痕量气体种类的套件，并复制其他种类的现有记录; 3）相互校准所有合作实验室，以确保成分和同位素数据集具有可比性。 该计划将在05/06油田季节开始实施浅钻计划，该计划将采集两个300+m岩心和积雪空气样本。冰芯和积雪空气将提供700多年的大气历史，将用于解决与这一时期的大气变化有关的一些重要问题。该研究团队由六个美国实验室组成，这些实验室也计划参与深核计划。 这个合作研究项目有很多优势。 首先，科学家将能够事先协调样本分配，以最大限度地提高相关物种记录的分辨率和重叠。 其次，样本登记将是准确的，允许直接比较所有记录。 第三，将同时生成一个连贯的数据集，所有PI将参与解释和发布结果。 这将确保尽可能最好地了解WAIS分水岭现场的气体记录，并及时进行解释深层岩心所需的所有工作。该提案创建的合作结构将鼓励实验室之间分享技术，设备和想法。这项研究将确定各种工业/农业活动的影响，并帮助将其与自然变化区分开来，并将包括长期没有人为影响记录的物种。 这项工作还将有助于预测未来的大气负荷。 该项目将有助于培养不同层次的科学家，包括7名本科生、2名研究生和1名博士后研究员。

This award supports a project to measure the elemental and isotopic composition of firn air and occluded air in shallow boreholes and ice cores from the WAIS Divide site, the location of a deep ice-coring program planned for 2006-07 and subsequent seasons. The three primary objectives are: 1) to establish the nature of firn air movement and trapping at the site to aid interpretations of gas data from the deep core; 2) to expand the suite of atmospheric trace gas species that can be measured in ice and replicate existing records of other species; and 3) to inter-calibrate all collaborating labs to insure that compositional and isotopic data sets are inter-comparable. The program will be initiated with a shallow drilling program during the 05/06 field season which will recover two 300+m cores and firn air samples. The ice core and firn air will provide more than 700 years of atmospheric history that will be used to address a number of important questions related to atmospheric change over this time period. The research team consists of six US laboratories that also plan to participate in the deep core program. This collaborative research program has a number of advantages. First, the scientists will be able to coordinate sample allocation a priori to maximize the resolution and overlap of records of interrelated species. Second, sample registration will be exact, allowing direct comparison of all records. Third, a coherent data set will be produced at the same time and all PI.s will participate in interpreting and publishing the results. This will insure that the best possible understanding of gas records at the WAIS Divide site will be achieved, and that all work necessary to interpret the deep core is conducted in a timely fashion. The collaborative structure created by the proposal will encourage sharing of techniques, equipment, and ideas between the laboratories. The research will identify impacts of various industrial/agricultural activities and help to distinguish them from natural variations, and will include species for which there are no long records of anthropogenic impact. The work will also help to predict future atmospheric loadings. The project will contribute to training scientists at several levels, including seven undergraduates, two graduate students and one post doctoral fellow.