IPY: Investigation of Antarctic Ice Sheet Mass Balance From Satellite Gravity Measurements

该奖项支持一项利用NASA重力恢复和气候实验（GRACE）任务的高精度卫星重力测量，在大陆和区域空间尺度上评估南极冰盖质量平衡的项目。这项研究的智力价值在于，这项研究将利用GRACE重力数据，以前所未有的精度，在大陆、区域和流域尺度上改进南极冰块平衡的评估。GRACE估算值与遥感测量值之间的比较对于正确量化和解释不同时空尺度上的南极冰块平衡至关重要。提案团队在GRACE时变重力数据的地球物理应用方面有着丰富的出版物记录（包括最近发表的几篇针对极地冰盖和山地冰川融化的主要论文），并展示了对GRACE数据和相关产品的透彻理解；该团队一直致力于设计优化的过滤方法，并开发数值正演模拟技术，这对于使用GRACE数据研究区域或流域尺度的冰质量变化至关重要。建议活动的更广泛影响包括：通过支持一名研究生的论文研究，该项目将积极吸引学生参与和培训；并将广泛参与普通教育和公众宣传（E/PO）活动（PI实际上是通过联邦资助的项目在空间研究中心领导一个E/PO团队），这项调查的结果将有助于激发未来地球科学家的兴趣，并提高公众对气候快速变化对我们生活环境的重大影响的认识(例如，全球变暖，冰盖融化，以及海平面上升)。最后，提出的调查解决了国际极地年计划的重点领域之一（即冰盖历史和动力学：极地冰盖的体积和地理范围如何随时间变化？）。量化南极冰盖上的冰质量变化对了解地球系统的气候变化具有重要意义。

Chen/0632195This award supports a project to assess Antarctic ice sheet mass balance at both continental and regional spatial scales, using high-accuracy satellite gravity measurements from the NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. The intellectual merit of the proposed investigation is that this study will provide improved assessments of Antarctic ice mass balance at continental, regional, and catchment basin scales using GRACE gravity data with unprecedented accuracy. The proposed comparison between GRACE estimates and remote sensing measurements are critical for correctly quantifying and interpreting Antarctic ice mass balance at different spatial and temporal scales. The proposing team has a strong record of publications related to geophysical applications of GRACE time-variable gravity data (including a few major papers targeting polar ice sheets and mountain glacial melting that have been recently published), and has demonstrated a thorough understanding of GRACE data and related products; and the team has been working in the forefront in designing optimized filtering methods, and developing numerical forward modeling techniques, which are critical for the study of regional or catchment basin scale ice mass changes using GRACE data. The broader impacts of the proposed activities include that this project will actively involve student participation and training, through the support of the thesis study of a graduate student; and will extensively involve in general education and public outreach (E/PO) activities (the PI is actually leading an E/PO team at the Center for Space Research through a federally funded project), and the results from this investigation will help to inspire the interest of future geoscientists and promote the public awareness of the significant impacts on our living environment from the rapidly changing climate (e.g., global warming, ice sheet melting, and sea level rise) of our home planet system. Finally, the proposed investigation addresses one of the emphasis areas of the IPY program (i.e. Ice Sheet History and Dynamics: How has the volume and geographic extent of polar ice sheets varied through time?). Quantifying ice mass changes over the Antarctic ice sheet is of great importance in understanding climate changes of our planet system.