IPY/ASEP - Collaborative International Research: Amundsen Sea Influence on West Antarctic Ice Sheet Stability and Sea Level Rise.

海洋与气候系统项目极地项目办公室、南极科学部、海洋与气候系统项目授予该奖项，以支持一项多学科研究，研究相对温暖的深水上涌到阿蒙森海大陆架，以及它与大气强迫和海底测深的关系，以及温暖的海水如何与冰川和海冰相互作用。这项研究构成了该地区被称为阿蒙森海勘探项目（ASEP）的协调研究工作的一部分。PI和其他人之前的工作表明，南极西部冰盖的融化速度可能比南极洲周围其他地方的冰盖融化速度快几个数量级，不包括半岛上的冰盖。切割大陆架的海底通道被认为为相对温暖的环极地深水提供了相当直接的通道，使其进入漂浮在大陆架延伸部分下的空腔。途中与海冰的相互作用可以改变上升流。提议的调查建立在PI及其同事先前的努力的基础上，他们利用水文测量对相对温暖的海水融化冰川的速度设定了定量界限。由于海冰状况，该地区可能相当难以进入，而且以前的水文测量仅限于南方的夏季时间范围。在这个项目中，作为一个单独资助的巡航（PI Steve Ackley）的一部分，建议通过CTD投体和XBT滴体（2007年9月至10月）获得第一个南方春季水文数据，该巡航的主要重点是研究RV Nathanial B Palmer （RV NBP）在浮冰中漂移时的海冰状况。这包括pCO2和TCO2的机会取样。一个专门的邮轮在2009年夏季南部将遵循这个机会。专门的实地计划的主要目标是部署一套系泊装置，用来表征暖水侵入大陆架的时间变化，并在冰情允许的情况下，在目标区域进行重复的水文测量和测绘。自动气象站将与该计划一起部署，海冰观测将从船上进行，在英国自动水下航行器Autosub 3可用之前，可能会探索松树岛下面的海洋洞穴。这些海洋-海洋-冰-大气联合观测的目的是对一系列模式进行验证。一个定义良好的计划，使数据可用，并及时归档，应该促进各种建模工作，从而扩展空间有限的观察值的价值。更广泛的影响：本项目与国际极地年研究有关，重点关注冰盖动力学，特别是向海海洋-冰盖相互作用。为了了解南极西部冰盖融化可能导致海平面上升，必须澄清这种相互作用。该项目需要实质性的国际伙伴关系（英国南极调查局和阿尔弗雷德·韦格纳研究所），并补充了其他阿蒙森海勘探项目的建议，其中包括冰盖动力学的其他要素。该方案包括2名研究生和2名博士后的部分资助。南极艺术家和作家项目的参与者也将参加这次巡游，并协助开展外联活动。此外，该项目还将参加Lamont-Doherty年度开放日。

The Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Science Division, Ocean & Climate Systems Program has made this award to support a multidisciplinary effort to study the upwelling of relatively warm deep water onto the Amundsen Sea continental shelf and how it relates to atmospheric forcing and bottom bathymetry and how the warm waters interact with both glacial and sea ice. This study constitutes a contribution of a coordinated research effort in the region known as the Amundsen Sea Embayment Project or ASEP. Previous work by the PI and others has shown that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been found to be melting faster, perhaps by orders of magnitude, than ice sheets elsewhere around Antarctica, excluding those on the Peninsula. Submarine channels that incise the continental shelf are thought to provide fairly direct access of relatively warm circum polar deep water to the cavity under the floating extension of the ice shelf. Interactions with sea ice en route can modify the upwelled waters. The proposed investigations build on previous efforts by the PI and colleagues to use hydrographic measurements to put quantitative bounds on the rate of glacial ice melt by relatively warm seawater. The region can be quite difficult to access due to sea ice conditions and previous hydrographic measurements have been restricted to the austral summer time frame. In this project it was proposed to obtain the first austral spring hydrographic data via CTD casts and XBT drops (September-October 2007) as part of a separately funded cruise (PI Steve Ackley) the primary focus of which is sea-ice conditions to be studied while the RV Nathanial B Palmer (RV NBP) drifts in the ice pack. This includes opportunistic sampling for pCO2 and TCO2. A dedicated cruise in austral summer 2009 will follow this opportunity. The principal objectives of the dedicated field program are to deploy a set of moorings with which to characterize temporal variability in warm water intrusions onto the shelf and to conduct repeat hydrographic surveying and swath mapping in targeted areas, ice conditions permitting. Automatic weather stations are to be deployed in concert with the program, sea-ice observations will be undertaken from the vessel and the marine cavity beneath the Pine Island may be explored pending availability of the British autonomous underwater vehicle Autosub 3. These combined ocean-sea ice-atmosphere observations are aimed at a range of model validations. A well-defined plan for making data available as well as archiving in a timely fashion should facilitate a variety of modeling efforts and so extend the value of the spatially limited observations. Broader impacts: This project is relevant to an International Polar Year research emphasis on ice sheet dynamics focusing in particular on the seaward ocean-ice sheet interactions. Such interactions must be clarified for understanding the potential for sea level rise by melt of the West Antarctic ice Sheet. The project entails substantive international partnerships (British Antarctic Survey and Alfred Wegner Institute) and complements other Amundsen Sea Embayment Project proposals covering other elements of ice sheet dynamics. The proposal includes partial support for 2 graduate students and 2 post docs. Participants from the Antarctic Artists and Writers program are to take part in the cruise and so aid in outreach. In addition, the project is to be represented in the Lamont-Doherty annual open house.