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

极地方案办公室，南极科学部，海洋和气候系统方案，支持一个多学科的努力，研究相对温暖的深水上涌到阿蒙森海大陆架，它如何与大气强迫和海底测深有关，以及温暖的海水如何与冰川和海冰相互作用。这项研究是该地区一项名为阿蒙森海湾项目(Amundsen Sea Embayment Project，简称ASEP)的协调研究工作的贡献。PI和其他人之前的工作表明，西南极冰盖的融化速度可能比南极洲周围其他地方的冰盖快几个数量级，不包括南极半岛上的冰盖。切割大陆架的海底水道被认为为相对温暖的极地深水提供了相当直接的途径，使其进入冰架漂浮延伸部分下的洞穴。在途中与海冰的相互作用可能会改变上升的水。拟议的调查建立在PI和他的同事之前的努力基础上，他们利用水文测量来对相对温暖的海水融化冰川的速度进行定量限制。由于海冰条件，该地区可能很难进入，以前的水文测量仅限于南半球夏季的时间范围。在该项目中，作为单独资助的邮轮(Pi Steve Ackley)的一部分，提议通过CTD铸模和XBT水滴(2007年9月至10月)获得第一批南半球春季水文数据，该邮轮的主要重点是当RV Nathanial B Palmer(RV NBP)在冰包中漂移时研究海冰条件。这包括对二氧化碳和总二氧化碳的机会性抽样。2009年夏季的专属邮轮将利用这一机会。专门的现场计划的主要目标是部署一套系泊设施，用来表征暖水侵入大陆架的时间变异性，并在冰层条件允许的情况下，在目标区域进行重复的水文测量和带状测绘。自动气象站将与该计划协调部署，海冰观测将在该船上进行，在英国自主水下机器人Autosub 3号问世之前，可能会探索松岛下的海洋洞穴。这些海洋-海冰-大气联合观测旨在一系列模型验证。提供数据和及时存档的明确计划应促进各种建模工作，从而扩大空间有限观测的价值。更广泛的影响：该项目与国际极年研究有关，重点是冰盖动力学，特别是面向海洋的海洋-冰盖相互作用。必须弄清这种相互作用，才能了解西南极冰盖融化导致海平面上升的可能性。该项目需要大量的国际伙伴关系(英国南极调查局和阿尔弗雷德·韦格纳研究所)，并补充了阿蒙森海湾项目的其他提案，涉及冰盖动态的其他要素。该提案包括对2名研究生和2名博士后的部分支持。南极艺术家和作家计划的参与者将参加邮轮，从而帮助推广。此外，该项目还将参加Lamont-Doherty年度开放参观活动。

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.