IPY: Stability of Larsen C Ice Shelf in a Warming Climate

IPY：气候变暖下拉森 C 冰架的稳定性

• 批准号: 0732946
• 负责人: Konrad Steffen
• 金额: $ 35.64万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-15 至 2012-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0732946&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IPY; Stability; Larsen; Ice; Shelf

Steffen/0732946This award supports a field experiment, with partners from Chile and the Netherlands, to determine the state of health and stability of Larsen C ice shelf in response to climate change. Significant glaciological and ecological changes are taking place in the Antarctic Peninsula in response to climate warming that is proceeding at 6 times the global average rate. Following the collapse of Larsen A ice shelf in 1995 and Larsen B in 2002, the outlet glaciers that nourished them with land ice accelerated massively, losing a disproportionate amount of ice to the ocean. Further south, the much larger Larsen C ice shelf is thinning and measurements collected over more than a decade suggest that it is doomed to break up. The intellectual merit of the project will be to contribute to the scientific knowledge of one of the Antarctic sectors where the most significant changes are taking place at present. The project is central to a cluster of International Polar Year activities in the Antarctic Peninsula. It will yield a legacy of international collaboration, instrument networking, education of young scientists, reference data and scientific analysis in a remote but globally relevant glaciological setting. The broader impacts of the project will be to address the contribution to sea level rise from Antarctica and to bring live monitoring of climate and ice dynamics in Antarctica to scientists, students, the non-specialized public, the press and the media via live web broadcasting of progress, data collection, visualization and analysis. Existing data will be combined with new measurements to assess what physical processes are controlling the weakening of the ice shelf, whether a break up is likely, and provide baseline data to quantify the consequences of a breakup. Field activities will include measurements using the Global Positioning System (GPS), installation of automatic weather stations (AWS), ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements, collection of shallow firn cores and temperature measurements. These data will be used to characterize the dynamic response of the ice shelf to a variety of phenomena (oceanic tides, iceberg calving, ice-front retreat and rifting, time series of weather conditions, structural characteristics of the ice shelf and bottom melting regime, and the ability of firn to collect melt water and subsequently form water ponds that over-deepen and weaken the ice shelf). This effort will complement an analysis of remote sensing data, ice-shelf numerical models and control methods funded independently to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the ice shelf evolution in a changing climate.

Steffen/0732946该奖项支持与智利和荷兰的合作伙伴进行一项实地实验，以确定拉森C冰架在应对气候变化时的健康和稳定性状况。由于气候变暖，南极半岛正在发生重大的冰川和生态变化，气候变暖的速度是全球平均速度的6倍。随着1995年拉森A冰架和2002年拉森B冰架的坍塌，为它们提供陆地冰的出口冰川大量加速，向海洋流失了不成比例的冰量。再往南，更大的拉森C冰架正在变薄，十多年来收集的测量数据表明，它注定要破裂。该项目的学术价值将有助于增进目前正在发生最重大变化的南极地区之一的科学知识。该项目是南极半岛一系列国际极地年活动的核心。它将在偏远但与全球相关的冰川学背景下产生国际合作、仪器联网、年轻科学家的教育、参考数据和科学分析的遗产。该项目的更广泛影响将是解决南极洲对海平面上升的影响，并通过网上实况广播进展情况、数据收集、可视化和分析，向科学家、学生、非专业公众、媒体和媒体提供南极洲气候和冰川动态的实时监测。现有的数据将与新的测量相结合，以评估哪些物理过程控制着冰架的减弱，是否有可能破裂，并提供基线数据，以量化破裂的后果。实地活动将包括使用全球定位系统进行测量、安装自动气象站、探地雷达测量、收集浅层积雪岩芯和温度测量。这些数据将被用来描述冰架对各种现象(大洋潮汐、冰山崩解、冰锋退缩和裂谷、天气条件的时间序列、冰架的结构特征和底部融化状态，以及降雪收集融水并随后形成过度加深和削弱冰架的水塘)的动态响应。这项工作将补充对独立资助的遥感数据、冰架数值模型和控制方法的分析，以便更全面地分析气候变化中的冰架演变。