Collaborative Research: Byrd Glacier Flow Dynamics

合作研究：伯德冰川流动动力学

• 批准号: 0944087
• 负责人: Gordon Hamilton
• 金额: $ 23.95万
• 依托单位: University of Maine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-15 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0944087&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Byrd; Glacier; Flow

This award supports a project to understand the flow dynamics of large, fast-moving outlet glaciers that drain the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The project includes an integrated field, remote sensing and modeling study of Byrd Glacier which is a major pathway for the discharge of mass from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) to the ocean. Recent work has shown that the glacier can undergo short-lived but significant changes in flow speed in response to perturbations in its boundary conditions. Because outlet glacier speeds exert a major control on ice sheet mass balance and modulate the ice sheet contribution to sea level rise, it is essential that their sensitivity to a range of dynamic processes is properly understood and incorporated into prognostic ice sheet models. The intellectual merit of the project is that the results from this study will provide critically important information regarding the flow dynamics of large EAIS outlet glaciers. The proposed study is designed to address variations in glacier behavior on timescales of minutes to years. A dense network of global positioning satellite (GPS) instruments on the grounded trunk and floating portions of the glacier will provide continuous, high-resolution time series of horizontal and vertical motions over a 26-month period. These results will be placed in the context of a longer record of remote sensing observations covering a larger spatial extent, and the combined datasets will be used to constrain a numerical model of the glacier's flow dynamics. The broader impacts of the work are that this project will generate results which are likely to be a significant component of next-generation ice sheet models seeking to predict the evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and future rates of sea level rise. The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights the imperfect understanding of outlet glacier dynamics as a major obstacle to the production of an accurate sea level rise projections. This project will provide significant research opportunities for several early-career scientists, including the lead PI for this proposal (she is both a new investigator and a junior faculty member at a large research university) and two PhD-level graduate students. The students will be trained in glaciology, geodesy and numerical modeling, contributing to society's need for experts in those fields. In addition, this project will strengthen international collaboration between polar scientists and geodesists in the US and Spain. The research team will work closely with science educators in the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) outreach program to disseminate project results to non-specialist audiences.

该奖项支持一个项目，旨在了解排出南极东部冰盖的大型、快速移动的出口冰川的流动动力学。该项目包括对伯德冰川的综合实地、遥感和建模研究，伯德冰川是东南极冰盖（EAIS）向海洋排放物质的主要途径。最近的研究表明，冰川可能会因边界条件的扰动而经历短暂但显着的流速变化。由于出口冰川速度对冰盖质量平衡起着主要控制作用，并调节冰盖对海平面上升的贡献，因此必须正确理解它们对一系列动态过程的敏感性并将其纳入预测冰盖模型中。该项目的智力价值在于，这项研究的结果将提供有关大型 EAIS 出口冰川流动动力学的至关重要的信息。拟议的研究旨在解决冰川行为在几分钟到几年的时间尺度上的变化。冰川接地树干和漂浮部分上的密集全球定位卫星 (GPS) 仪器网络将提供 26 个月内连续、高分辨率的水平和垂直运动时间序列。这些结果将被置于覆盖更大空间范围的较长遥感观测记录的背景下，并且组合数据集将用于约束冰川流动动力学的数值模型。这项工作更广泛的影响是，该项目将产生的结果可能成为下一代冰盖模型的重要组成部分，旨在预测南极冰盖的演变和未来海平面上升的速度。政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）的最新报告强调，对出口冰川动力学的不完善理解是准确海平面上升预测的主要障碍。该项目将为几位早期职业科学家提供重要的研究机会，包括该提案的首席 PI（她既是一名新研究员，又是一所大型研究型大学的初级教员）和两名博士级研究生。学生将接受冰川学、大地测量学和数值建模方面的培训，以满足社会对这些领域专家的需求。此外，该项目还将加强美国和西班牙极地科学家和大地测量学家之间的国际合作。研究团队将与冰原遥感中心（CReSIS）外展计划的科学教育工作者密切合作，向非专业受众传播项目成果。