Collaborative Research: Byrd Glacier Flow Dynamics

合作研究：伯德冰川流动动力学

• 批准号: 0944597
• 负责人: Leigh Stearns
• 金额: $ 41.24万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 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=0944597&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Byrd; Glacier; Flow

Stearns/0944597This 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.

Stearns/0944597奖支持一个项目，以了解大型，快速移动的出口冰川的流动动力学，这些冰川排出了东南极冰盖。该项目包括伯德冰川的综合田地，遥感和建模研究，这是将质量从东南极冰盖（EAIS）排放到海洋的主要途径。 最近的工作表明，冰川可以在其边界条件下响应扰动而发生短暂的但流速的显着变化。由于出口冰川速度对冰片质量平衡产生了重大控制，并调节了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，并将其纳入预后冰盖模型中。 该项目的智力优点是，这项研究的结果将提供有关大型EAIS出口冰川流动动态的至关重要的重要信息。 拟议的研究旨在解决数分钟到几年的时间尺度上冰川行为的变化。在冰川的接地躯干和浮动部分上的全球定位卫星（GPS）仪器的致密网络将在26个月的时间内提供水平和垂直运动的连续高分辨率时间序列。这些结果将放置在更长的遥感观测记录的上下文中，涵盖了较大的空间范围，并且合并的数据集将用于约束冰川流动动力学的数值模型。 这项工作的更广泛的影响是，该项目将产生结果，这可能是下一代冰盖模型的重要组成部分，以预测南极冰盖的演变和未来的海平面上升速度。 政府间气候变化小组（IPCC）的最新报告凸显了对出口冰川动态的不完善的理解，这是生产准确的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，其中包括该提案的主要PI（她既是一名新研究员，又是一所大型研究大学的初级教师）和两名博士学位的研究生。这些学生将接受冰川学，地理和数值建模的培训，这有助于社会对这些领域的专家的需求。此外，该项目将加强美国和西班牙的极地科学家与大地地质学家之间的国际合作。研究团队将与冰盖遥感中心的科学教育者（CRESIS）外展计划紧密合作，以将项目结果传播给非专业观众。