COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Application of Distributed Temperature Sensors (DTS) for Antarctic Ice Shelves and Cavities

研究人员将探索使用分布式温度传感监测系统(DTS)，使用光纤(FO)技术作为可持续的冰下空腔传感阵列的基础。光纤电缆系统，例如可以通过穿过冰架的热水钻孔，通过下面的空穴到达海底的光纤系统，能够以1米的间隔测量光纤上的温度，时间频率高达15秒。DTS FO系统在FO环境中使用相干激光的非弹性后向散射作为探测光束，沿着光纤波导通过光时域反射仪工作。在南极恶劣的环境条件下引入新技术往往伴随着高风险。然而，这种方法的潜在回报(例如，多年的能力、可能发生故障的最少的水下机械或电气部件、相对简单的部署和测量原理，以及产生分布式实时和空间观测)足够有吸引力，足以在现场准备好的地点(麦克默多)进行试点项目。目前的迹象表明，位于南极和格陵兰岛周围的一些世界上最大的冰盖的不稳定可能是由于气候变暖、深海水域、大陆架上方的浅滩和漂浮冰架底部的融化造成的。为了准确预测未来全球气候对冰架-海洋相互作用的影响，并为适应海平面变化提供社会和技术方面的信息，需要更多地了解终端冰架下温度场的时间和空间变异性，例如那些排干南极西部冰盖的区域。

AbstractResearchers will explore the use of a distributed temperature sensing monitoring system (DTS), using fiber-optical (FO) technology, as the basis of a sustainable, sub-ice cavity sensing array. FO cable systems, such as may be deployed through a hot-water drilled hole through an ice shelf, passing through the underlying cavity to the sea floor, are capable of measuring temperatures down fiber at 1 meter intervals, and at time frequencies as high as 15 seconds. DTS FO systems operate via optical time domain reflectometry along the fiber waveguide using inelastic backscatter of coherent laser light as a probe beam in the FO environment.The introduction of new technologies to the harsh environmental conditions of the Antarctic are often associated with high risk. However, the potential rewards of this approach (e.g. multiyear capability, minimal submerged mechanical or electrical components that may fail, relative simplicity of deployment and measurement principle, yet yielding distributed real time and spatial observation) are attractive enough to conduct a pilot project at a field-ready location (McMurdo). Current indications are that the instability of some of the world's largest ice sheets located around the Antarctic and Greenland may be caused by the presence of warming, deep ocean waters, shoaling over continental shelves, and melting the underside of floating ice shelves. Additional knowledge of the temporal and spatial variability of the temperature fields underneath terminal ice shelves, such as those draining the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, are needed to accurately project future global climate effects on ice-shelf ocean interactions, and in order to inform societal and technological aspects of adaption to changing sea-level.