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

摘要研究人员将探索使用分布式温度传感监测系统，使用光纤（FO）技术，作为可持续的冰下空腔传感阵列的基础。FO电缆系统，例如可以通过穿过冰架的热水钻孔部署，穿过下面的空腔到达海底，能够以1米的间隔和高达15秒的时间频率沿光纤测量温度。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，通过沿光纤波导沿着的光时域反射测量法来操作FO系统。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，最小的水下机械或电气组件可能会失败，相对简单的部署和测量原理，但产生分布式真实的时间和空间观测）是有吸引力的，足以在现场准备好的位置（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性可能是由变暖、深海沃茨、大陆架变浅以及浮冰架底部融化造成的。终端冰架下的温度场的时间和空间变化的额外知识，如那些排干南极西部冰盖，需要准确预测未来全球气候对冰架海洋相互作用的影响，并为适应不断变化的海平面的社会和技术方面提供信息。

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.