Collaborative Research: East Antarctic Outlet Glacier Dynamics: Investigations of Beardmore Glacier

Conway/1141866该奖项支持一个项目，该项目旨在开展一系列实验，研究比尔德莫尔冰川下方基本条件的时空变化。比尔德莫尔冰川是东南极出口冰川，排放到罗斯海海湾。该项目的学术价值在于，它应该有助于验证全球变暖是否会在未来的冰盖质量平衡中发挥比之前认为的更大的作用。最近对快速流动的出口冰川和冰流流量的快速变化的观察表明，对气候变暖的动态反应可能会影响格陵兰和南极洲的冰盖。由于缺乏关于基本边界条件的信息，对这些反应可能产生的后果的评估受到阻碍。主要的假设是，基本条件的变化对出口冰川的排放施加了强有力的控制。将对比尔德莫尔冰川进行机载和地面雷达测量，以绘制冰川下槽的冰厚度和几何图形，并将进行主动和被动地震实验，以及地面雷达和全球定位系统测量，以绘制冰床界面条件的空间和时间变化。观测数据将被用来约束冰川流动的动力学模型。这些模型将被用来处理对南极出口冰川动态的主要控制、冰床的条件、它们的时空变化，以及这种变化可能如何影响这些冰川的滑动和流动。这项工作还将探索这些出口冰川是否会拉低南极洲东部的内部，如果是的话，速度有多快。这项研究将耗时三年，包括两个实地考察季节，工作成果将通过公共和专业会议以及期刊出版物传播。所有数据和元数据都将通过NSIDC门户网站提供。这项工作的更广泛影响是，它将有助于阐明出口冰川动力学的基本物理学，这是改进对冰盖对不断变化的环境条件的反应的预测所必需的。该项目还将为早期职业调查人员提供支持，并将为一名研究生和两名本科生提供培训和支持。所有合作者目前都参与了科学推广和研究生教育，他们致力于促进多样性。

Conway/1141866This award supports a project to conduct a suite of experiments to study spatial and temporal variations of basal conditions beneath Beardmore Glacier, an East Antarctic outlet glacier that discharges into the Ross Sea Embayment. The intellectual merit of the project is that it should help verify whether or not global warming will play a much larger role in the future mass balance of ice sheets than previously considered. Recent observations of rapid changes in discharge of fast-flowing outlet glaciers and ice streams suggest that dynamical responses to warming could affect that ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica. Assessment of possible consequences of these responses is hampered by the lack of information about the basal boundary conditions. The leading hypothesis is that variations in basal conditions exert strong control on the discharge of outlet glaciers. Airborne and surface-based radar measurements of Beardmore Glacier will be made to map the ice thickness and geometry of the sub-glacial trough and active and passive seismic experiments, together with ground-based radar and GPS measurements will be made to map spatial and temporal variations of conditions at the ice-bed interface. The observational data will be used to constrain dynamic models of glacier flow. The models will be used to address the primary controls on the dynamics of Antarctic outlet glaciers, the conditions at the bed, their spatial and temporal variation, and how such variability might affect the sliding and flow of these glaciers. The work will also explore whether or not these outlet glaciers could draw down the interior of East Antarctica, and if so, how fast. The study will take three years including two field seasons to complete and results from the work will be disseminated through public and professional meetings and journal publications. All data and metadata will be made available through the NSIDC web portal. The broader impacts of the work are that it will help elucidate the fundamental physics of outlet glacier dynamics which is needed to improve predictions of the response of ice sheets to changing environmental conditions. The project will also provide support for early career investigators and will provide training and support for one graduate and two undergraduate students. All collaborators are currently involved in scientific outreach and graduate student education and they are committed to fostering diversity.