Collaborative Research: Assessing the Impact of Arctic Sea Ice Variability on the Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Mass and Energy Balance

北冰洋正在迅速失去夏季的海冰覆盖，导致秋季覆盖的大气异常变暖。在海冰减少的同时，格陵兰冰盖最近也在减少，表面融化和排放速度加快。这些变化引起了极大的社会经济关切，因为漂浮海冰覆盖范围和冰盖质量的持续负面趋势可能对气候和全球海平面产生广泛影响。研究人员提出，海冰覆盖的同时减少和格陵兰冰盖融化的增加是有联系的。一方面，两者在某种程度上可能主要对同一强迫做出反应，例如在北极地区放大的广义变暖信号。另一方面，可以假设，海冰的变化，通过对混合海洋层温度，覆盖空气温度，柱水蒸汽和大气环流的影响，影响格陵兰冰盖表面融化和积累。通过数据分析，过程研究和建模相结合，该项目旨在确定海冰损失和格陵兰冰盖融化和积累之间的相互作用。以下主要研究问题为研究提供了一个框架：1）海冰变化是否影响格陵兰冰盖表面融化（在哪里，何时，以及如何）？2)在冰和海洋条件的背景下，格陵兰周围风暴活动的性质是什么？海洋环境的变化如何影响格陵兰未来的表面融化和积累？这项调查将利用最新的卫星传感器数据，结合几种新的大气再分析数据产品、台站数据和最先进的区域气候模型，由一个研究小组进行，该研究小组是北极和格陵兰区域气候建模、地理空间分析和连续数据分析、卫星遥感和水文气候学方面的专家。该项目将支持科罗拉多大学、纽约城市学院和罗格斯大学的学生。该项目还包括努力从代表性不足的群体中招募本科生，并将支持新泽西的一名高中教师制定演讲计划，以便在会议和期刊上向K-12教育工作者的广大受众传播。

The Arctic Ocean is rapidly losing its summer sea ice cover, leading to anomalous warming of the overlying atmosphere in autumn. Concurrent with this sea ice loss, the Greenland ice sheet has been losing mass recently, with increased surface melt and discharge rates. These changes are of great socioeconomic concern as continued negative trends in the extent of floating sea ice cover and ice sheet mass are likely to have widespread impacts on climate and global sea levels. The investigators propose that the simultaneous decreases in sea ice cover and increased melting of the Greenland ice sheet are connected. On the one hand, both may be largely responding to the same forcing to some degree, such as a generalized warming signal, amplified over the Arctic. On the other hand, it can be hypothesized that sea ice variability, through influences on mixed ocean layer temperatures, overlying air temperatures, column water vapor and atmospheric circulation, influences Greenland ice sheet surface melt and accumulation. Through a combination of data analysis, process studies and modeling, this project seeks to define the interactions between sea ice loss and Greenland ice sheet melt and accumulation. The following major research questions provide a framework for the study: 1) Does sea ice variability influence Greenland ice sheet surface melt (where, when, and how)? 2) What is the nature of storm activity around Greenland in the context of ice and ocean conditions and how might changes in the marine environment influence Greenland surface melt and accumulation in the future? This investigation will take advantage of up-to-date satellite sensor data, in combination with several new atmospheric reanalysis data products, station data and a state-of-the-art regional climate model, performed by a research team who are specialists in regional climate modeling, analysis of geospatial and sequential data analysis, satellite remote sensing and hydroclimatology in the Arctic and Greenland. This project will support students at the University of Colorado, the City College of New York and Rutgers University. The project also includes efforts to recruit undergraduates from underrepresented groups and will support a New Jersey high school teacher to develop lecture plans to be disseminated to a wide audience of K-12 educators at conferences and in journals.