EAPSI: Investigating the Alaskan Black Carbon Deposition During the Last Millennium from the Mt. Hunter Ice Core

黑碳（也被称为烟灰）显著改变了整个地球系统的能量平衡，导致气温升高和冰反射率降低，这两者都对冰川融化速度产生影响，从而影响全球海平面。冰芯提供了在最近的仪器周期（公元~1950年之后）之前大气黑碳浓度变化的最佳记录之一，使人们能够评估过去黑碳排放对气候和冰川物质平衡的影响。该项目将开发阿拉斯加首个千年冰芯黑碳记录，以确定阿拉斯加的污染源，并模拟煤烟对阿拉斯加冰川融化速度的影响。这些数据将在罗斯·爱德华兹博士的指导下进行分析，他是澳大利亚珀斯科廷大学黑碳分析领域的世界领先专家之一。这项研究将融化并分析2013年夏天从阿拉斯加亨特山山顶高原收集的208米冰芯。分析将在SP2黑碳分析仪上进行，这是一种最先进的仪器，能够提供最高质量的黑碳浓度变化记录。拟议的研究将得出阿拉斯加黑碳浓度在过去1000年的时间序列。这一新的记录将有助于确定阿拉斯加黑碳的来源，并限制黑碳沉积对过去一千年阿拉斯加冰川质量平衡的影响。NSF EAPSI奖是与澳大利亚科学院合作资助的。

Black carbon (also known as soot) significantly alters the energy balance across the earth system, resulting in higher air temperatures and lower ice reflectivity, both of which have impacts on glacier melt rates and, therefore, global sea level. Ice cores provide one of the best available records of how atmospheric black carbon concentrations changed prior to the recent instrumental period (after ~1950 AD), allowing one to evaluate the impact of black carbon emissions on climate and glacier mass balance in the past. This project will develop the first millennial-length ice core black carbon record from Alaska in order to determine sources of pollution to Alaska and to model the effects of soot on Alaskan glacier melt rates. This data will be analyzed under the guidance of Dr. Ross Edwards, one of the world's leading experts in black carbon analysis at the Curtin University in Perth, Australia. This study will melt and analyze a 208 meter ice core collected during the summer of 2013 from the summit plateau of Mt. Hunter, Alaska. Analysis will be conducted on an SP2 black carbon analyzer, a state-of-the-art instrument capable to providing the highest quality record of black carbon concentration variation. The proposed research will result in a time series of Alaskan black carbon concentration spanning the last 1,000 years. This novel record will help to establish the sources of black carbon to Alaska and to constrain the impact of black carbon deposition on the mass balance of Alaskan glaciers over the last millennium. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Australian Academy of Science.