Linking Glacier Discharge and Ocean Circulation at the Edge of a Tidewater Glacier Using New Measurement Techniques

改进对格陵兰未来质量损失的预测，对于解决海平面上升和北大西洋变淡等全球关切的问题至关重要。由于对终止于峡湾海洋水域的冰川表面发生的过程了解不足，这种预测受到了阻碍。在这样的地点收集数据是困难和危险的，因为冰川断断续续地崩解冰山。利用其他资金，参与该项目的科学家从格陵兰岛冰川表面附近收集了两个独特的数据集，并提议对这些数据进行分析。一个成功和有洞察力的项目将改变我们对这些地区进行建模和观察的方式。该项目汇集了一个由海洋学家、冰川学家和工程师组成的跨学科团队，其中包括一名研究生和一名博士后助理，他们将从接触这一跨学科科学项目中使用的各种方法中受益。在本项目期间，麻省理工学院博物馆将举办一个多媒体冰盖/海洋相互作用展览，以及项目人员在博物馆的两次公开讲座，将提供专门的和广泛访问的研究方法和科学的公共传播。拟议的工作将提供对格陵兰西部中型冰川的冰/海洋边界层内动态的详细描述，该冰川的边缘以冰下排放提供的湍流羽流为特征，以及更安静的地区。这些数据使用私人资金在两个夏季(一个异常融化)收集，包括从两个自动驾驶飞行器(一个水面和一个水下)和直升机部署的系泊设备获得的冰锋100米范围内的独特测量数据。海洋性质和速度数据将被用来描述近冰动力学的时空变异性，并将与现有理论进行比较。这一分析将得到冰川学、气象和气候模型数据的补充，以限制锋面位置、集水区大小、冰川速度、地表融水产量和径流。一个关键的目标是表征参数机制，以便约束未来的建模。第二个目标是评价使用新技术克服该区域观测挑战的情况并提供反馈，这是未来海洋学和冰川学调查的一项要求。

Improved predictions of future mass loss from Greenland are essential to resolving issues of global concern, such as sea-level rise and the freshening of the North Atlantic. Such predictions are hampered by a poor understanding of processes occurring at the face of glaciers that terminate in the marine waters of fjords. Data collection in such locales is difficult and dangerous, because the glaciers are intermittently calving icebergs. Using other funding, the scientists involved in this project have collected two unique data sets from near a glacier face in Greenland and propose to analyze these data. A successful and insightful project will transform the manner in which we model and observe these regions. This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of oceanographers, glaciologists and engineers, including a graduate student and a post-doctoral associate who will benefit from exposure to the diverse methods to be used in this interdisciplinary science project. A multimedia Ice Sheet / Ocean Interaction exhibit at the MIT Museum to run for the duration of this project, along with two public museum lectures by project personnel, will provide dedicated and widely accessible public dissemination of the research methodology and science.The proposed work will provide a detailed description of the dynamics within the ice/ocean boundary layer of a medium-sized glacier in west Greenland, whose margins are characterized by turbulent plumes fed by subglacial discharge, as well as more quiescent regions. The data, collected over two summer seasons (one with exceptional melt) using private funds, include unique measurements within 100 m of the ice front taken from two autonomous vehicles (one surface and one underwater) and moorings deployed by helicopter. Ocean property and velocity data will be used to characterize the spatial and temporal variability of the near-ice dynamics and will be compared with existing theories. This analysis will be complemented by glaciological, meteorological and climate model data to constrain the frontal position, catchment size, glacier velocity, surface meltwater production and runoff. A key objective is to characterize the parameter regime in order to constrain future modeling. A second objective is to evaluate and provide feedback on the use of new technology to overcome the challenges of observations in this region, a requirement for future oceanographic and glaciological investigations.