RAPID: Response of Lake Superior to anomalously high ice cover during the winter of 2013-2014

RAPID：苏必利尔湖对 2013-2014 年冬季异常高冰盖的响应

• 批准号: 1445567
• 负责人: Jay Austin
• 金额: $ 4.09万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota Duluth
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-06-15 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1445567&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Response; Lake; Superior; anomalously

The winter of 2013-2014 was a remarkably harsh, cold winter throughout much of the upper midwest, resulting in record low average temperatures and high snowfall amounts. One of the interesting and potentially important consequences of this anomalously cold winter is the high amounts of ice formed on the US/Canadian Laurentian Great Lakes. While all of the lakes experienced anomalously high levels of ice, Lake Superior was a true standout. In most years, Lake Superior does not freeze over completely. In very cold years, Lake Superior might be frozen over completely for a few days in the late winter, but this past year Lake Superior spent nearly all of February and March completely frozen over. In early May, the lake was still over 50% ice-covered. This situation presents a unique opportunity to better understand the implications of the anomalous ice conditions for the lake for subsequent summer and fall. Given the long term trend towards lower ice cover on Lake Superior (and rivers and lakes around the world), an opportunity to study such extreme conditions and their consequences may not occur again in the foreseeable future.Intellectual Merit: A growing body of research acknowledges the strong connection in deep, temperate lakes between winter ice cover and lake thermal conditions for most of the rest of the year. A short extension of an on-going deployment of three open-lake moorings in Lake Superior through the summer of 2014 following several years when ice coverage levels have been relatively low represents an opportunity to significantly extend the dynamic range of our understanding of the role that ice plays.Broader Impacts: As part of the observational work, the principal investigator will make the additional ship time associated with this project available to the wider scientific community and share the collected data in order to have a wider, interdisciplinary perspective on the impacts of the record-breaking ice levels. Several community-building exercises will be developed to use the high-ice year as a gauge of the current level of understanding and two graduate students would receive training in taking and interpreting field observations.

2013年至2014年的冬天是一个非常严酷，寒冷的冬天，整个中西部北部的大部分地区，导致创纪录的低平均气温和高降雪量。这个异常寒冷的冬天的一个有趣和潜在的重要后果是美国/加拿大劳伦特五大湖上形成了大量的冰。虽然所有的湖泊都经历了令人不安的高水平冰，上级湖是一个真正的突出。在大多数年份，上级湖不会完全结冰。在非常寒冷的年份，上级湖可能会在冬末完全结冰几天，但在过去的一年里，上级湖几乎整个2月和3月都完全结冰。5月上旬，湖面仍有50%以上的冰层覆盖。这种情况提供了一个独特的机会，以更好地了解异常冰条件对湖泊随后的夏季和秋季的影响。鉴于上级湖（以及世界各地的河流和湖泊）冰盖减少的长期趋势，在可预见的未来，研究这种极端条件及其后果的机会可能不会再次出现。学术价值：越来越多的研究机构承认，在一年中的大部分时间里，冬季冰盖和湖泊热条件之间存在着密切的联系。在冰覆盖水平相对较低的几年之后，上级湖三个开放湖系泊系统的持续部署将在2014年夏季短暂延长，这是一个机会，可以显著扩展我们对冰所起作用的理解的动态范围。作为观测工作的一部分，主要研究者将向更广泛的科学界提供与本项目相关的额外运输时间，并在以便对破纪录的冰平面的影响有更广泛的、跨学科的视角。将开展几项社区建设活动，以高冰年作为衡量目前认识水平的尺度，两名研究生将接受实地观察和解释方面的培训。