Collaborative Research: The Impact of Oceanic Forcing on the Melting of West Antarctic Peninsula Glaciers

西南极半岛是南半球变暖最快的地区，观测显示，20世纪以来，该地区的冰川和冰盖普遍消退。南极半岛是一个在科学研究、物种和生态系统保护、旅游、航运和美国在南极的国家利益方面日益重要的国际地区。西南极半岛未来的冰川融化对这一生物活跃地区的区域淡水收支、海洋环流和生态系统具有重要意义。区域和全球对海平面上升的预测表明，西南极半岛必须包括在十年尺度预测中，因为目前对全球海平面的贡献与西南极冰盖的贡献相同。这项研究将考察海洋目前在西南极半岛冰川融化中的作用，以及它在未来可能扮演的角色。这项研究的目的是利用高分辨率模型和历史数据相结合的方法，了解海洋结构和动力学对西南极半岛冰川融化的影响。该项目的重点是：(1)陆架环流过程--例如由风和浮力强迫驱动，由与南极绕极洋流的交换驱动，并受复杂的海底地形调制--相对于冰川本身驱动的环流，对冰川融化的重要性；(2)沿海海洋性质和环流动态的明显差异的影响，特别强调布兰斯菲尔德海峡与南部大陆架之间的差异，以及(Iii)在决定近岸热力强迫的垂直结构及其对冰川融化的影响方面，开阔海洋和陆架之间的风和浮力调制交换以及陆架上的输送和混合过程的竞争。

The Western Antarctic Peninsula is the fastest-warming region in the Southern Hemisphere and observations show widespread retreat of glaciers and ice sheets in this region over the 20th century. The Antarctic Peninsula is an area of growing importance internationally for scientific research, species and ecosystem conservation, tourism, shipping, and US national interests in Antarctica. The future melting of ice along the West Antarctic Peninsula is of importance to the regional freshwater budget, ocean circulation, and ecosystems in this biologically active region. Regional and global projections of sea level rise indicate the West Antarctic Peninsula must be included in decadal scale projections as the contribution to global sea level is at present equal in magnitude to the West Antarctic Ice Sheet component. This study will examine the role that the ocean is playing presently?and what role it might play in the future?in the melting of ice along the West Antarctic Peninsula.This proposal aims to understand the impact of the ocean structure and dynamics on the melting of West Antarctic Peninsula glaciers using a combination of high-resolution models and historic data. The project focuses on (i) the importance that shelf circulation processes - driven for example by wind and buoyancy forcing and by the exchange with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, and modulated by the complex bottom topography - have on the melting of glaciers, relative to that circulation driven by the melting glacier itself, (ii) the impact of the distinct differences in ocean properties and circulation dynamics along the coast, with particular emphasis in differences between Bransfield Strait and the shelf to the south, and (iii) the competition of wind- and buoyancy-modulated exchange between the open ocean and the shelf and the transport and mixing processes on the shelf in determining the vertical structure of the nearshore thermal forcing, and its impact on glacier melting.