NSFGEO-NERC: Paleoclimate Signatures of the Climate Response to West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse

Steig/1602435该奖项支持一个研究气候系统对南极冰盖变化的反应的项目。 南极冰盖上升到海拔2公里以上的大气层中，影响大气环流的方式与大型山脉相同。过去冰盖大小的变化会导致大气环流的变化，从而导致气候的变化，这应该可以从冰和沉积物芯的古气候数据中检测出来。该项目将通过将这些数据与数值气候模型实验的结果进行比较，审查过去冰盖变化的证据。 该项目的智力价值在于，了解南极冰盖在以前的温暖时期可能发生的变化对于了解冰盖对气候变化的反应至关重要。有证据表明，西南极冰盖（WAIS）可能已经处于崩溃的开始阶段。更广泛的影响是，这项研究的结果将为预测WAIS未来可能发生的变化程度和速度提供信息。该项目是华盛顿大学（美国西雅图）和英国南极调查局（英国剑桥）的联合努力，这是两个机构各小组独立和互补努力的结果。该项目将支持两个博士后，并将有助于鼓励进一步的国际合作和多学科研究在这一领域。（NSF 14-118）和气候变化古观点（P2 C2）征集，将结合现有的古气候数据和新的模型模拟来研究南极冰盖变化对气候的影响。模型数据的比较将被用来测试的假设，即崩溃的WAIS发生在最后一个间冰期，并评估是否WAIS崩溃的时间和速度可以通过从南极洲新的冰芯记录的收购约束。将使用多个高分辨率、完全耦合的大气-海洋环流模型来创建一个模拟集合，其中包括南极冰盖变化的各种情景。该项目将使用社区地球系统模型第1版（CESM 1）、哈德利中心耦合模型第3版（HadCM 3）和马克斯·普朗克研究所模型ECHAM 5。使用多个模型可以提高对关键过程的理解，并提供模型偏差对模型-数据比较影响的关键度量。

Steig/1602435This award supports a project to examine the response of the climate system to changes in the Antarctic ice sheet. The Antarctic ice sheet rises into the atmosphere more than 2 kilometers above sea level, affecting atmospheric circulation in the same way a large mountain range does. Changes in ice sheet size in the past would have caused changes in atmospheric circulation, and hence climate, that should be detectable in paleoclimate data from ice and sediment cores. The project will examine the evidence for past ice sheet changes using a comparison of such data with results from numerical climate model experiments. The intellectual merit of this project is that knowing how the Antarctic ice sheet may have changed during previous warm periods is fundamental to understanding the response of ice sheets to climate change. There is evidence that West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) may already be in the beginning stages of collapse. The broader impact is that the outcomes of this research will inform projections of how much, and how fast, the WAIS may change in the future. The project is a joint effort between the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) and the British Antarctic Survey (Cambridge, U.K.), and is the result of independent and complementary efforts by groups from both institutions. The project will support two postdocs, and will help to encourage further international cooperative and multi-disciplinary research in this area.This project, submitted under the NSF/GEO-UK NERC lead agency opportunity (NSF 14-118) and the Paleo Perspectives on Climate Change (P2C2) solicitation, will use a combination of existing paleoclimate data and new model simulations to examine the influence of a changing Antarctic ice sheet on climate. Model-data comparisons will be used to test the hypothesis that a collapse of the WAIS occurred during the last interglacial period, and to evaluate whether the timing and rate of WAIS collapse can be constrained through the acquisition of new ice core records from Antarctica. Multiple, high-resolution, fully-coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (GCMs) will be used to create an ensemble of simulations that include varying scenarios for Antarctic ice sheet change. The project will use the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1), the Hadley Centre Couple Model version 3 (HadCM3), and the Max Planck institute model, ECHAM5. Using multiple models improves understanding of the key processes and provides a critical measure of the influence of model biases on the model-data comparison.