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

南极洲西部半岛是南半球变暖最快的地区，观测表明，该地区的冰川和冰盖在世纪普遍退缩。 南极半岛是一个在国际上对科学研究、物种和生态系统保护、旅游、航运和美国在南极洲的国家利益越来越重要的地区。 未来沿南极西部半岛的冰沿着融化对该生物活跃区域的区域淡水收支、海洋环流和生态系统具有重要意义。 对海平面上升的区域和全球预测表明，南极西部半岛必须包括在十年尺度的预测中，因为对全球海平面的贡献目前与南极西部冰盖部分的贡献相当。 这项研究将探讨海洋目前发挥的作用？它在未来可能扮演什么样的角色？这一提议旨在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南极半岛西部冰川融化的影响。该项目的重点是：（一）相对于冰川融化本身驱动的大陆架环流，大陆架环流过程-例如由风和浮力驱动以及与南极绕极流的交换驱动，并由复杂的海底地形调节-对冰川融化的重要性;（二）海洋特性和沿着环流动力学的明显差异的影响，特别强调布兰斯菲尔德海峡和南部大陆架之间的差异，以及（iii）公海和大陆架之间风和浮力调制交换的竞争以及大陆架上的输送和混合过程在确定垂直结构中的作用。近岸热力强迫及其对冰川融化的影响。

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.