CAREER: Integrating field geomorphology, remote sensing, undergraduate education, and modelling to improve understanding of Arctic hydrology

随着这一敏感地区对全球范围内能源和水运输的变化做出反应，北极正在经历快速变化，深刻影响着当地社区、生态系统和水循环。编目和理解这些变化的最好方法之一是通过研究北极河流。河流是北极整体变化的一个很好的指标，因为河流中的水在任何给定的时间(其“流量”)反映了水和能量循环的所有其他组成部分：降水、蒸发和地下水运动。然而，后勤困难和国际优先事项的变化导致仪表盘监测网络急剧下降。同样，对北冰洋河流独特的地貌(河流形成和被地形塑造的方式)的研究也相对较少。如果没有开源数据的进步和对北极河流的了解，我们就无法评估最近影响到公民和生态系统的北极变化，我们准确预测北极未来气候和水资源的能力也大大受损。因此，这个项目寻求对从河流向上建立的泛北极水文循环进行前所未有的核算。该项目将首先开发评估北极水文最近变化所需的基本开源河流数据，然后使用这些数据来编目和了解北极水的状况。具体地说，该项目将把最近在大数据遥感和特定遥感流量估计技术方面的爆炸性进展与经典的河流地貌相结合，利用NASA的Landsat系列卫星估计从1984年到现在每条宽度超过150米的北极河流的流量。这项北冰洋河流遥感评估将建立在马萨诸塞州大学阿默斯特分校本科生设计和执行的详细野外工作的基础上：北极地球科学与工程集成(IGEA)。IGEA参与者将设计和领导实地工作，旨在加深对独特的北极地貌的了解，并将吸收这些信息，以改进从遥感做出的流量估计。IGEA的学生将以大三学生的身份在春季学期设计实地实验，在大三之后的夏天进行北极实地考察，然后分析他们的数据，并在大四的秋天培训下一批参与者。有目的地从工程学和地球科学这两个不同的学科中挑选本科生，以解决本科水平的学科孤立问题，并通过这个身临其境的北极研究项目培训、教授和激励下一代跨学科思想家。最后，IGEA提供的遥感流量数据将用于校准开放源码的全球水文模型，整合该项目的其他组成部分，通过改进对北极河流的基于过程的理解，实现对整个北极系统的更全面了解。

The Arctic is undergoing rapid changes as this sensitive region responds to altered energy and water transport at the global scale, deeply affecting its local communities, ecosystems, and water cycle. One of the best ways to catalog and understand these changes is through the study of Arctic rivers. Rivers are an excellent indicator of overall Arctic change as the water in the river at any given time (its "discharge") is a reflection of all of the other components of the water and energy cycles: precipitation, evaporation, and groundwater movements. However, logistical difficulties and shifting international priorities have resulted in a steep decline in gauge monitoring network. Likewise, the unique geomorphology (the way rivers shape and are shaped by the landscape) of Arctic rivers is relatively understudied. Without advances in open source data and understanding of Arctic rivers we lack the ability to assess recent Artic changes that are affecting citizens and ecosystems alike, and our ability to accurately predict the future climate and water resources of the Arctic is greatly impaired.Therefore, this project seeks an unprecedented accounting of the pan-Arctic hydrologic cycle built from the river up. The project will first develop the basic open-source river data needed to assess recent changes in Arctic hydrology and then use these data to catalog and understand the state of the Arctic's water. Specifically, the project will couple the recent explosion in big-data remote sensing and specific remote sensing discharge estimation techniques with classic fluvial geomorphology to estimate discharge for every Arctic river wider than 150m from 1984 to present using NASA's Landsat family of satellites. This remotely sensed Arctic river assessment will be founded upon a backbone of detailed fieldwork as designed and executed by undergraduates at UMass Amherst in a new program: Integrating Geosciences and Engineering in the Arctic (IGEA). IGEA participants will design and lead fieldwork intended to deepen understanding of unique Arctic geomorphology, and this information will be absorbed to improve the discharge estimates made from remote sensing. IGEA students will design field experiments in the spring semester as juniors, perform Arctic fieldwork in the summer after their junior year, and then analyze their data and train the next cohort of participants in the fall of their senior year. Undergraduates are purposefully drawn from two different disciplines, Engineering and Geosciences, to address disciplinary siloing at the undergraduate level and to train, teach, and inspire the next generation of interdisciplinary thinkers through this immersive Arctic research program. Finally, the IGEA-informed remotely sensed discharge data will be used to calibrate an open source global hydrology model, integrating the other components of this project to reach a fuller understanding of the entire Arctic system achieved through improved process-based understanding of Arctic rivers.