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

北极正经历着快速的变化，因为这个敏感地区对全球范围内能源和水运的变化做出了反应，深刻地影响了当地社区、生态系统和水循环。对这些变化进行分类和理解的最好方法之一是研究北极河流。河流是北极整体变化的极好指标，因为在任何给定时间，河流中的水（其“流量”）都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轨距监测网络急剧下降。同样，北极河流独特的地貌学（河流形成和被景观塑造的方式）也相对缺乏研究。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会受到极大损害。因此，该项目寻求从河流上游建立的泛北极水文循环的前所未有的核算。该项目将首先开发基本的开源河流数据，以评估北极水文的近期变化，然后使用这些数据对北极水的状况进行分类和了解。具体地说，该项目将结合最近大数据遥感的发展和特定的遥感流量估算技术与经典的河流地貌学，利用美国宇航局的陆地卫星系列卫星，从1984年到现在，估计每条宽度超过150米的北极河流的流量。这项遥感北极河流评估将建立在详细的实地考察的基础上，这些实地考察是由马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的本科生在一个新项目中设计和执行的：北极综合地球科学与工程（IGEA）。IGEA的参与者将设计并领导实地工作，以加深对独特的北极地貌的了解，并吸收这些信息以改进由遥感得出的排放量估计。IGEA学生将在大三的春季学期设计实地实验，在大三之后的夏季进行北极实地考察，然后在大四的秋季分析他们的数据并培训下一批参与者。本科生有目的地来自两个不同的学科，工程和地球科学，以解决本科层次的学科竖井问题，并通过这个沉浸式的北极研究项目培养、教授和激励下一代跨学科的思想家。最后，igea提供的遥感流量数据将用于校准一个开源的全球水文模型，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，更全面地了解整个北极系统。

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.