IRES Track I: Manifestations of climate change in extreme events

IRES Track I：极端事件中气候变化的表现

• 批准号: 2107275
• 负责人: Julio Urbina
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2107275&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IRES; Track; Manifestations; climate; change

Human-induced changes in the global climate and atmospheric environment are among the most significant scientific challenges to address this century. Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases are the dominant cause of observed warming since the mid-20th century. Earth System Models are used to both understand these issues as well as project the future state of the climate and the environment. However, significant uncertainties remain in these models, owing to the lack of high-quality data of key variables, especially from complex terrains that encompass mountains, rainforests, and a variety of land uses. This IRES project will provide five U.S. undergraduate students each year the opportunity to spend eight weeks in Peru to study the extreme weather manifestations of climate change. Peru is on the extreme side of potential impacts that climate change can have, and therefore, the training we will develop in Peru could be applied to the United States. Students will learn the necessary research skills to apply theories about climate change, impacts, adaptation, and solutions within the Peruvian context. Students will also work in Peru to address challenges associated with climate change. The international experiences will contribute to increasing retention and graduation rates of participating students, improve programs and strategies for sustaining diversity in science and engineering.The program provides individually challenging experiences in research and well-organized integrative team activities and professional development to undergraduate students. The program aims to provide a high quality, and balanced research activities that positively impact the participants’ lifelong career choices in science and engineering research. The students will work with faculty and investigators from Peru and United States to integrate weather sensors and mount them on a drone, design experiments, collect and analyze data, and present results to scientific and non-scientific audiences. Students will study complex terrain and ecosystems in collaboration with local scientific and engineering experts, and utilize laboratory and local field infrastructure. Proposed activities rely on existing and new data sets, social science data collection, and ground-based and remote sensing measurements in collaboration with local partners in Peru to study extreme weather events such as severe hailstorms and frost conditions in the Peruvian Andes, and wildfires in the Peruvian Amazon. Research activities will include data analyses to mitigate El Niño phenomena and identify Drawdown solutions to combat climate change. Students will work within the areas of faculty expertise but choose and define a project of personal interest. Each project will have at least two faculty mentors to help the students develop with multidisciplinary approaches to tackle their research activities. This program includes a robust mentoring component aimed at sharing best practices for future researchers. The involvement of undergraduates in research with exposure to climate change and the social impact on humankind has implications well beyond the technical scope of the individual research projects, and the inclusion of science communication shows how research can directly impact society.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

人类活动引起的全球气候和大气环境变化是本世纪面临的最重大科学挑战之一。温室气体浓度的增加是自世纪中期以来观测到的变暖的主要原因。地球系统模型用于理解这些问题，并预测未来的气候和环境状况。然而，由于缺乏关键变量的高质量数据，特别是包括山区、雨林和各种土地使用的复杂地形的数据，这些模型仍然存在很大的不确定性。这个IRES项目每年将为五名美国本科生提供在秘鲁度过八周的机会，以研究气候变化的极端天气表现。秘鲁处于气候变化可能产生的潜在影响的极端一边，因此，我们将在秘鲁开展的培训可以适用于美国。学生将学习必要的研究技能，在秘鲁的背景下应用有关气候变化，影响，适应和解决方案的理论。学生们还将在秘鲁工作，以应对与气候变化相关的挑战。国际经验将有助于提高参与学生的保留率和毕业率，改善维持科学和工程多样性的项目和策略。该计划为本科生提供具有挑战性的研究经验以及组织良好的综合团队活动和专业发展。该计划旨在提供高质量，平衡的研究活动，积极影响参与者在科学和工程研究中的终身职业选择。学生们将与来自秘鲁和美国的教师和研究人员合作，整合天气传感器并将其安装在无人机上，设计实验，收集和分析数据，并向科学和非科学观众展示结果。学生将与当地科学和工程专家合作研究复杂的地形和生态系统，并利用实验室和当地的实地基础设施。拟议的活动依赖于现有的和新的数据集、社会科学数据收集以及与秘鲁当地伙伴合作进行的地面和遥感测量，以研究秘鲁安第斯山脉的严重冰雹和霜冻条件以及秘鲁亚马逊地区的野火等极端天气事件。研究活动将包括数据分析，以减轻厄尔尼诺现象，并确定应对气候变化的“缩编”解决方案。学生将在教师专业领域内工作，但选择和定义个人兴趣的项目。每个项目将有至少两名教师导师，以帮助学生发展多学科的方法来解决他们的研究活动。该计划包括一个强大的指导组件，旨在为未来的研究人员分享最佳实践。大学生参与气候变化和对人类社会影响的研究，其意义远远超出了单个研究项目的技术范围，科学传播的纳入表明了研究如何直接影响社会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。