Glacier Extremes: The Role of Glacier Snow Albedo Feedbacks From Wildfires and Heatwaves in Enhancing Present and Future Mass Loss in Alaska

冰川正在迅速失去质量，这影响了海平面上升、水资源、生态系统、气候、文化和旅游业。因此，提高我们对大规模变化驱动因素的理解和预测大规模损失的能力，对于支持适应和缓解努力至关重要。该项目旨在提高我们对野火和热浪对阿拉斯加目前和未来冰川质量损失的作用的理解。该项目将使用和开发最先进的冰川和气候模型，以解释当前模型中未包括的重要物理过程和反馈。我们将首次对野火和热浪造成的冰川质量损失进行预估，这些预估在未来将变得越来越频繁和广泛。更广泛地说，我们致力于教育和培训学生和公众。活动将包括与当地教育工作者共同开发关于冰川和气候变化的K-9教育模块，在K-12课程中授课，发布“与研究人员见面”访谈，以帮助我们科学家人性化，以及为阿拉斯加国家公园开发面向公众的教育材料。人们对野火和热浪对冰川质量损失的影响知之甚少。该项目将重点推进我们基于过程的理解，并量化野火、热浪和相应的反馈对阿拉斯加冰川质量损失的影响。我们将利用原位测量、遥感数据、区域和全球气候模型、冰川能量平衡模型和冰川演化模型，在一系列时空尺度上研究这些极端事件的影响。研究人员将为冰川能量平衡和冰川演化模型开发新的参数化，以解释野火在冰川表面沉积的黑色和棕色碳如何促进冰川融化。案例研究和控制模拟将促进我们对驱动冰川变化的主要和次要反馈机制的基于过程的理解。研究人员将把这些知识整合到最先进的冰川演变模型中，以产生阿拉斯加冰川质量损失的第一个预测，该预测考虑了野火、热浪和相应的冰川反馈。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Glaciers are rapidly losing mass, which impacts sea-level rise, water resources, ecosystems, climate, culture, and tourism. Improving our understanding of the drivers of mass change and our ability to project mass loss is therefore essential to support adaptation and mitigation efforts. This project seeks to advance our understanding of the role that wildfires and heatwaves have on enhancing present and future glacier mass loss in Alaska. The project will use and develop state-of-the-art glacier and climate models to account for important physical processes and feedbacks that are not included in current models. We will produce the first projections of the enhanced glacier mass loss caused by wildfires and heatwaves, which are projected to become increasingly frequent and widespread in the future. More broadly, we commit the project to the education and training of students and the public. Activities will include co-developing K-9 education modules on glaciers and climate change with local educators, lecturing in K-12 classes and posting Meet the Researcher interviews to help humanize us scientists, and developing educational materials geared towards the public for national parks in Alaska.The impact of wildfires and heatwaves on glacier mass loss is poorly understood. This project will focus on advancing our process-based understanding and quantifying the impact that wildfires, heatwaves, and corresponding feedbacks have on glacier mass loss in Alaska. We will use in situ measurements, remote sensing data, regional and global climate models, glacier energy balance models, and glacier evolution models to investigate the impact of these extreme events across a range of spatial and temporal scales. The investigators will develop new parameterizations for glacier energy balance and glacier evolution models to account for how the deposition of black and brown carbon from wildfires onto glacier surfaces enhances glacier melt. Case studies and controlled simulations will advance our process-based understanding of the primary and secondary feedback mechanisms driving glacier changes. The investigators will integrate this knowledge into state-of-the-art glacier evolution models to produce the first projections of glacier mass loss in Alaska that account for wildfires, heatwaves, and corresponding glacier feedbacks.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.