RAPID: US-Korean collaboration to build a Ross-Amundsen Ice Core Array (RAICA) along the West Antarctic coastline

南极西部海岸线正在迅速变化：它正在变薄，失去质量，支撑的冰架正在退缩，而这些冰架对冰盖未来的稳定至关重要。尽管观测到海冰-海洋-大气相互作用引起的变化受到内部和强迫气候过程的干扰（例如，热带太平洋变率、臭氧消耗、温室气体变暖），但沿着这条海岸线的直接测量很少。冰垄是冰架内的接地冰区域，是理想的冰芯地点。这一地区的冰层上升，使得沿海地区的气候和环境参数能够以每年的分辨率重建几十年到几千年。从这一地区的冰层上升处获取一个150米长的冰芯，将扩大我们对几个世纪以来观测到的沿海变化的关键过程的理解。在冰升处收集的较浅岩心，位于中央150米岩心的侧翼，将验证整个冰升表面变化的数量和空间变动性，为航空观测、卫星观测、气候模型和再分析数据集提供约束。该项目形成了美国研究人员和韩国极地研究所（KOPRI）之间的新合作，KOPRI将提供大部分后勤，包括使用他们的研究船RV ARAON。该项目还将培养一名研究生。这个快速提案依赖于KOPRI物流来完成这个项目的现场方面。参与者将于2023年12月至2024年2月在RV ARAON上部署。美韩科考队将沿着当地的冰分界线，从半岛中心钻取一到两个150米长的冰芯。此外，为了评估地表质量平衡（SMB）的可变性，研究小组将在冰分水岭的侧翼钻取一系列10到15米的冰芯。基于现有的机载积雪雷达数据，以及高积雪率，保留了高分辨率的古气候信息，选择了位于盖茨冰架和多森冰架之间的马丁半岛作为主要站点。具体地点的选择将基于科学价值和与RV ARAON巡航相关的后勤限制。冰芯数据将用于描述近几十年和几个世纪以来沿西南极沿海冰盖的气候变化、极端和趋势。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。

The West Antarctic coastline is changing rapidly: it is thinning, losing mass, and buttressing ice shelves that are critical for future stability of the ice sheet are retreating. Despite observed change caused by ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions perturbed by both internal and forced climate processes (e.g., tropical Pacific Ocean variability, ozone depletion, greenhouse gas warming), there are few direct measurements along this coastline. Ice rises, which are regions of grounded ice within ice shelves, are ideal ice-core sites. Ice rises line this region, allowing for reconstruction of coastal climate and environmental parameters dating back decades to millennia at annual resolution. Retrieval of a 150-m-long ice core from an ice rise in this region will expand our understanding of critical processes relevant to observed coastal change over a timespan of several centuries. Shallower cores also collected on the ice rise, flanking the central 150-m core, will validate the amount and spatial variability of surface change across this ice rise, providing constraint for airborne observations, satellite observations, climate models, and reanalysis datasets. The project forms a new collaboration between a U.S. researcher and the South Korean Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), who will provide the bulk of the logistics, including the use of their research vessel, RV ARAON. The project will also train a graduate student.This RAPID proposal relies on KOPRI logistics to accomplish the field aspects of this project. The participants will deploy on the RV ARAON from December 2023 – February 2024. The U.S.-South Korean team will drill one to two 150-m ice core from the center of the peninsula, along the local ice divide. Further, to assess surface-mass-balance (SMB) variability, the team will drill a series of 10- to 15-m ice cores on the flanks of the ice divide. Martin Peninsula, between the Getz Ice Shelf and the Dotson Ice Shelf, has been chosen as the primary site based on existing airborne snow radar data, and the high snow accumulation rate, which preserves high-resolution paleoclimate information. The specific site will be chosen based on both scientific value and logistical constraints associated with the RV ARAON cruise. The ice-core data will be used to characterize climate variability, extremes, and trends along the coastal West Antarctic Ice Sheet — over recent decades and centuries.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.