Collaborative Research: Constraining the Role of the Antarctic Slope Current on Tracer Exchange at the Antarctic Margin using Model Hierarchies

南大洋（SO）在气候系统中起着主导作用，占人为热量和碳吸收量的不成比例，并决定了未来海平面上升的最大潜在来源，南极冰盖（AIS）的演变。因此，SO中的动力学在气候系统和气候变化的轨迹以及相关的社会影响中发挥着巨大的作用。快速向西流动的南极斜坡流（ASC），移动沿着南极大陆架和开放的SO之间的边界被假设为影响热量输送到南极冰架，这表明一个重要的机制，控制AIS融化率，从而未来海平面上升。ASC也可以作为一个关键的门户之间的交换的营养物质和碳的大陆架和开放的SO，与海洋碳循环和生态系统动力学的影响。为了限制南极大陆架和开放SO的热和地球化学性质将如何演变，需要全面了解ASC，其变异性，其在示踪剂运输中的作用，以及其对内部和外部气候强迫的响应。尽管其假设的重要性，超越次年度的时间尺度和局部区域，关键的知识差距存在于我们的理解ASC。拟议的研究将利用科学观测约束和验证的物理和地球化学SO状态估计以及完全耦合的气候模型模拟的层次结构来解决这些现有的知识差距。一种新的，高分辨率的南大洋状态估计（SOSE）与潮汐强迫，冰架腔，和活跃的冰架将允许ASC的变化和冰架融化事件之间的连接的调查。这项工作的结果将提供有关ASC的气候状态和结构，其变异性及其在不断变化的气候系统中的作用的基础知识。这项研究还将提供关键的洞察力的作用，模型分辨率可能在ASC动态，这是至关重要的一步，提高模型模拟和未来的预测的保真度。除了与天普大学第一代计划合作招募早期职业研究人员外，与Compute-STEM计划合作制定课程计划和教师培训将扩大该研究项目的影响。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

The Southern Ocean (SO) plays a dominant role in the climate system, accounting for a disproportionate amount of anthropogenic heat and carbon uptake and determining how the largest source of potential future sea level rise, the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), evolves. Therefore, dynamics in the SO have an outsized role in the climate system and the trajectory of climate change and associated societal impacts. The swift westward flowing Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) that moves along the boundary between the Antarctic continental shelf and the open SO is hypothesized to influence heat delivery to Antarctic ice shelves, suggesting an important mechanism for controlling AIS melt rates and thus future sea level rise. The ASC also may act as a key gateway for the exchange of nutrients and carbon between the shelf and open SO, with implications for the marine carbon cycle and ecosystem dynamics. To constrain how the thermal and biogeochemical properties of the Antarctic shelf and open SO will evolve, a comprehensive understanding of the ASC, its variability, its role in tracer transport, and its response to internal and external climate forcing is required. Despite its hypothesized importance, beyond sub-annual timescales and at localized regions, critical knowledge gaps exist in our understanding of the ASC. The proposed research will utilize a hierarchy of state-of-the-science observationally-constrained and validated physical and biogeochemical SO state estimates and fully-coupled climate model simulations to address these existing knowledge gaps. A novel, fine-resolution Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE) with tidal forcing, ice shelf cavities, and thermodynamically-active ice shelves will allow for the investigation of the connection between ASC variability and ice shelf melt events. The results from this work will provide foundational knowledge on the ASC’s climatological state and structure, its variability, and its role in the evolving climate system. This research will also provide critical insight on the role that model resolution may play in ASC dynamics, a step which is vital for improving the fidelity of model simulations and future projections. In addition to engaging with the Temple University First-Generation Initiative for recruiting early career researchers, a partnership with the Compute-STEM program to develop lesson plans and teacher trainings will extend the impacts of this research project.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.