Portable laboratory for the study of ice-oceans interactions

用于研究冰-海洋相互作用的便携式实验室

• 批准号: 406149-2011
• 负责人: Koppes, Michele
• 金额: $ 5.1万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2010-01-01 至 2011-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=472399
• 关键词: Portable; laboratory; study; ice; oceans

In 2007, the 4th IPCC Assessment recognized that the prime factor limiting public confidence in predicting future changes in sea level from changes in the worlds' ice masses is a poor understanding of the complex behavior of outlet glaciers and of their vulnerability to ocean and atmospheric warming. This laboratory will address some of these uncertainties by providing the means for achieving new insights into a) the role of ice-ocean interactions in outlet glacial systems and their impact on the mass balance of the ice masses that feed them, and b) the role of regional moisture and temperature variability on glacier health. The equipment will be used to collect a range of glaciologic and oceanographic data in the field, including physical measurements of ice motion, glacier mass balance, ice front melting, meltwater runoff, sediment production and seawater circulation, as well as sub-bottom profiles of the seabed for sediment fluxes and the preserved record of glacial activity. This research will take advantage of temperate and polar glaciers in Patagonia, Greenland, the Canadian Arctic and coastal British Columbia/Alaska, to generate insight likely to improve understanding of the processes that affect the stability of ice masses terminating in the sea worldwide, and to predict their evolution in a warmer climate. For the next few centuries, the retreat of these outlet glaciers will dominate global sea-level rise, and yet their fluctuations are only partly related to climate variability, and remain poorly understood.

2007年，IPCC第四次评估报告认识到，限制公众根据世界冰量变化预测未来海平面变化的主要因素是对出口冰川的复杂行为及其对海洋和大气变暖的脆弱性缺乏了解。该实验室将通过提供新的见解来解决其中的一些不确定性：a）冰-海相互作用在出口冰川系统中的作用及其对供给它们的冰质量的质量平衡的影响，以及B）区域水分和温度变化对冰川健康的作用。这些设备将用于在实地收集一系列冰川学和海洋学数据，包括对冰的运动、冰川质量平衡、冰锋融化、融水径流、沉积物产生和海水循环的物理测量，以及海底沉积物通量的海底剖面图和保存的冰川活动记录。这项研究将利用巴塔哥尼亚、格陵兰、加拿大北极和沿海不列颠哥伦比亚省/阿拉斯加的温带和极地冰川，以产生可能有助于提高对影响全球海洋中冰团稳定性的过程的理解的见解，并预测它们在温暖气候中的演变。在接下来的几个世纪里，这些出口冰川的退缩将主导全球海平面上升，但它们的波动只是部分与气候变化有关，而且仍然知之甚少。