An assessment of recent and past cryospheric change in western Canada

对加拿大西部最近和过去冰冻圈变化的评估

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05639
• 负责人: Menounos, Brian
• 金额: $ 2.62万
• 依托单位: University of Northern British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=738420
• 关键词: assessment; recent; past; cryospheric; change

Direct observations provide one way to quantify the sensitivity of the cryosphere to climate change. These observations also represent an invaluable dataset to validate spaceborne measurements and refine models that simulate ice loss under projected climate change. My trainees and I will continue to assess the relation between recent and projected changes in climate and glacier mass loss. Our primary objective for the next five years will be to quantify contemporary (last 10 years), historical (last 100) and paleo (last 1000 years) area and mass loss of alpine glaciers in western Canada. We will focus our efforts where NSERC support can complement existing research in the Southern Coast, Southern Interior and Rocky mountains, but we will also initiate new assessments of mass and area change for mountains in the Western Canadian Arctic (eastern Yukon and Northwest Territories). Our methods to assess recent mass change will include airborne laser altimetry. In particular we will align our airborne laser surveys to help assess the reliability of NASA's new IceSat2 campaign to quantify mass loss for alpine glaciers. In collaboration with the Government of BC, we will assemble many tens of thousands of historical aerial photography to quantify area and mass loss for the last 70 years in the Southern Coast Mountains, an area that contains about one half the total ice cover in western North America excluding glaciers that straddle the BC/Alaska and Yukon/Alaska border. Our work to quantify area and mass loss over the last 1000 years will target glaciers in low and high latitudes in western Canada using terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating (TCN). The amplitude of 20th and early 21st century warming in the western Canadian Arctic exceeds most places on Earth, yet little is known about how these high latitude glaciers in the western Canadian Arctic respond to present and past climate change. Continued investment by Canada in science and technology is essential to solve problems that arise from present and future climate change. Climate change, environmental degradation, water resources, and hydroelectric power generation are issues in the public spotlight and are likely to be the focus of extensive research throughout this century. Over the duration of this grant, 5 PhD students, 3 MSc students, and numerous undergraduate students will be trained as experts in earth system science and geomatics, and cryospheric sciences. These highly skilled trainees will contribute to a strong and productive science and technology sector that will benefit Canadians and the Canadian economy.

直接观测提供了一种量化冰冻圈对气候变化敏感性的方法。这些观测结果也是一个宝贵的数据集，可用于验证星载测量结果，并改进模拟预计气候变化下冰损失的模型。我和我的学员将继续评估最近和预计的气候变化与冰川质量损失之间的关系。我们未来五年的主要目标是量化加拿大西部高山冰川的当代（过去10年），历史（过去100年）和古（过去1000年）面积和质量损失。我们将把我们的努力集中在NSERC的支持可以补充现有的研究在南部海岸，南部内陆和落基山脉，但我们也将启动新的质量和面积的变化在加拿大西部北极山区（东部育空地区和西北地区）的评估。我们评估最近质量变化的方法将包括机载激光测高。特别是，我们将调整我们的机载激光调查，以帮助评估美国宇航局新的IceSat 2活动的可靠性，以量化高山冰川的质量损失。与不列颠哥伦比亚省政府合作，我们将收集成千上万的历史航空摄影，以量化过去70年来南海岸山脉的面积和质量损失，该地区约占北美西部总冰盖的一半，不包括横跨不列颠哥伦比亚省/阿拉斯加和育空地区/阿拉斯加边界的冰川。我们的工作，以量化面积和质量损失在过去的1000年将在加拿大西部的低纬度和高纬度的冰川使用陆地宇宙成因核素测年（TCN）。加拿大北极西部20世纪和世纪初变暖的幅度超过了地球上的大多数地方，但人们对加拿大北极西部的这些高纬度冰川如何应对现在和过去的气候变化知之甚少。加拿大在科学和技术方面的持续投资对于解决目前和未来气候变化所产生的问题至关重要。气候变化、环境恶化、水资源和水力发电是公众关注的问题，可能是整个世纪广泛研究的焦点。在此资助期间，5名博士生，3名硕士生和许多本科生将被培训为地球系统科学和地理信息学以及冰冻圈科学的专家。这些高技能的受训人员将为一个强大和富有成效的科学和技术部门做出贡献，这将有利于加拿大人和加拿大经济。