Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research (SOAR)

这项合作协议的授予支持一个航空地球物理设施的技术基础，该设施是极地地球科学和极地冰川计划内的几个项目所需的。该设施被称为SOAR，即航空地球物理研究支持办公室。SOAR的作用是促进南极大陆上空的航空地球物理研究，以了解冰盖的动态行为和冰盖下岩石圈的性质。Soar将支持需要高精度激光测高、重力、磁学和导航数据集的同行评议研究。飞跃的任务将每年谈判一次。首批得到支持的项目是在南极洲西部进行调查。西南极是S地球上最具动力的两种系统，大陆裂谷(西南极裂谷系统)和海基冰盖-西南极冰盖(WAIS)。活动的大陆裂谷系统，由发散的板块运动引起，导致大陆地壳变薄。与薄地壳伴生的是断层式沉积盆地、活火山作用和上升的热流。海洋冰盖的特点是快速流动的冰流，穿透并排干缓慢移动的冰库。过去海洋冰盖留下的证据表明，它们可能对导致大量快速排放冰的长期气候变化有强烈的非线性反应。了解冰流系统的演化及其与内部冰的相互作用是理解这种非线性响应的关键。除了这些具体项目外，SOAR还将提供对西南极冰芯选址决策至关重要的信息，以及选择积雪地震断面位置的关键信息。Soar代表着为美国南极计划提供研究支持的一次独特的实验。它有可能给南极的地球科学和冰川学研究带来革命性的变化。

This award for a cooperative agreement supports the technical foundation of an aerogeophysical facility that is required for several projects within the Polar Earth Sciences and Polar Glaciology Programs. The facility is referred to as SOAR, the Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research. The function of SOAR is to facilitate aerogeophysical research over continental Antarctica toward an understanding of the dynamic behavior of the ice sheet and the nature of the lithosphere beneath the ice sheet. SOAR will support peer-reviewed research requiring high precision laser altimetery, gravity, magnetics and navigational data sets. Tasking for SOAR will be negotiated annually. The first projects to be supported are investigations in West Antarctica. West Antarctica is characterized by two kinds of the Earth s most dynamic systems, a continental rift (the West Antarctic Rift System) and a marine based ice sheet, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). Active continental rift systems, caused by divergent plate motions, result in thinned continental crust. Associated with the thin crust are fault-bounded sedimentary basins, active volcanism, and elevated heat flow. Marine ice sheets are characterized by rapidly moving streams of ice, penetrating and draining a slowly moving ice reservoir. Evidence left by past marine ice sheets indicates that they may have a strongly non-linear response to long-term climate change which results in massive and rapid discharges of ice. Understanding the evolution of the ice stream system and its interaction with the interior ice is the key to understanding this non-linear response. In addition to these specific projects, SOAR will provide information essential to site selection decisions for a West Antarctic ice core as well as critical information for selection of locations of over-snow seismic transects. SOAR represents a unique experiment in research support for the US Antarctic program. It has the potential to revolutionize the conduct of Earth Science and Glaciology research in Antarctica.