Relationships Between Climate and Glacier Variations in Western North America

摘要ATM-9530691康威，霍华德华盛顿大学标题：气候和冰川变化之间的关系， 北美西部 该奖项将支持一项研究，旨在确定可以从北美西海岸的冰川记录中提取哪些气候信息。 冰川包含了过去的气象条件的非线性转换和这些冰川的行为的系统比较有可能揭示相当多的关于该地区过去气候的新信息。 北太平洋的阿留申低压对风暴路径有导向作用，当太平洋-北美指数为正值时，华盛顿干燥，阿拉斯加潮湿;阿拉斯加和华盛顿冰川的质量平衡之间存在负相关。 阿留申低压的强度和频率。 这项研究将增进对大气-冰川过程的了解。 虽然需要许多高分辨率的气象观测来准确地模拟短（年度）时间尺度上的大气-冰川过程，但两个或三个变量应该足以解释较长（十年）时间尺度上的行为。 敏感性研究将通过复杂性降低的物理模型探索冰川对气候的反应（质量变化和随后的动态反应），并建立最简单的可行模型，准确模拟十年时间尺度上的行为。 我们的目标是减少问题的维度，并建立一个现实的模块，可以链接到一个全球模型的输出。

Abstract ATM-9530691 Conway, Howard University of Washington Title: Relationships Between Climate and Glacier Variations in Western North America This award will support a study designed to establish what climate information can be extracted from the glacial record on the west coast of North America. Glaciers contain a non-linear transformation of past meteorological conditions and a systematic comparison of the behavior of these glaciers has potential to reveal considerable new information about past climate in the region. The Aleutian Low in the north Pacific has a steering effect on storm tracks such that condition are dry in Washington and wet in Alaska during years when the Pacific-North America index is positive; there is a negative correlation between the mass balance of Alaskan and Washington glaciers. The intensity and frequency of the Aleutian Low. This study will improve understanding of atmosphere-glacier processes. Although many high resolution meteorological observations are needed to accurately model atmosphere-glacier processes over short (annual) time scales, two or three variables should be sufficient to explain behavior over longer (decadal) time scales. Sensitivity studies will explore glacier response to climate (both mass changes and subsequent dynamic response) through physical models of decreasing complexity and establish the simplest workable model that accurately simulates behavior over decadal time scales. The objective is to reduce the dimensionality of the problem and build a realistic module that can be linked to the output of a global model.