Glacial Assessment: Past, Present and Future: Acquisition of Essential Research Instrumentation

该奖项支持俄亥俄州立大学冰川评估计划（GAP）的主要研究仪器（MRI）设备采购。该计划有三个主要重点：1)主要使用包括遥感在内的地球物理方法记录正在进行和最近的冰川变化；2)从高分辨率冰芯气候历史提供的长期角度评估近期变化；3)通过提高模拟能力来预测未来冰川的变化，从而根据降雪和消融预测未来的气候强迫。该提案要求通过提高俄勒冈州立大学进行关键观察和分析的技术能力，来增强GAP调查过去、现在和未来冰川变化的能力。更具体地说，光谱辐射计将允许对冰缘景观的光谱特征进行关键的现场观测，作为使用多光谱卫星图像进行边线测绘的验证。重力仪对于更加定量地评估格陵兰岛、南极洲和较小的冰川和冰帽的质量平衡至关重要，这些冰川和冰帽有力地控制着当前和未来的海平面波动。质谱计和离子色谱仪为俄勒冈州立大学重建过去气候变化的能力提供了重要的增强，这些气候变化是从赤道到两极的冰川和冰盖中恢复的冰芯，从而解开了过去强迫区域气候的各种机制。最后，通过开发更高分辨率的区域气候模拟，计算机集群可以更好地预测未来的气候变化。获得拟议的仪器对于BPRC保持其在全球气候变化研究中的国际领导地位至关重要，对于P.I.s将其广泛的集体知识和专业知识用于冰川冰迅速和加速损失的关键问题至关重要

This award supports a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) purchase of equipment for Ohio State University's Glacial Assessment Program (GAP). The program has three major thrusts: 1) documenting ongoing and recent glacier change primarily using geophysical methods including remote sensing; 2) assessing the recent changes from a long-term perspective provided by high-resolution ice core-derived climate histories; and 3) projecting future glacier changes by improving modeling capability, and hence, predicting future climate forcing in terms of snowfall and ablation. This proposal requests funds to augment GAP's ability to investigate glacier changes in the past, present and future by enhancing OSU's technical capability to make critical observations and analyses. More specifically, the spectroradiometer will allow crucial field observations of the spectral signature of periglacial landscapes, to serve as validation for trimline mapping using multispectral satellite imagery. The gravity meter is essential to make a more quantitative assessment of the mass balances of Greenland, Antarctica and smaller glaciers and ice caps that strongly control present and future sea level fluctuations. The mass spectrometer and ion chromatographs provide critical augmentation to OSU's capability to reconstruct past climate variability from ice cores recovered from glaciers and ice caps from the equator to the poles and thereby disentangle the various mechanisms forcing regional climates in the past. Finally, computer clusters will allow better prediction of future climate change via the development of higher resolution simulations of regional climate. The acquisition of the proposed instrumentation is essential for BPRC to maintain its role as aninternational leader in the study of global climate change and for the P.I.s to direct their extensive collective knowledge and expertise on the critical issue of the rapid and accelerating loss of glacier ice