Climate and Ice-Core Records: Quelccaya and Kilimanjaro

该奖项将通过对现代气候条件的空间视角，帮助提高古气候指标的准确性。这位研究人员和他的同事们将研究冰川的现代条件、相互作用和对气候强迫因素的敏感性，并检查在岩芯测量的参数(即稳定同位素、尘埃浓度)的可变性范围。来自热带、山脉冰川和冰帽的冰芯提供了高分辨率的环境数据记录。这项研究的目标地点是秘鲁的奎尔卡亚冰帽和东非的乞力马扎罗北部冰原，研究人员已经安装了与卫星相连的气象站。这些站测量一系列变量，以对高海拔地区的雪和/或冰的能量和质量交换进行建模。授予的资金将用于继续运营气象站，并扩大冰川质量平衡研究。总的来说，研究人员的目标是描述当地和区域尺度的现代气候，检查每个地点的可变性，并通过测量和建模来量化每个冰川的质量和能量交换。这项研究将深入了解气候强迫机制、相互作用和反馈如何反映在热带冰芯记录中。分析结果将有助于将现代条件放在作用于更长时间尺度的过程的背景下。

This award will help improve the accuracy of paleoclimate proxies via a spatial perspective on modern climate conditions. The researcher and his colleagues will examine the modern conditions, interactions, and sensitivities of glaciers to climate-forcing factors and to examine the range of variability of parameters measured in the cores (i.e., stable isotopes, dust concentration). Ice cores from the tropics, mountain glaciers, and ice caps, provide high-resolution records of environmental data. The two sites that are targeted by this research, Quelccaya Ice Cap in Peru and the Northern Ice Field of Kilimanjaro in eastern Africa, have satellite-linked weather stations already installed by the researchers. These stations measure a range of variables required to model the exchange of energy and mass of snow and/or ice at high elevations. The awarded funds will be used to continue operating the weather stations and to expand the glacier mass balance research. In general, the researcher aims to characterize local and regional-scale modern climate, examine the variability at each site, and quantify exchanges of mass and energy at each glacier through measurements and modeling. The research will provide insight into how climate forcing mechanisms, interactions, and feedbacks are reflected in tropical ice-core records. The analytical results will help place modern conditions in the context of processes acting on longer time scales.