Collaborative Research: Physical Properties of the WAIS Divide Deep Ice Core

该奖项支持一个为期五年的合作项目，该项目旨在研究计划中的深层冰芯的物理特性和西南极冰盖分割区的冰温度。拟议研究的学术价值在于提供有关冰盖状态的基本信息，验证气候记录的完整性，帮助重建气候记录，并了解冰盖的流动状态和历史。这些信息最初将提供给其他研究人员，然后提供给公众和适当的数据库，并将在参考的科学文献中发表。拟议研究的目的是通过计算年层来协助测定岩芯的年代，通过计算融化层来查明过去任何异常温暖的时间间隔，通过测量气泡、包裹体、颗粒及其c轴的大小、形状和排列，尽可能多地了解冰的流动状态和历史，通过这些指标查明任何流动扰动，并通过对气泡和钻孔温度的分析，结合流动模拟和使用其他合作者的数据，了解积雪和温度的历史。然后，这些结果将被综合和传达。未能检查岩心可能会导致错误地识别气候变化时的流动特征，因此需要仔细检查。累积速率的独立重建提供了关于气候变化的重要数据，并提高了对其他气候指标的解释的信心。井筒温度是温度历史的有用记录器。流动状态和历史对于理解气候历史和冰对海平面变化的潜在贡献是重要的。通过对所有这些问题和其他问题作出贡献，拟议的研究将具有相当大的价值。这项研究的更广泛影响包括向公众提供关于气候突然变化和海平面上升等社会核心问题的更好知识。该项目还将促进对高级学生的教育，将利用对初级学生的教育成果，并将在外联、非正式科学教育和根据要求向政策制定者提供信息方面作出积极努力，从而促进一个更加知情的社会。

0539232CuffeyThis award supports a five-year collaborative project to study the physical-properties of the planned deep ice core and the temperature of the ice in the divide region of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The intellectual merit of the proposed research is to provide fundamental information on the state of the ice sheet, to validate the integrity of the climate record, to help reconstruct the climate record, and to understand the flow state and history of the ice sheet. This information will initially be supplied to other investigators and then to the public and to appropriate databases, and will be published in the refereed scientific literature. The objectives of the proposed research are to aid in dating of the core through counting of annual layers, to identify any exceptionally warm intervals in the past through counting of melt layers, to learn as much as possible about the flow state and history of the ice through measurement of size, shape and arrangements of bubbles, clathrate inclusions, grains and their c-axes, to identify any flow disturbances through these indicators, and to learn the history of snow accumulation and temperature from analyses of bubbles and borehole temperatures combined with flow modeling and use of data from other collaborators. These results will then be synthesized and communicated. Failure to examine cores can lead to erroneous identification of flow features as climate changes, so careful examination is required. Independent reconstruction of accumulation rate provides important data on climate change, and improves confidence in interpretation of other climate indicators. Borehole temperatures are useful recorders of temperature history. Flow state and history are important in understanding climate history and potential contribution of ice to sea-level change. By contributing to all of these and additional issues, the proposed research will be of considerable value. The broader impacts of the research include making available to the public improved knowledge on societally central questions involving abrupt climate change and sea-level rise. The project will also contribute to the education of advanced students, will utilize results in education of introductory students, and will make vigorous efforts in outreach, informal science education, and supplying information to policy-makers as requested, thus contributing to a more-informed society.