Collaborative Research: Physical Properties of the WAIS Divide Deep Core

0539578Alley该奖项支持一个为期五年的合作项目，以研究计划中的深冰芯的物理特性和南极西部冰盖分水岭地区的冰的温度。 拟议研究的智力价值是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。这些信息将首先提供给其他研究者，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。 拟议研究的目标是通过计算年度层来帮助确定岩芯的年代，通过计算融化层来确定过去任何异常温暖的时间间隔，通过测量气泡、笼形夹杂物、颗粒及其c轴的大小、形状和排列来尽可能多地了解冰的流动状态和历史，通过这些指标来确定任何流动扰动，并从气泡和钻孔温度的分析中了解积雪和温度的历史，结合流动建模和使用其他合作者的数据。然后将综合和通报这些结果。 如果不检查岩心，可能会导致气候变化时错误识别流动特征，因此需要仔细检查。 累积率的独立重建提供了关于气候变化的重要数据，并提高了解释其他气候指标的信心。钻孔温度是温度历史的有用记录。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。 研究的更广泛影响包括向公众提供关于涉及气候突变和海平面上升的社会核心问题的更好的知识。该项目还将促进高年级学生的教育，将利用入门学生教育的成果，并将积极努力开展外联、非正式科学教育，并根据要求向决策者提供信息，从而为更知情的社会做出贡献。

0539578Alley This 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.