IPY: Adding Continuous Black Carbon Analysis to the Norwegian-US Traverse Ice Core Measurements

该奖项支持在国际冰年挪威-美国导线冰化学分析中增加高分辨率连续黑碳测量的项目。目前，人们对南极洲上空的黑碳颗粒及其在南极冰雪中的存在知之甚少。最近，一种新的测定水中黑碳的分析方法被开发出来，该方法比现有方法的灵敏度高近百万倍。对来自南极西部的冰芯进行了非常高的时间分辨率分析，并取得了许多发现。该项目将调查南极洲黑碳沉积的时空历史及其与黑碳气溶胶和南半球气候的关系。这项工作的学术价值是，黑碳(BC)气溶胶完全是燃烧的结果，在全球气候强迫和碳循环中发挥着关键但量化不佳的作用。当BC并入冰雪中时，会增加对太阳辐射的吸收，使季节性积雪、山脉冰川、极地冰盖和海冰更容易受到气候变暖的影响。然而，关于BC在大气中的历史或它在大气和陆地水域中的存在，人们知之甚少。这些颗粒也是一种独特的大气示踪剂，在极地冰盖等偏远地区可以用来调查大气环流。由于最近发明了一种超灵敏的黑碳分析方法，现在可以以高时间分辨率确定保存在南极冰盖中的BC记录。就更广泛的影响而言，该项目代表着我们根据冰芯记录重建火灾历史并了解其在千年时间尺度上对大气化学和气候的影响的能力发生了范式转变。这是过去几十年来许多科学家的目标。该项目的数据将迅速提供给更大的科学界。这种类型的数据尤其需要用来推动对黑碳气溶胶的全球循环模型模拟，黑碳气溶胶已被发现是全球变暖的一个重要组成部分，并可能扰乱水文循环。该项目还将雇用本科生，并致力于吸引代表人数不足的群体进入物理科学领域。S外展部分将作为挪威-美国导线S外展项目的一部分进行，并将接触到广泛的受众。

This award supports a project to add high-resolution continuous black carbon measurements to the IPY Norwegian-US traverse glaciochemical analyses. At present, very little is known regarding black carbon particles over Antarctica or its presence in Antarctic snow and ice. Recently a new analytical method for measuring black carbon in water, that is nearly a million times more sensitive than existing methods, has been developed. An ice core from West Antarctica was analyzed at very high temporal resolution and a number of discoveries were made. The project will investigate the spatial and temporal history of black carbon deposition to Antarctica and its relationship to black carbon aerosol and climate in the Southern Hemisphere. The intellectual merit of this work is that Black Carbon (BC) aerosols result solely from combustion and play a critical but poorly quantified role in global climate forcing and the carbon cycle. When incorporated into snow and ice, BC increases absorption of solar radiation making seasonal snow packs, mountain glaciers, polar ice sheets, and sea ice much more vulnerable to climate warming. However, little is known regarding the history of BC in the atmosphere or its presence in meteoric and terrestrial waters. These particles are also a unique atmospheric tracer, which at remote locations such as the polar ice caps, can be used to investigate atmospheric circulation. Because of the recent invention of an ultra-sensitive black carbon analytical method, the BC record preserved in the Antarctic ice sheet can now be determined with high temporal resolution. In terms of broader impacts, the project represents a paradigm shift in our ability to reconstruct the history of fire from ice core records and to understand its impact on atmospheric chemistry and climate over millennial time scales. This has been a goal of many scientists over the past several decades. Data from the project will be made rapidly available to the larger scientific community. This type of data is especially needed to drive global circulation model simulations of black carbon aerosols, which have been found to be an important component of global warming and which may be perturbing the hydrologic cycle. The project will also employ undergraduate students and is committed to attracting under-represented groups to the physical sciences. The project?s outreach component will be conducted as part of the Norwegian-US traverse?s outreach program and will reach a wide audience.