WAIS DIVIDE - High Temporal Resolution Black Carbon Record of Southern Hemisphere Biomass Burning

爱德华兹/0739780该奖项支持一个项目，以开发一个2,000年的高时间分辨率记录生物质燃烧的分析黑碳在WAIS分水岭基岩冰芯。WAIS WD 05 A岩心的试验数据表明，我们现在有能力重建这一记录，而对其他项目可用的冰量影响最小。 该项目的学术价值在于，黑碳气溶胶仅由燃烧产生，在全球气候强迫和碳循环中起着关键但量化不佳的作用。当被纳入雪和冰中时，BC增加了对太阳辐射的吸收，使季节性积雪、高山冰川、极地冰盖和海冰更容易受到气候变暖的影响。南半球的BC排放主要来自南部非洲、南美洲和南亚热带地区的生物质燃烧。生物质燃烧是气候和人类活动的结果，它改变了温室气体和气溶胶的大气成分，扰乱了关键的地球化学循环。需要对生物质燃烧进行长期记录，以帮助解释冰芯气体的组成，并在仪器记录之前提供关于人类对环境和气候影响的重要信息。该项目更广泛的影响是，它代表了我们从冰芯记录重建火灾历史并了解其对千年时间尺度上大气化学和气候影响的能力的范式转变。这类数据特别需要推动全球循环模型对黑碳气溶胶的模拟，黑碳气溶胶已被发现是全球变暖的重要组成部分，可能会扰乱水文循环。该项目还将雇用本科生，并致力于吸引代表性不足的群体到物理科学。项目？的外展部分将作为WAIS项目外展计划的一部分进行，并将达到广泛的受众。

Edwards/0739780This award supports a project to develop a 2,000-year high-temporal resolution record of biomass burning from the analysis of black carbon in the WAIS Divide bedrock ice core. Pilot data for the WAIS WD05A core demonstrates that we now have the ability to reconstruct this record with minimal impact on the amount of ice available for other projects. The intellectual merit of this project 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. BC emissions in the Southern Hemisphere are dominated by biomass burning in the tropical regions of Southern Africa, South America and South Asia. Biomass burning, which results from both climate and human activities, alters the atmospheric composition of greenhouse gases, aerosols and perturbs key biogeochemical cycles. A long-term record of biomass burning is needed to aid in the interpretation of ice core gas composition and will provide important information regarding human impacts on the environment and climate before instrumental records. The broader impacts of the project are that it 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 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 underrepresented groups to the physical sciences. The project?s outreach component will be conducted as part of the WAIS project outreach program and will reach a wide audience.