PostDoctoral Research Fellowship

这个奖项支持博士后研究员？道格拉斯·科瓦洛夫斯基医生为南极洲的麦克默多地区建立一个区域气候模型。该项目解决了南极科学中最有趣的问题之一：东南极冰盖（EAIS）的稳定性如何？这个问题的答案对于解释海洋沉积物岩心中的全球气候变化记录以及模拟与全球变暖相关的海平面上升至关重要。来自麦克默多干谷的证据已经被解释为表明EAIS已经稳定了长达1400万年。然而，仅在离岸100公里处收集的ANDRILL海洋沉积物岩心支持了一个更加动态的冰盖，包括罗斯冰架的完全丧失，可能需要动态EAIS。这种明显的矛盾导致了一个新的假设：也许这些记录根本就不矛盾？也许这一地区的气候在几十公里的范围内变化很大？这些假设将通过一个中尺度气候模式进行评估，以确定区域气候变化的特征。这项工作正在马萨诸塞州大学进行。

This award supports a Postdoctoral Fellow?Dr. Douglas Kowalewski?in developing a regional climate model for the McMurdo area of Antarctica. The project addresses one of the most interesting questions in Antarctic science: how stable is the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS)? The answer is critical to interpreting records of global climate change from marine sediment cores, as well as modeling sea level rise associated with global warming. Evidence from the McMurdo Dry Valleys has been interpreted to indicate that the EAIS has been stable for up to fourteen million years. However, the ANDRILL marine sediment cores collected just 100 km offshore support a much more dynamic ice sheet that includes complete loss of the Ross Ice Shelf, potentially requiring a dynamic EAIS. This apparent contradiction led to a new hypothesis: perhaps these records are not contradictory at all? Maybe climate varies dramatically across this region on scales of tens of kilometers? The hypotheses will be evaluated by a mesoscale climate model to characterize variations in regional climate. The work is being performed at the University of Massachusetts.