Collaborative Research: Developing an Antarctic Tephra Database for Interdisciplinary Paleoclimate Research (AntT)

气候研究中的许多关键问题(如气候事件在不同地理区域的相对时间、气候强迫机制、气候系统中的自然阈值水平)取决于准确重建过去快速气候变化事件在大陆、大气、海洋和极地领域的时间和空间分布。这一跨学科合作研究项目旨在将有关在南极洲探测到的火山产品的信息整合到一个用户友好的单一数据库中。通过整合有关火山源以及火山产物的物理和地球化学特征的信息，这种系统的数据收集方法将提高研究人员从特定火山喷发中识别火山灰或火山喷发的能力，这些火山喷发可能在地质上瞬时的一段时间内扩散到大片地区。这一数据库的开发将有助于确定各种古气候档案中的时间间隔并相互关联，这些档案中含有往往来源不明的火山层。AntT项目依赖于由NSF资助的CDI-Type I：CiiWork内部开发的网络基础设施框架，用于数据同化、解释和开放分发模型。除了收集和整合有关火山产品的现有信息外，该项目还将侧重于填补有关南极冰芯中存在的极细(3微米)火山颗粒(隐形颗粒)独特物理化学特征的信息空白。研究的这一部分将涉及改进检测冰中隐蔽层的分析方法，并将培训新一代科学家应用一系列可供项目组使用的现代最先进的仪器。人们认识到Tephra在建立火山和沉积序列年代学框架方面的重要性，这已经导致制定了强有力的区域Tephra年代学框架(例如，欧洲、堪察加群岛、新西兰、北美西部)。AntT项目将为南极冰芯(如WAIS Divide、莱斯、ITASE)和全球古气候档案之间的精确对比记录所需的南极气候年代学提供这一框架。AntT的结果将对气候学家、古气候学家、大气化学家、地球化学家、气候模型师、日地物理学家、环境统计学家和政策制定者设计解决方案，以减轻或应对气候变化事件对现代社会未来可能产生的影响，具有特别重要的意义。

Many key questions in climate research (e.g. relative timing of climate events in different geographic areas, climate-forcing mechanisms, natural threshold levels in the climate system) are dependent on accurate reconstructions of the temporal and spatial distribution of past rapid climate change events in continental, atmospheric, marine and polar realms. This collaborative interdisciplinary research project aims to consolidate, into a single user-friendly database, information about volcanic products detected in Antarctica. By consolidating information about volcanic sources, and physical and geochemical characteristics of volcanic products, this systematic data collection approach will improve the ability of researchers to identify volcanic ash, or tephra, from specific volcanic eruptions that may be spread over large areas in a geologically instantaneous amount of time. Development of this database will assist in the identification and cross-correlation of time intervals in various paleoclimate archives that contain volcanic layers from often unknown sources. The AntT project relies on a cyberinfrastructure framework developed in house through NSF funded CDI-Type I: CiiWork for data assimilation, interpretation and open distribution model. In addition to collection and integration of existing information about volcanic products, this project will focus on filling the information gaps about unique physico-chemical characteristics of very fine (3 micrometer) volcanic particles (cryptotephra) that are present in Antarctic ice cores. This component of research will involve improving analytical methodology for detecting cryptotephra layers in ice, and will train a new generation of scientists to apply an array of modern state?of?the-art instrumentation available to the project team. The recognized importance of tephra in establishing a chronological framework for volcanic and sedimentary successions has already resulted in the development of robust regional tephrochronological frameworks (e.g. Europe, Kamchatka, New Zealand, Western North America). The AntT project will provide this framework for Antarctic tephrochronology, as needed for precise correlation records between Antarctic ice cores (e.g. WAIS Divide, RICE, ITASE) and global paleoclimate archives. The results of AntT will be of particular significance to climatologists, paleoclimatologists, atmospheric chemists, geochemists, climate modelers, solar-terrestrial physicists, environmental statisticians, and policy makers for designing solutions to mitigate or cope with likely future impacts of climate change events on modern society.