Laboratory-Based Scaling Laws for Ice Shelf Evolution

该奖项为极地项目办公室南极综合系统科学的“基于实验室的冰架演变规律”提供支持。如果我们希望对未来全球海平面上升做出可靠的预测，那么调查冰架动力学的研究可以说是最重要的研究领域之一，如果不是最重要的研究领域的话。南极冰架的主要质量损失以两种方式之一发生：要么通过海洋与冰架底部相互作用的基底融化，要么通过冰山的崩解。该奖项将包括对这两个过程的研究。智力优势：该项目将利用实验室和模型研究来更好地理解与冰盖下基础融化（冰海相互作用）和破裂导致冰山崩解相关的过程。具体来说，研究者将在新罕布什尔州CRREL（寒冷地区研究与工程实验室）设施的冷室中进行一套实验。与比例模型冰架实验室研究相结合，该团队将使用DNS（直接数值模拟）来模拟这些过程。虽然其他人已经进行了比例模型研究，但这种研究很少（如果有的话）与数值模拟相结合。将两者结合起来是新颖的，应该会对冰架动力学产生重要的新见解。一个重大挑战将是扩大规模。将实验室结果与与现实世界相关的过程相结合——因此，拟议的工作在很大程度上证明了概念，适合迫切需要的资助。更广泛的影响：了解控制冰架质量损失的动力学对了解全球海平面变化的未来至关重要。结果将传达给冰川学和建模界。该项目将培养一名研究生，并促进CRREL（一个联邦实验室）和纽约大学（一个学术机构）之间的互动。

This award provides support for "Laboratory-Based Laws for Ice Shelf Evolution" from the Antarctic Integrated System Science within the Office of Polar Programs. Studies investigating the dynamics of ice shelves are arguably one of the most, if not the most, important area of research if we hope to make reliable predictions about future global sea-level rise. The dominant mass loss in Antarctic ice shelves occurs in one of two ways: either via basal melt where the ocean interacts with the bottom of the ice shelf, or via calving of icebergs. This award will include studies of both these processes.Intellectual Merit: The project will use laboratory and modeling studies to better understand the processes associated with basal melt beneath the ice sheets (ice-ocean interactions) and fracturing leading to calving of icebergs. Specifically the investigator will perform a suite of experiments in cold rooms available at CRREL (Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory) facilities in New Hampshire. In conjunction with the scale-model ice shelf laboratory studies, the team will use DNS (direct numerical simulation) to model the processes. While others have done scale-model studies, such investigations are rarely (if ever) coupled with numerical modeling. Combining the two is novel, and should lead to important new insights into ice shelf dynamics. One significant challenge will be to ?scale-up? laboratory results to processes relevant to the real world- hence the proposed work is very much proof of concept and appropriate for EAGER funding.Broader Impacts: An understanding of the dynamics controlling the loss of mass from ice shelves is critically important to understanding the future of global sea-level change. The results will be communicated to both the glaciology and modeling community. The project will train one graduate student and promote interactions between CRREL (a federal lab) and NYU (an academic institution).