Development of an Air-droppable Goedetic-seismic Ice Penetrator for Response Studies of Antarctic Ice Shelves and Icebergs to Ocean Forcings

题目：用于南极冰架和冰山对海洋强迫响应研究的可空投测震冰穿透器的研制非技术摘要：整个南极冰川系统的稳定性在很大程度上取决于其冰架的稳定性。南极冰架，即巨大的南极冰盖的海洋漂浮边缘，正显示出迅速下降的迹象。冰架的腐烂导致地表冰向海洋的排放增加，这意味着海平面上升。冰架的解体将导致南极大陆冰原，特别是南极洲西部冰原，最终崩塌。海浪可能提供必要的倾覆力，以触发薄的、机械削弱的冰架的破坏。监测冰架对不断变化的海洋和大气条件的反应是迫切需要的，但获得这样的测量在技术和后勤上都具有挑战性。该奖项支持开发能够应对这一挑战的新技术。技术摘要：该项目旨在解决南极冰架冰川学在短于卫星大地测量和图像提供的几天冰原的时间尺度上存在的观测空白。通过这些努力，一种新的科学仪器将被设计和原型化，以缩小冰架对海洋强迫动态响应的高频（从月到亚秒）域的差距。这将通过将最先进的GPS和地震仪传感器集成到一个具有近实时数据下载能力的单一宽带科学仪器中来实现。这个科学装置将被包装成一个冰穿透器，可以从直升机上空投到冰架（和平板冰山）上。将通过实验室和现场试验对功能原型的性能进行验证，从而评估该测地地震冰穿透器（GSIP）的技术成熟度。对南极冰架进行连续、高分辨率的GSIP观测将为南极冰架衰减模型提供有意义的约束，并有助于提高对冰-海动力相互作用的理解。通过加快部署，gsip将极大地简化后勤挑战，减少南极洲的冰上足迹，提高目前现场冰川观测的能力，并使更广泛的极地社区受益。

Title: Development of an air-droppable geodetic-seismic ice penetrator for response studies of Antarctic ice shelves and icebergs to ocean forcingsNon-technical abstract:The stability of the entire Antarctic glacial system depends critically on the stability of its ice shelves. Antarctic ice shelves, the ocean-floating margins of the massive Antarctic ice sheet, are showing signs of rapid decline. Ice shelf decay leads to increased discharge of grounded-ice to the ocean, and to mean sea-level rise. Ice shelf disintegration would drive the continental Antarctic ice sheet, in particular the West Antarctica section, to eventual collapse. Ocean waves may provide the tipping force necessary to trigger the failure of a thinned, mechanically weakened ice shelf. Monitoring how the ice shelves are responding to changing oceanic and atmospheric conditions is critically needed, but obtaining such measurements is technologically and logistically challenging. This award supports the development of novel technologies that can meet the challenge.Technical abstract:The project aims to address the observational gap that exists in Antarctic ice-shelf glaciology for timescales shorter than the few-day ice-fields provided by satellite geodesy and imagery. Through these efforts, a new scientific instrument will be devised and prototyped that closes the gap into the high-frequency (from monthly to sub-seconds) domain where ice shelves respond dynamically to oceanic forcings. This will be accomplished by integrating state-of-the-art GPS and seismometer sensors into a single broadband scientific instrument with data download capabilities in near-real time. This scientific device will be packaged into an ice penetrator that can be air-dropped onto an ice shelf (and tabular icebergs) from a helicopter. The technology readiness of this geodetic-seismic ice penetrator (GSIP) will be assessed based on verification of performance of a functional prototype through both laboratory and field trials. Having continuous, high-resolution GSIP observations of Antarctic ice shelves would provide meaningful constraints to Antarctic ice-shelf decay models, and contribute to an improved understanding of ice-ocean dynamic interactions. GSIPs would greatly simplify logistic challenges by expediting deployment, reduce the on-ice footprint in Antarctica, enhance current capabilities for in situ glaciological observations, and benefit the broader polar community.