Operation SWAB: Monitoring of Ship, Van, and Laboratory 14C and 3H Contamination

该提案要求为SWAB计划提供额外5年的支持。SWAB计划已经持续了近35年，作为将船舶和相关货车和实验室的氚（3H）和放射性碳（14C）污染降至最低的机制。SWAB计划建议继续运作，以尽量减少参与测量14C和3H自然丰度的船舶上的污染，这是CLIVAR和GEOTRACES等全球海洋计划的一部分。迈阿密大学建议作为一个公正的实体，以帮助确保14 C和3 H的背景水平可以由海洋学界以最小的污染风险进行有信心的测量，同时允许需要使用这些同位素的研究和实验继续进行。 14C和3H都是海洋环流的重要示踪剂，它们在背景水平上的成功测量对于了解海洋如何影响气候至关重要。近年来，人们对海洋碳循环的兴趣日益增加，14C的天然丰度测量是研究碳循环时间尺度的重要工具。保证这些具有全球重要性的气候相关研究可以推进发现和理解，同时促进海洋学界的大部分教学。此外，对放射性同位素污染的痕量水平进行的测试向船员和科学工作者保证，正在采取适当措施，尽量减少他们受到放射性同位素的照射。本提案的主要影响是在标准二之下，为科学家使用该船及其共用仪器提供基础设施支持，以支持他们的NSF资助的海洋学研究项目（由NSF的相关研究计划单独进行审查）。 共享使用仪器的获取、维护和操作允许来自任何美国大学或实验室的NSF资助的研究人员使用工作、校准仪器进行研究，降低研究成本，并扩大潜在研究人员的基础。

This proposal asks for 5 additional years of support for the SWAB program. The SWAB program has been going on for nearly 35 years as the mechanism for keeping tritium (3H) and radiocarbon (14C) contamination of ships and associated vans and laboratories to a minimum. The SWAB program proposes to continue operations in order to minimize contamination on ships involved in measuring natural abundances of 14C and 3H as part of global ocean programs such as CLIVAR and GEOTRACES. The University of Miami proposes to serve as an unbiased entity to help ensure that background levels of 14C and 3H can be measured with confidence by the oceanographic community with minimal risk of contamination, while allowing studies and experiments that require the use of these isotopes at elevated levels to continue. Both 14C and 3H serve as important tracers of ocean circulation and their successful measurement at background levels is crucial to understanding how the oceans affect climate. Recently there has been increased interest in oceanic carbon cycling, and natural abundance measurements of 14C are an important tool for studying the time scales of the carbon cycle. The assurance that these globally important climate-related studies can be carried out advances discovery and understanding, while promoting teaching and learning to a large segment of the oceanographic community. Additionally, the testing for trace levels of radioisotope contamination assures both the ships' crew and science members that adequate steps are being taken to minimize their exposure to radioisotopes.Broader Impacts: The principal impact of the present proposal is under criterion two, providing infrastructure support for scientists to use the vessel and its shared-use instrumentation in support of their NSF-funded oceanographic research projects (which individually undergo separate review by the relevant research program of NSF). The acquisition, maintenance and operation of shared-use instrumentation allows NSF-funded researchers from any US university or lab access to working, calibrated instruments for their research, reducing the cost of that research, and expanding the base of potential researchers.