RAPID: High-Resolution Gravity for Thwaites Glacier

对南极洲西部未来冰川融化的预测仍存在相当大的不确定性。美国国家科学院、工程和医学研究院最近发布的一份题为：NSF在南极和南大洋研究投资的战略愿景(2015)的十年风格报告指出，南极洲不断变化的冰是全球社区面临的最优先的科学问题之一。该报告将Thwaites冰川确定为未来几年合作密集研究的目标。该项目通过在空中勘测上部署一台仪器，帮助限制Thwaites冰架下的未知地形和内陆冰漂浮的接地线区域，从而为这一努力做出了贡献。通过提高输入预测数值模型的这些数据的准确性和分辨率，该团队将有助于限制Thwaites冰川对全球海洋的贡献的增加幅度和速度。该团队将在2018/19年野外季节加强已经计划的英国南极调查局对Thwaites冰川的航空地球物理调查的能力。他们的惯性测量单元将与最先进的商业重力仪配对，以获取冰架和接地线上的高质量和显著增强的分辨率数据。数据将在收集后立即进行处理，原始和观察到的数据将在收集后六个月发布。这一裁决反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Considerable uncertainty remains in projections of future ice loss from West Antarctica. A recent decadal style U.S. National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report entitled: A Strategic Vision for NSF Investments in Antarctic and Southern Ocean Research (2015) identifies changing ice in Antarctica as one of the highest priority science problems facing communities around the globe. The report identifies Thwaites Glacier as a target for collaborative intense research efforts in the coming years. This project contributes to that effort by deploying an instrument on board airborne surveys that will help to constrain the unknown terrains beneath the Thwaites Ice Shelf and in the region of the grounding line where the inland ice goes afloat. By improving the accuracy and resolution of these data, which are fed into predictive numerical models, the team will help to constrain the magnitude and rate of increase in the contribution of ice from Thwaites Glacier to the global ocean.The team will enhance the capabilities of the already planned British Antarctic Survey aerogeophysics survey of Thwaites Glacier during the 2018/19 field season. Their Inertial Measurement Unit will be paired with a state-of-the-art commercial gravity meter to acquire high-quality and significantly enhanced resolution data both over the ice shelf and at the grounding line. Data will be processed immediately following collection and raw and observed data will be released six months after collection.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.