Collaborative Research: Constraining the Role of the Antarctic Slope Current on Tracer Exchange at the Antarctic Margin using Model Hierarchies

南大洋(SO)在气候系统中发挥着主导作用，占了不成比例的人为热量和碳吸收，并决定了未来海平面可能上升的最大来源--南极冰盖(AIS)的演变。因此，在气候系统以及气候变化的轨迹和相关的社会影响中，南方共同市场的动态具有超乎寻常的作用。南极坡流(ASC)沿着南极大陆架和开阔的SO之间的边界快速向西流动，被认为会影响向南极冰架的热量输送，这表明了一种控制AIS融化速度从而未来海平面上升的重要机制。ASC还可以作为大陆架和开放的SO之间交换营养物质和碳的关键门户，对海洋碳循环和生态系统动态产生影响。为了限制南极大陆架和开放的SO的热和生物地球化学性质将如何演变，需要全面了解ASC、其变异性、它在示踪剂运输中的作用以及它对内部和外部气候强迫的反应。尽管其假设的重要性，超越亚年度的时间尺度和局部地区，我们对ASC的理解存在关键的知识差距。拟议的研究将利用受观测约束和验证的物理和生物地球化学状态估计和完全耦合的气候模型模拟的科学状态等级来解决这些现有的知识差距。一种新的、高分辨率的南大洋状态估计(SOSE)，包括潮汐强迫、冰架洞穴和热力学活跃的冰架，将允许调查ASC可变性和冰架融化事件之间的联系。这项工作的结果将提供关于ASC的气候状态和结构、其变异性以及它在不断演变的气候系统中的作用的基础知识。这项研究还将为模型解析在ASC动力学中可能发挥的作用提供关键的见解，这一步骤对于提高模型模拟和未来预测的保真度至关重要。除了参与天普大学第一代计划招募早期职业研究人员外，与Compute-STEM计划合作制定教学计划和教师培训将扩大该研究项目的影响。该奖项反映了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。

The Southern Ocean (SO) plays a dominant role in the climate system, accounting for a disproportionate amount of anthropogenic heat and carbon uptake and determining how the largest source of potential future sea level rise, the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), evolves. Therefore, dynamics in the SO have an outsized role in the climate system and the trajectory of climate change and associated societal impacts. The swift westward flowing Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) that moves along the boundary between the Antarctic continental shelf and the open SO is hypothesized to influence heat delivery to Antarctic ice shelves, suggesting an important mechanism for controlling AIS melt rates and thus future sea level rise. The ASC also may act as a key gateway for the exchange of nutrients and carbon between the shelf and open SO, with implications for the marine carbon cycle and ecosystem dynamics. To constrain how the thermal and biogeochemical properties of the Antarctic shelf and open SO will evolve, a comprehensive understanding of the ASC, its variability, its role in tracer transport, and its response to internal and external climate forcing is required. Despite its hypothesized importance, beyond sub-annual timescales and at localized regions, critical knowledge gaps exist in our understanding of the ASC. The proposed research will utilize a hierarchy of state-of-the-science observationally-constrained and validated physical and biogeochemical SO state estimates and fully-coupled climate model simulations to address these existing knowledge gaps. A novel, fine-resolution Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE) with tidal forcing, ice shelf cavities, and thermodynamically-active ice shelves will allow for the investigation of the connection between ASC variability and ice shelf melt events. The results from this work will provide foundational knowledge on the ASC’s climatological state and structure, its variability, and its role in the evolving climate system. This research will also provide critical insight on the role that model resolution may play in ASC dynamics, a step which is vital for improving the fidelity of model simulations and future projections. In addition to engaging with the Temple University First-Generation Initiative for recruiting early career researchers, a partnership with the Compute-STEM program to develop lesson plans and teacher trainings will extend the impacts of this research project.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.