New Technology for Glaciology

冰川是气候变化的“早期预警系统”。极地冰盖和高山冰川都在迅速变化，这对人们的生活和生计产生了直接影响。仅格陵兰岛在2019年夏季失去的冰就足以使全球海平面上升2.2毫米，因此，如果我们要保护沿海地区的人民和基础设施免受气候变化引起的未来洪水的影响，预测冰川行为至关重要。为了做出这些预测，我们需要对冰川进行更好的观测，特别是在观测很少的冰川内部和冰川下方。传统上，冰川学家在夏季收集他们的数据——在一年中天气最有利的时候徒步登山或前往极地冰盖。这限制了每年亲自收集数据的机会，只有少数几周。全年收集数据并将数据带回实时分析是非常可取的，但很少有冰川学家能够获得完成这项工作所需的工程专业知识。卫星遥感技术的最新进展使冰川学家能够从太空看到冰川的表面，每隔几天就有新的数据。但是遥感只能说明部分情况——它不能显示冰川下面发生了什么，而且需要用实地的“地面真相”观测来验证。我的背景是工程，我的大部分职业生涯都是在设计商业用途的新技术。现在，我想把这些技术运用到冰川学研究中，通过开发新的仪器和数据基础设施，全年实时收集冰川数据。我想用这些新仪器回答的关键问题是了解流入和流经冰川的液态水是如何影响冰川运动的。融雪的水流入冰川表面的小溪和河流。但它也会通过积雪渗透到看不到的地方，溪流本身也会消失在冰川上被称为“冰穴”的洞里。这些水流穿过冰川到达冰川床，在冰川冰和下面的地面之间形成了通道。遥感可以观测到地表的水，但无法观测到地表下的水，所以我们需要实地观测。利用我的工程技能，我将开发一套新仪器，用于在雪地、小溪、河流和冰下的河道中进行测量。无线通信和跟踪将使我们能够观察冰川下未开发的水道。与来自工程和地球科学的研究人员以及世界各地的合作者一起，我将把这些成果付诸实践，在瑞士的冰川上进行测试，并在格陵兰岛移动最快的冰川上进行有价值的观察。最重要的是，我将以“开源”设计的形式自由分享我的新仪器和软件。这意味着任何人都可以看到我的设计，看看它们是如何工作的，并复制或修改它们供自己使用。这些低成本、方便的无线仪器的价值将超越冰川学——其核心技术（传感器、可再生能源供应、通信和数据基础设施）将在环境科学领域得到广泛应用。我的愿景是创建一个开源仪器的生态系统——科学家和工程师分享他们的仪器，并在彼此的设计基础上进行构建。我是唯一能从这个奖学金中受益的人，因为我既有工业工程的专业知识，又有极地科学的工作经验。它将启动我的学术生涯，使我能够开发令人兴奋的新技术，并用它来进行全球重要的科学工作。我的开源愿景将改变冰川学的研究方式，造福未来几代科学家，并使我成为环境科学领域的全球领导者。

Glaciers are the "early warning system" of climate change. Both the polar ice sheets and high-mountain glaciers are changing rapidly, and this has a direct effect on lives and livelihoods. Greenland alone lost enough ice in the summer of 2019 to raise global sea levels by 2.2mm, so forecasting glacier behaviour is vital if we are to protect people and infrastructure in coastal regions from future flooding caused by climate change. To produce these forecasts, we need better observations of glaciers, especially from within and below the glaciers where observations are scarce. Traditionally, glaciologists collect their data in the summer seasons - tramping up mountains or travelling up onto the polar ice sheets - at the time of year when the weather is most favourable. This limits the opportunity for in-person data collection to only a small number of weeks each year. It is highly desirable to collect data all year round and bring the data back for analysis in real time, but very few glaciologists have access to the engineering expertise required to make this work. Recent advances in remote sensing from satellites allow glaciologists to see the surface of glaciers from space, with new data every few days. But remote sensing only tells part of the story - it doesn't show what's going on beneath the glaciers, and it needs verifying with "ground truth" observations from the field. My background is in engineering, and I've spent the majority of my career in industry designing new technology for commercial use. I now want to bring these same skills to radically change the way glaciology is done - by developing new instruments and data infrastructure to collect data from glaciers in real time all year round.The key question I aim to answer with these new instruments is understanding how liquid water flowing in and through a glacier affects the glacier's movement. Water from melting snow flows into streams and rivers on the glacier surface. But it also percolates down through the snowpack out of sight, and the streams themselves disappear into holes in the glacier called "moulins". These pass through the glacier to its bed, and the water forms channels between the glacier ice and the ground beneath. Remote sensing can observe water on the surface but cannot see beneath - so we need to observe in the field. Using my engineering skills, I will develop a suite of new instruments to measure in the snow, in streams and rivers, and in the channels beneath the ice. Wireless communications and tracking will let us observe the unexplored water channels beneath glaciers. With a team of researchers from engineering and earth science and collaborators around the world, I will bring these to fruition, test them on glaciers in Switzerland and make valuable observations on the fastest-moving glacier in Greenland.Most importantly, I will share my new instruments and software freely as an "open source" design. This means that anyone will be able to look at my designs, see how they work, and copy or modify them for their own use. These low-cost, convenient, wireless instruments will be valuable beyond glaciology - the core technologies (sensors, renewable energy supplies, communications and data infrastructure) have applications right across environmental science. My vision is to create an ecosystem of open source instrumentation - with scientists and engineers sharing their instruments and building upon each other's designs.I am uniquely placed to benefit from this fellowship because I have both industrial engineering expertise and experience of working in polar science. It will jump-start my academic career, allowing me to develop exciting new technology and use it to conduct globally significant scientific work. My open source vision will change the way glaciology is done, benefiting future generations of scientists, and establishing me as a global leader in environmental science.