IPY Research Awards (and Awards-To-Be-Made) Resulting from Second NSF IPY Competition, with International Partnerships
0732656Martinson, Douglas G. (Columbia University, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory)
IPY: SASSI Mooring Array in Western Antarctic Peninsula
The Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Program has made this award to support a research program to observe and understand the role of the ocean in the dramatic warming of the Western Antarctic Peninsula Region. The Antarctic Peninsula region has undergone the most marked climate change on the globe over the past 50 years. In particular, it has undergone rapid winter regional surface atmospheric warming in winter that exceeds the global average fivefold. The rising temperatures have been accompanied by retreat of the perennial sea ice cover and over 85% of regional glaciers, as well as pronounced ecosystem changes. The source for the heat in winter, when the atmosphere is cold, must be the ocean but direct observations of the ocean are limited primarily to the austral summer season. Antarctic circumpolar current (ACC) water is relatively warm and is known to periodically make its way onto the canyon-incised, relatively narrow shelves of the Peninsula via upwelling processes. It is thought that the canyons may serve as conduits for the upwelled water but it is not known how frequently and on what scale warm water incursions occur. It is proposed to obtain and interpret time-series observations from an array of temperature, pressure and current sensing moorings to address these issues. An optimization scheme will be applied to the placement of the sensors on the moorings in order to effectively capture the signals of interest. In combination with ongoing hydrographic work, including recently funded improved spatial coverage by gliders, which is part of the Palmer Long Term Ecosystem Research (LTER) program, regional ocean heat budgets will be determined. The relationship of the warm water incursions with measures of larger scale atmospheric dynamics such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation and Antarctic Dipole will also be examined.
Broader impacts: The primary impact of this work will be to understand one of the major drivers of the marked change along the Antarctic Peninsula. Provision of key physical context information to the Palmer LTER extends its impact to the understanding of a rich ecosystem undergoing change. This project is a contribution to the Synoptic Antarctic Shelf-Slope Interactions Study (SASSI) and to the Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean (CASO) program. Both of these were endorsed by the International Council for Science as a part of their IPY honeycomb of endorsed activities and are tied into the objectives a number of international science planning communities. This research is collaborative with the Polar Research Institute of China. The Chinese will emplace complementary moorings to the ones proposed here as an International Polar Year marine science contribution. The investigators will make quality controlled data accessible through national archives.
Polar Research Institute of China
ICSU: 8
0732921, 0732738, 0732651, 0732602, 0732655
Scambos, Ted A. (University of Colorado Boulder)
Petit, Erin C (Portland State University)
Gordon, Arnold L. and Huber, Bruce A. (Columbia University, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory)
Truffer, Martin (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Mosley-Thompson, Ellen and Thompson, Lonnie G. (Ohio State University)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf System – A Multidisciplinary Approach, Cryosphere and Oceans
Like no other region on Earth, the northern Antarctic Peninsula represents a spectacular natural laboratory of climate change and provides the opportunity to study the record of past climate and ecological shifts alongside the present-day changes in one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. This award supports the cryospheric and oceano-graphic components of an integrated multi-disciplinary program to address these rapid and fundamental changes now taking place in Antarctic Peninsula (AP). By making use of a marine research platform (the RV NB Palmer and on-board helicopters) and additional logistical support from the Argentine Antarctic program, the project will bring glaciologists, oceanographers, marine geologists and biologists together, working collaboratively to address fundamentally interdisciplinary questions regarding climate change. The project will include gathering a new, high-resolution paleoclimate record from the Bruce Plateau of Graham Land, and using it to compare Holocene- and possibly glacial-epoch climate to the modern period; investigating the stability of the remaining Larsen Ice Shelf and rapid post-breakup glacier response – in particular, the roles of surface melt and ice-ocean interactions in the speed-up and retreat; observing the contribution of, and response of, oceanographic systems to ice shelf disintegration and ice-glacier interactions. Helicopter support on board will allow access to a wide range of glacial and geological areas of interest adjacent to the Larsen embayment. At these locations, long-term in situ glacial monitoring, isostatic uplift, and ice flow GPS sites will be established, and high-resolution ice core records will be obtained using previously tested lightweight drilling equipment. Long-term monitoring of deep water outflow will, for the first time, be integrated into changes in ice shelf extent and thickness, bottom water formation, and multi-level circulation by linking near-source observations to distal sites of concentrated outflow. The broader impacts of this international, multidisciplinary effort are that it will significantly advance our understanding of linkages amongst the earth's systems in the Polar Regions, and are proposed with international participation (UK, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Argentina) and interdisciplinary engagement in the true spirit of the International Polar Year (IPY). It will also provide a means of engaging and educating the public in virtually all aspects of polar science and the effects of ongoing climate change. The research team has a long record of involving undergraduates in research, educating high-performing graduate students, and providing innovative and engaging outreach products to the K-12 education and public media forums. Moreover, forging the new links both in science and international Antarctic programs will provide a continuing legacy, beyond IPY, of improved understanding and cooperation in Antarctica.
North Wollongong, Australia
Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, UK
Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
University of Southampton, UK
Alfred Wegener Polar Institute, Germany
University of Ghent, Belgium
Queens University, Canada
Argentine Antarctic Institute, Argentina
University of Barcelona, Spain
ICSU:
0732983
Vernet, Maria (University of California – San Diego, Scripps Institute of Oceanography)
Van Dover, Cindy L. (Duke University)
Smith, Craig R. (University of Hawaii)
McCormick, Michael L. (Hamilton College)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Abrupt Environmental Change in the Larsen Ice Shelf System – A Multidisciplinary Approach, Marine Ecosystems
A profound transformation in ecosystem structure and function is occurring in coastal waters of the western Weddell Sea, with the collapse of the Larsen B ice shelf. This transformation appears to be causing the rapid demise of the extraordinary seep ecosystem discovered beneath the ice shelf. This event provides an ideal opportunity to examine fundamental aspects of ecosystem transition associated with climate change. The project will use a remotely operated vehicle, shipboard samplers, and moored sediment traps to characterize the seep community and to compare these areas to the open sea-ice zone. These changes will be placed within the geological, glaciological and climatological context that led to ice-shelf retreat, through companion research projects funded in concert with this effort. The research features international collaborators from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. The broader impacts include participation of a science writer; broadcast of science segments by members of the Jim Lehrer News Hour (Public Broadcasting System); material for summer courses in environmental change; mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; and showcasing scientific activities and findings to students and public through podcasts.
Civil Engineering and Geosciences, University of Newcastle, UK
Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, UK
University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK
University of Southampton, UK
Alfred Wegener Polar Institute, Germany
University of Ghent, Belgium
Queens University, Canada
Argentine Antarctic Institute, Argentina
University of Barcelona, Spain
ICSU:
0732995 and 0732940
Barbeau, David L.; co-PI Robert C. Thunell (University of South Carolina at Columbia)
Scher, Howard D. (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Testing the Polar Gateway Hypothesis: An Integrated Record of Drake Passage Opening and Antarctic Glaciation
This project studies the relationship between opening of the Drake Passage and formation of the Antarctic ice sheet. Its goal is to answer the question: What drove the transition from a greenhouse to icehouse world thirty-four million years ago? Was it changes in circulation of the Southern Ocean caused by the separation of Antarctica from South America or was it a global effect such as decreasing atmospheric CO2 content? This study constrains the events and timing through fieldwork in South America and Antarctica and new work on marine sediment cores previously collected by the Ocean Drilling Program. It also involves an extensive, multidisciplinary analytical program. Compositional analyses of sediments and their sources will be combined with (U-Th)/He, fission-track, and Ar-Ar thermochronometry to constrain uplift and motion of the continental crust bounding the Drake Passage. Radiogenic isotope studies of fossil fish teeth found in marine sediment cores will be used to trace penetration of Pacific seawater into the Atlantic. Oxygen isotope and trace metal measurements on foraminifera will provide additional information on the timing and magnitude of ice volume changes.
The broader impacts include graduate and undergraduate education; outreach to the general public through museum exhibits and presentations, and international collaboration with scientists from Argentina, Ukraine, UK and Germany.
The project is supported under NSF's International Polar Year (IPY) research emphasis area on "Understanding Environmental Change in Polar Regions". This project is also a key component of the IPY Plates & Gates initiative (IPY Project #77), focused on determining the role of tectonic gateways in instigating polar environmental change.
CADIC/CONICET (Ministerio de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnologia e innovación Productiva, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Técnicas, Centra Austral de Investigaciones Cientificas, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Servicio Geológico Minero Nacional (SEGEMAR), Buenos Aires, Argentina
National Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev, Ukraine
IPY Plates & Gates Project, School of Earth & Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
IPY Plates & Gates Project, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
ICSU: 77
0732946
Steffen, Konrad; co-PI Eric Rignot (University of Colorado Boulder)
IPY: Stability of Larsen C Ice Shelf in a Warming Climate
This award supports a field experiment, with partners from Chile and the Netherlands, to determine the state of health and stability of Larsen C ice shelf in response to climate change. Significant glaciological and ecological changes are taking place in the Antarctic Peninsula in response to climate warming that is proceeding at 6 times the global average rate. Following the collapse of Larsen A ice shelf in 1995 and Larsen B in 2002, the outlet glaciers that nourished them with land ice accelerated massively, losing a disproportionate amount of ice to the ocean. Further south, the much larger Larsen C ice shelf is thinning and measurements collected over more than a decade suggest that it is doomed to break up. The intellectual merit of the project will be to contribute to the scientific knowledge of one of the Antarctic sectors where the most significant changes are taking place at present. The project is central to a cluster of International Polar Year activities in the Antarctic Peninsula. It will yield a legacy of international collaboration, instrument networking, education of young scientists, reference data and scientific analysis in a remote but globally relevant glaciological setting. The broader impacts of the project will be to address the contribution to sea level rise from Antarctica and to bring live monitoring of climate and ice dynamics in Antarctica to scientists, students, the
non-specialized public, the press and the media via live web broadcasting of progress,
data collection, visualization and analysis. Existing data will be combined with new measurements to assess what physical processes are controlling the weakening of the ice shelf, whether a break up is likely, and provide baseline data to quantify the consequences of a breakup. Field activities will include measurements using the Global Positioning System (GPS), installation of automatic weather stations (AWS), ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements, collection of shallow firn cores and temperature measurements. These data will be used to characterize the dynamic response of the ice shelf to a variety of phenomena (oceanic tides, iceberg calving, ice-front retreat and rifting, time series of weather conditions, structural characteristics of the ice shelf and bottom melting regime, and the ability of firn to collect melt water and subsequently form water ponds that over-deepen and weaken the ice shelf). This effort will complement an analysis of remote sensing data, ice-shelf numerical models and control methods funded independently to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the ice shelf evolution in a changing climate.
Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Centro de Estudios Cientificos, Valdivia, Chile
ICSU:
0732906, 0732804, 0732869, 0732730, 0732926, 0732844
Bindschadler, Robert A. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
McPhee, Miles G. (McPhee Research Company)
Holland, David M. (New York University)
Truffer, Martin (University of Alaska Fairbanks)
Stanton, Timothy, and Shaw, William J. (Naval Postgraduate School and University of California, Santa Barbara)
Anandakrishnan, Sridhar (Pennsylvania State University)
Collaborative Research in IPY: Ocean-Ice Interaction in the Amundsen Sea Sector of West Antarctica
The Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Integrated and System Science Program has made this award to support an interdisciplinary study of the effects of the ocean on the stability of glacial ice in the most dynamic region the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, namely the Pine Island Glacier in the Amundsen Sea Embayment. This collaborative project is being jointly supported with NASA. Recent observations indicate a significant ice loss, equivalent to 10% of the ongoing increase in sea-level rise, in this region. These changes are largest along the coast and propagate rapidly inland, indicating the critical impact of the ocean on ice sheet stability in the region. While a broad range of remote sensing and ground-based instrumentation is available to characterize changes of the ice surface and internal structure (deformation, ice motion, melt) and the shape of the underlying sediment and rock bed, instrumentation has yet to be successfully deployed for observing boundary layer processes of the ocean cavity which underlies the floating ice shelf and where rapid melting is apparently occurring. Innovative, mini ocean sensors that can be lowered through boreholes in the ice shelf (about 500 m thick) will be developed and deployed to automatically provide ocean profiling information over at least three years. Their data will be transmitted through a conducting cable frozen in the borehole to the surface where it will be further transmitted via satellite to a laboratory in the US. Geophysical and remote sensing methods (seismic, GPS, altimetry, stereo imaging, radar profiling) will be applied to map the geometry of the ice shelf, the shape of the sub ice-shelf cavity, the ice surface geometry and deformations within the glacial ice. NASA is supporting satellite measurements and the deployment of a robotic-camera system to explore the environment in the ocean cavity underlying the ice shelf. To integrate the seismic, glaciological and oceanographic observations, a new 3-dimensional coupled ice-ocean model is being developed which will be the first of its kind. The project builds on the knowledge gained by the highly successful West Antarctic Ice Sheet program.