Award Abstract # 0531075
Collaborative Research: A Synthesis of Rapid Meltwater and Ice Discharge Changes: Large Forcings from the Ice with Impacts on Global Sea Level and North Atlantic Freshwater Budgets

NSF Org: OPP
Office of Polar Programs (OPP)
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS
Initial Amendment Date: August 26, 2005
Latest Amendment Date: September 25, 2008
Award Number: 0531075
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Neil R. Swanberg
OPP
 Office of Polar Programs (OPP)
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: September 1, 2005
End Date: August 31, 2009 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $0.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $125,407.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2005 = $125,407.00
History of Investigator:
  • Martin Truffer (Principal Investigator)
    mtruffer2@alaska.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus
2145 N TANANA LOOP
FAIRBANKS
AK  US  99775-0001
(907)474-7301
Sponsor Congressional District: 00
Primary Place of Performance: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus
2145 N TANANA LOOP
FAIRBANKS
AK  US  99775-0001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
00
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): FDLEQSJ8FF63
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): ARCSS-Arctic System Science
Primary Program Source: 0100CYXXDB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 9150, EGCH, 5219, 1079
Program Element Code(s): 521900
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.078

ABSTRACT

Abstract

Freshwater discharge from the Greenland ice sheet has a direct and immediate effect on global sea level, has the potential to impact global climate by perturbing nearby sensitive regions of oceanic deep-water formation, and is an important but as yet poorly quantified part of the pan-Arctic water balance.

The investigators will synthesize a range of extant data sets using numerous methods. Remote sensing and atmospheric modeling calibrated by surface data accurately reveal a spatially resolved history of surface melting on Greenland over decades, and coastal weather stations extend observations to more than a century. Sophisticated transfer techniques, including nonlinear approaches, will be used to downscale from these instrumental data to specific ice-core records of melt, learning how the widespread signal is archived. The derived transfer functions, the centuries-long ice-core records, and the century-length coastal-station records then will allow upscaling to determine meltwater variability over longer times than now available. Remotely sensed changes in ice shelves/tongues and outlet-glacier flow speeds will be combined with the contemporaneous histories of surface melting, and analyzed using diagnostic ice-flow modeling incorporating longitudinal stresses to learn how meltwater variability and ice shelf changes force ice-flow variability. If successful diagnosis is achieved, then the longer melt history from the ice-cores can be used to estimate the ice-flow variability over the same interval; the relations between ice-flow and melt changes also can be used prognostically in assessing future changes in the ice sheet affecting freshwater fluxes.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

Note:  When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

Amundson, JM; Truffer, M; Luthi, MP; Fahnestock, M; West, M; Motyka, RJ "Glacier, fjord, and seismic response to recent large calving events, Jakobshavn Isbrae, Greenland" GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS , v.35 , 2008 View record at Web of Science 10.1029/2008GL03528
Joughin, I; Howat, IM; Fahnestock, M; Smith, B; Krabill, W; Alley, RB; Stern, H; Truffer, M "Continued evolution of Jakobshavn Isbrae following its rapid speedup" JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-EARTH SURFACE , v.113 , 2008 View record at Web of Science 10.1029/2008JF00102
Joughin, I.R., I. Howat, R.B. Alley, G. Ekstrom, M. Fahnestock, T. Moon, M. Nettles, M. Truffer, and V. Tsai "Ice Front Variation and Tidewater Behavior on Helheim and Kangerdlugssuaq Glaciers, Greenland" JGR Earth Surf. Proc. , 2008 10.1029/2007JF000837
Truffer, M. and M. Fahnestock "Rethinking ice sheet time scales" Science , v.315 , 2007 , p.1508 10.1126/science.11140469

Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

Print this page

Back to Top of page