| NSF Org: |
OPP Office of Polar Programs (OPP) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 12, 2007 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 30, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 0732869 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Paul Cutler
pcutler@nsf.gov (703)292-4961 OPP Office of Polar Programs (OPP) GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2007 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $111,340.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $674,894.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2008 = $100,663.00 FY 2009 = $104,783.00 FY 2010 = $279,666.00 FY 2011 = $78,442.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
70 WASHINGTON SQ S NEW YORK NY US 10012-1019 (212)998-2121 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
251 Mercer Street New York NY US 10012-1110 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | ANT Integrated System Science |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.078 |
ABSTRACT
Abstract
PI: Robert A. Bindschadler
Proposal Number: 0732906
Collaborative With: McPhee 0732804, Holland 0732869, Truffer 0732730, Stanton 0732926, Anandakrishnan 0732844
Title: Collaborative Research: 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. The collaborative project builds on the knowledge gained by the highly successful West Antarctic Ice Sheet program and is being jointly sponsored 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. 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. NASA is supporting satellite based research and the deployment of a robotic-camera system to explore the environment in the ocean cavity underlying the ice shelf and NSF is supporting all other aspects of this study.
Broader impacts: This project is motivated by the potential societal impacts of rapid sea level rise and should result in critically needed improvements in characterizing and predicting the behavior of coupled ocean-ice systems. It is a contribution to the International Polar Year and was endorsed by the International Council for Science as a component of the "Multidisciplinary Study of the Amundsen Sea Embayment" proposal #258 of the honeycomb of endorsed IPY activities. The research involves substantial international partnerships with the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Bristol in the UK. The investigators will partner with the previously funded "Polar Palooza" education and outreach program in addition to undertaking a diverse set of outreach activities of their own. Eight graduate students and one undergraduate as well as one post doc will be integrated into this research project.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The greatest uncertainty in future global sea-level rise resides with the fate of the Earths’ great ice sheets, Greenland and Antarctica. Rapid disintegration of these ice sheets is widely believed to be possible through the interaction of the periphery of the ice sheets with deep, warm waters arriving there, and there is a growing body of observational data pointing to this fact. This project was focused on understanding the impact of deep, warm waters arriving to the base of the Pine Island Glacier, in West Antarctica. Over a period of several years we collected GPS data showing the motion of the glacier as it sped up and slowed down seasonally and interannually. Working with international colleagues we also collected ocean temperature data nearby to the glacier. We found that there is indeed a correlation between the glacier speed towards the ocean and the ocean temperatures nearby, namely, warmer ocean waters cause the glacier to move faster and vice versa. While this relation has previously thought to be true, our data set is one of the first to demonstrate that this is indeed the case in nature itself. This key finding has profound ramifications for the understanding, modeling, and projective capabilities relating to large sea level rise going forward.
Last Modified: 12/10/2016
Modified by: David M Holland
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