Collaborative Research: Physical Feedbacks in the Coastal Alaskan Arctic during Landfast Ice Freeze-up

合作研究：阿拉斯加北极沿海地区陆地冰冻期间的物理反馈

• 批准号: 2336693
• 负责人: Madison Smith
• 金额: $ 70.54万
• 依托单位: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-05-01 至 2027-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2336693&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Physical; Feedbacks; Coastal

The loss of sea ice in the Arctic is increasing the exposure of the coastline to waves and storms. The timing and location of ice formation in the fall also affects how sediment moves through the region. The proposed work will explore how waves, storms, and sediment interact during fall in the Alaskan Arctic. This new understanding will result in better predictions of ice formation at the coastline, which varies significantly in space and time. The project will use observations obtained from instruments deployed on the seafloor and from ships to watch how freeze-up occurs over a section of the coastal Alaskan Arctic. We will introduce new ways of making measurements in the Arctic, that are both cheaper and better-adapted to the harsh environment, which can be incorporated into future work. These observations will be compared with seasonal and prior datasets to understand how the freeze-up may vary in different years. Scientists will engage with middle and high school students both locally (in the Arctic) and from the continental US. This work will focus on developing a coastal ocean unit, which teaches students about the science and walks them through building and deploying small instruments.The rapid decline in landfast ice in the coastal Arctic is increasing the duration of wave exposure and strength of wave energy reaching the coast each year. Because landfast ice forms in shallow water, sediment entrainment into the ice also plays a key role in mediating export. The proposed work will address fundamental feedbacks and connections of physical processes on the Alaskan Arctic shelf during fall freeze-up. This new understanding will enable better predictions of seasonal and decadal changes in landfast ice formation, which has a high amount of variability on multiple spatial and temporal scales. Analysis will also improve our understanding of the sediment pathways during the stormy fall period. The field experiment will use moorings, autonomous systems, and seafloor cables to capture the spatial and temporal variability in freeze-up processes over a region on the Alaskan Beaufort shelf. The research will take a nested approach, utilizing seasonal observations and pre-existing inter-annual time series to capture the roles of offshore forcing, local hydrodynamic processes, and air-sea exchange. Measurements will be made using novel integration of multiple new low-cost telemetered sensors, amphibious drones, seafloor cables, and Arctic-hardened moorings, building capacity for future autonomous observing and monitoring systems adapted for the coastal Arctic. Outreach efforts during the project will engage regional high school students, as well as students who have never experienced the Arctic. We will continue building on a “Coastal Oceanography” unit developed over the past four years for high schoolers in an Alaskan Arctic village, expanded to include the middle school, and incorporating virtual lessons with annual in-person activities to deploy small student-built instruments. Additionally, we will establish ongoing engagement with middle school science classes in three locations with in-person visits prior to the fieldwork, live-stream events during the cruise, and follow-up visits afterwards.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.

北极海冰的消失增加了海岸线对波浪和风暴的暴露程度，秋季结冰的时间和位置也会影响沉积物在该地区的移动方式。这一新的认识将有助于更好地预测海岸线的冰形成过程，该项目将利用部署在海底的仪器和船只获得的观测结果来观察冰的形成过程。部分沿海地区出现冻结阿拉斯加北极。我们将引入在北极进行测量的新方法，这些方法既便宜又更适应恶劣的环境，可以将这些观测结果与季节性和先前的数据集进行比较，以了解北极地区的情况。不同年份的冻结情况可能会有所不同。科学家将与当地（北极）和美国大陆的中学生和高中生合作，这项工作将重点开发一个沿海海洋单元，向学生传授科学知识和散步。通过建造和部署小型仪器来实现它们。北极沿海陆地冰的减少正在增加每年到达海岸的波浪暴露时间和波浪能量强度，因为陆地冰形成于浅水中，沉积物夹带到冰中也起着调节出口的关键作用。这项工作将解决秋季冻结期间阿拉斯加北极大陆架物理过程的基本反馈和联系，这一新的认识将有助于更好地预测陆地冰形成的季节性和年代际变化，这些变化在多个空间和时间上具有很大的变化性。尺度。分析也会提高现场实验将使用系泊装置、自主系统和海底电缆来捕获阿拉斯加博福特大陆架区域冻结过程的空间和时间变化。一种嵌套方法，利用季节性观测和预先存在的年际时间序列来捕获近海强迫、当地水动力过程和海气交换的作用，将使用多个新型低成本遥测传感器的新颖集成进行测量，两栖无人机、海底电缆和北极加固系泊装置，以及未来适应北极沿海的自主观测和监测系统的能力建设，将吸引地区高中生以及从未经历过北极的学生。我们将继续以过去四年为阿拉斯加北极村庄的高中生开发的“海岸海洋学”单元为基础，扩大到包括中学，并将虚拟课程与年度现场活动相结合，以部署小型学生自制仪器。此外，我们将在三个地点建立与中学科学课程的持续接触，在实地考察之前进行现场访问，在航行期间进行直播活动，并在之后进行后续访问。该奖项是 NSF 的法定使命，并已被视为值得通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。