The Environment of the Arctic: Climate, Ocean and Sea Ice (tea-cosi)

北极环境：气候、海洋和海冰 (tea-cosi)

基本信息

批准号：
NE/I029226/1
负责人：
Tom Rippeth
金额：
$ 32.56万
依托单位：
Bangor University
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2011
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2011 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FI029226%2F1
关键词：
Environment Arctic Climate Ocean Sea

项目摘要

Look at a map of the world and find the Shetland Islands. Follow the 60 degrees north latitude circle eastwards. You pass through St. Petersburg, the Ural Mountains, Siberia, the Bering Sea, Alaska, northern Canada, the southern tip of Greenland, then back to the Shetlands. All these places are cold, harsh environments, particularly in winter, except the Shetlands, which is wet and windy but quite mild all year. This is because in the UK we benefit from heat brought northwards by the Atlantic Ocean in a current called the Conveyor Belt. This current is driven by surface water being made to sink by the extreme cold in and around the Arctic. It returns southwards through the Atlantic at great depths. Scientists think it is possible that the Conveyor Belt could slow down or stop, and if it did, the UK would get much colder.We know the planet has been warming for the last century or more, and we think this is due to the Greenhouse Effect. Burning fossil fuels puts a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which stops heat from leaving the Earth, like the glass in a greenhouse. In a warming world, ice melts faster, and there is a lot of ice on the Earth: ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica, sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, glaciers in high mountains. And we know that the Arctic is the fastest-warming part of the planet. This causes extra amounts of fresh water to flow into the oceans. Now this fresh water can affect the Conveyor Belt by acting like a lid of water too light to sink, so the Conveyor Belt stops.What is the chance of this happening? We do not know, because there is much we do not understand about how the Arctic Ocean works. You need a powerful icebreaker to get into the Arctic Ocean, and that's only really possible in the summer, because in winter the sea ice thickens and the weather is bad. Scientists all over the world agree that the Arctic Ocean is important because it contains a lot of freshwater, which is why, although it is difficult to make measurements in the Arctic, the UK's Natural Environment Research Council has decided to fund a programme of scientific research in the Arctic.We want to be able to make better predictions of how the Arctic climate will change during the 21st century, so this project will help improve our ability to make these predictions. We will do this by improving the way that computer models of the Earth's climate represent the Arctic. We are going to treat the Arctic Ocean as a box, with a top, a bottom, sides and an interior, and we're going to examine all these parts of the box using measurements from space, from ships, from instruments moored to the sea bed, and from robotic sensors attached to drifting sea ice. We'll use all these measurements together to improve the scientific equations within the computer models, and then we'll run the models into the future to create better predictions not just of the Arctic, but of how changes in the Arctic might influence UK, European and global climate. With better predictions, we can make better plans for the future.

查看世界地图，找到设得兰群岛。向东沿着60度的北纬圆圈。您经过圣彼得堡，乌拉尔山脉，西伯利亚，白令海，阿拉斯加，加拿大北部，格陵兰岛南端，然后返回设得兰群岛。所有这些地方都是寒冷，恶劣的环境，尤其是在冬季，除了设得兰群岛（Shetlands），潮湿又大风但全年都很温和。这是因为在英国，我们从大西洋向北带来的热量中受益于一条名为“传送带”。这种电流是由地表水驱动的，以使北极中和周围的极端寒冷下沉。它以大深度向南返回。科学家认为，传送带可能会放慢或停止，如果这样做，英国会变得更冷。我们知道，上个世纪或更长时间的地球一直在变暖，我们认为这是由于温室效应所致。燃烧的化石燃料将大量二氧化碳放入大气中，这会阻止热量离开地球，就像温室中的玻璃一样。在温暖的世界中，冰融化得更快，地球上有很多冰：格陵兰岛和南极洲的冰盖，北极和南极海洋中的海冰，高山的冰川。我们知道北极是地球上最快的部分。这会导致额外的淡水流入海洋。现在，这种淡水会通过像水太轻而无法下沉的水盖来影响传送带，因此传送带停止。发生这种情况的机会是什么？我们不知道，因为我们对北极海的运作方式不了解。您需要一个强大的破冰船才能进入北极海，这只有在夏天才有可能，因为在冬季，海冰变厚，天气不好。全世界的科学家都同意，北极海洋很重要，因为它包含了很多淡水，这就是为什么很难在北极进行测量，但英国自然环境研究委员会决定为北极的科学研究提供资金。我们希望能够更好地预测21世纪的北极气候将如何改善这个项目，从而改善我们的能力，从而改善我们的能力，以改善我们的能力。我们将通过改善地球气候的计算机模型代表北极的方式来做到这一点。我们将将北极海作为一个盒子，顶部，底部，侧面和内部都将其视为盒子，我们将使用来自空间的测量值，从船只到船上的仪器到海床的仪器以及连接到漂流海冰的机器人传感器的所有这些部分。我们将共同使用所有这些测量值来改善计算机模型中的科学方程，然后将模型运行到未来，不仅可以对北极进行更好的预测，而且对北极的变化如何影响英国，欧洲和全球气候。有了更好的预测，我们可以为未来制定更好的计划。