Glacial Assessment: Past, Present and Future: Acquisition of Essential Research Instrumentation

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) purchase of equipment for Ohio State University's Glacial Assessment Program (GAP). The program has three major thrusts: 1) documenting ongoing and recent glacier change primarily using geophysical methods including remote sensing; 2) assessing the recent changes from a long-term perspective provided by high-resolution ice core-derived climate histories; and 3) projecting future glacier changes by improving modeling capability, and hence, predicting future climate forcing in terms of snowfall and ablation. This proposal requests funds to augment GAP's ability to investigate glacier changes in the past, present and future by enhancing OSU's technical capability to make critical observations and analyses. More specifically, the spectroradiometer will allow crucial field observations of the spectral signature of periglacial landscapes, to serve as validation for trimline mapping using multispectral satellite imagery. The gravity meter is essential to make a more quantitative assessment of the mass balances of Greenland, Antarctica and smaller glaciers and ice caps that strongly control present and future sea level fluctuations. The mass spectrometer and ion chromatographs provide critical augmentation to OSU's capability to reconstruct past climate variability from ice cores recovered from glaciers and ice caps from the equator to the poles and thereby disentangle the various mechanisms forcing regional climates in the past. Finally, computer clusters will allow better prediction of future climate change via the development of higher resolution simulations of regional climate. The acquisition of the proposed instrumentation is essential for BPRC to maintain its role as an international leader in the study of global climate change and for the P.I.s to direct their extensive collective knowledge and expertise on the critical issue of the rapid and accelerating loss of glacier ice