Full Proposals for IPY 2007-2008 Activities

Proposed IPY Activity Details

1.0 PROPOSER INFORMATION

(Activity ID No: 258)

1.1 Title of Activity
Multidisciplinary Study of the Amundsen Sea Embayment

1.2 Short Form Title of Proposed Activity
Amundsen Sea Embayment Plan

1.3 Activity Leader Details
Robert Bindschadler
NASA
USA

1.4 Lead International Organisation(s) (if applicable)

1.5 Other Countries involved in the activity
United Kingdom
Italy
Chile
Belguim
Canada

1.6 Expression of Intent ID #'s brought together in this proposed activity
112, 3, 117, 202, 226, 276, 327, 528, 583, 590, 593, 822, 895, 906

1.7 Location of Field Activities
Antarctic

1.8 Which IPY themes are addressed
1. Current state of the environment
2. Change in the polar regions
3. Polar-global linkages/tele-connections
4. Exploring new frontiers

1.9 What is the main IPY target addressed by this activity
1. Natural or social science

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2.0 SUMMARY OF THE ACTIVITY

This project links together multidisciplinary interests in the region of West Antarctica where the ice sheet discharges into the Amundsen Sea. It is one of the most active ice sheet areas, is already contributing a significant fraction of the increasing sea level, and holds the potential to dwarf other sea level contributions in the future. Aside from routine satellite coverage that monitor elevation and surface features, information about the area is limited. Last Antarctic field season, a comprehensive aerogeophysical survey revealed surprising differences between the beds of the Pine Island and Thwaites Glacier basins.
Our project will greatly advance our knowledge of ice dynamics of the area (through surface measurements of motion, including possible tidal modulation of flow), the basal conditions (through active seismic studies at sites believed to represent large areas of the bed and/or critical transition regions), sub-shelf oceanic interactions (through probes placed beneath the shelf and moorings in the surrounding seas), atmospheric transport of incoming snow (through deployment of automatic weather stations), historical record of ice extent (through geological samplings of surrounding areas, marine studies of the surrounding sea bed, and deep ice coring at the summit of the basin). These studies will be conducted with the direct intention of supplying the involved modeling experts with necessary data to construct, initialize and validate advanced full-stress tensor models of ice flow. Such models are the penultimate tool to achieve the ASEP goal of assessing the potential contribution of this area to future sea level change and the overall stability of the last marine ice sheet on Earth.
Most of the techniques to obtain these data are already well-developed. The principal challenge is securing adequate logistics support for the large team of investigators necessary to successfully conduct the variety of research over a large area distant from any existing Antarctic base.

2.1 What is the evidence of inter-disciplinarity in this activity?
Leading polar scientists in glaciology, biology, geology, seismology, oceanography, meteorology, and engineers in advanced remote sensing techniques all have significant roles in this research. ASEP builds on the successful multidisciplinary research of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) project.

2.2 What will be the significant advances/developments from this activity? What will be the major deliverables? What are the outputs for your peers?
Our goal is to predict the potential impact of this actively changing region on near-term and longer-term sea level changes. This will be achieved by the development of state-of-the-art numeric models of ice sheet behavior, supplied with new and detailed data sets of ice thickness, speed, basal state and boundary conditions.

2.3 Outline the geographical location(s) for the proposed field work (approximate coordinates will be helpful if possible)

2.4 Define the approximate timeframe(s) for proposed field activities?

2.5 What major logistic support/facilities will be required for this project?
Ice strengthened research ship
Fixed wing transport aircraft
Ship recovery of buoys etc
Helicopters
Fuel depots
Snow terrain vehicles
Fixed wing geophysical aircraft
New field station

Further details – No one project will require all these facilities. The aggregate logistic needs of multiple field projects will increase the scientific return of delivering these logistic resources to a distant polar location.

2.6 How will the required logistics be supplied? Have operators been approached?

2.7 If working in the Arctic regions, has there been contact with local indigenous groups or relevant authorities regarding access?

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3.0 STRUCTURE OF THE ACTIVITY

3.1 Origin of the activity
This activity is the start of a new programme that will outlive IPY

If part of an existing programme please name the programme – WAIS and WAISCORES

3.2 How will the activity be organised and managed? Describe the proposed management structure and means for coordinating across the cluster
We will follow the successful WAIS model to the extent feasible. This required indiviually funded investigators to meet and discuss their various plans and needs. Such conversation is driven primarily by logistic limitations. The involved persons have a record of being productive in this community setting and modifying their individual desires to increase the collective scientific return. Conducted in cooperation with the NSF logistic operators, past meetings of this type have resulted in a consensus field plan that matched the availability of logistic resources.
Sharing and exchange of scientific results and insights will be furthered by workshops of the type that the WAIS program has conducted over the past 15 years. This has proven highly successful.
Education and outreach activities will be largely shared among these separate projects because they all are part of the pursuit of a larger scientific goal. Our workshops and meetings will faciliate this common outreach model.

3.3 Will the activity leave a legacy of infrastructure and if so in what form?
The desired legacy will be the continued operation of automatic weather stations and ocean monitoring buoys at critical locations that will be routinely maintained to supply an ongoing stream of data to verify predictions and/or enable the refinement of predictions.

3.4 Will the activity involve nations other than traditional polar nations? How will this be addressed?
Citizens of non-traditional polar nations will have an opportunity to participate in field activities. It is hoped that outreach and education activities will enable the virtual presence of many more such interested people to interact with in-the-field researchers. And our modeling component will be an avenue for scientific involvement through the availability of a community model of ice sheet flow.

3.5 Will this activity be linked with other IPY core activities? If yes please specify
It is directly tied to the WAIS ice coring activity.

3.6 How will the activity manage its data? Is there a viable plan and which data management organisations/structures will be involved?
Much of the research will be supported by the US's National Science Foundation. They require funded investigators to supply metadata to the appropriate national data center. Further, proprietary use of such data is limited to a two-year period. Past practices by the investigators expected to lead ASEP have illustrated a high degree of openness as regards data availability. For IPY, a special effort will be made at our workshops to encourage the release of any collected data to national data centers to facilitate its availability across the globe.

3.7 Data Policy Agreement
Will this activity sign up to the IPY draft Data Policy (see website)
Yes

3.8 How will the activity contribute to developing the next generation of polar scientists, logisticians, etc.?
Graduate students will be invoved with most of the field projects. The academic participants will refer to their work in their interactions withundergraduate students at their home institutions and discuss it with younger students in public presentations. The outreach activities are intended to include telepresence activities, permitting the general public to see the work being conducted and to interact directly with the field scientists while on station.

3.9 How will this activity address education, outreach and communication issues outlined in the Framework document?
most of the investigators make frequent presentations to student and public groups to discuss their work. This will continue.
In addition, we intend to develop a coordinated education and outreach effort that links the various component projects into a coherent whole that helps express the reasons for our work, our objectives, and the relevance of this work to the global public. We have contacted various media experts, from free-lance writers to well-established US federal agency public affairs offices. The high public interest in our research has already been identified by many of these education and outreach groups as favorite projects. We are receiving many inquiries as to the possiblitiy of their inclusion in our field studies, including possible web casts, and feature stories for press and other media. We are confident we will have multiple opportunities to choose from to provide teh public with many views of what we do and why.

3.10 What are the proposed sources of funding for this activity?
From national science funding agencies in our respective countries.

3.11 Additional Comments

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4.0 CONSORTIUM INFORMATION

4.1 Contact Details

Lead Contact
Dr Robert Bindschadler
NASA
Code 614 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland
20771
USA

Tel:          301-614-5707
Mobile:   N/A
Fax:         301-614-5666
Email:       Robert.A.Bindschadler@nasa.gov

Second Contact
Dr Sridhar Anandakrishnan
Pennsylvania State University
Dept of Geosciences & Environment Institute University Park, PA
16802-2711
USA

Tel:          (814) 863-6742
Mobile:   N/A
Fax:         (814) 863-8724
Email:      sak@essc.psu.edu

4.2 Other significant consortium members and their affiliation