What is the meaning of か+の in these two sentences?


> 涵養量と消耗量の差は氷床の「質量収支」で、その期間に氷床の大きさ (質量) がどれだけ変化した **かの** 指標となる。

> もうすぐ一年に一回の小説コンテストが「八重堂」で開かれるの。それで以前と同じように何人 **かの** 作家先生を審査員に招待するつもりだったの。

Whenever you use a question word like どれだけ、何、etc. You seem to need that か
particle, but what is the role of the の particle here? Is 何人か人 also
grammatically correct?

Im also confused on how to translate the first texts use of a "question inside
a statement". Thank you!




This の is simply the AのB structure where A is a property of B. Question
phrases can work like nouns. In your first example B is 指標 ("an indicator")
and A is describing what kind of indicator it is: 氷床の大きさがどれだけ変化したか ("how much
the size of the ice sheet changed")

> その期間に氷床の大きさ (質量) がどれだけ変化したかの指標  
>  An indicator of how much the size (mass) of the ice sheet changed in that
> period.

Your second example is a bit different. We don't really have a question phrase
here. 何人か is just a word meaning "several/some people", so 何人かの作家 is
"several/some" authors.

**I'm less sure about the following part. Some confirmation from someone more
knowledgeable would be useful:** 何人か人 is not grammatically correct in the
sense that 何人か is no longer modifying 人. However 何人か can act adverbially, so
if you wrote 何人か作家先生を招待する then 何人か would not be associated with 作家先生 but with
招待する and you would have "invite authors severally" which is weird in English
but I think is perfectly acceptable Japanese.

