Articles | Volume 12, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1565-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-1565-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
22 Jul 2016
Research article |
| 22 Jul 2016
Regional climate signal vs. local noise: a two-dimensional view of water isotopes in Antarctic firn at Kohnen Station, Dronning Maud Land
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A43, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Institute of Physics and Astronomy, University of Potsdam,
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Sepp Kipfstuhl
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research, Am Alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany
Johannes Freitag
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research, Am Alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany
Hanno Meyer
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A43, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
Thomas Laepple
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and
Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A43, 14473 Potsdam, Germany
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Andrew M. Dolman, Torben Kunz, Jeroen Groeneveld, and Thomas Laepple
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Helle Astrid Kjær, Patrick Zens, Ross Edwards, Martin Olesen, Ruth Mottram, Gabriel Lewis, Christian Terkelsen Holme, Samuel Black, Kasper Holst Lund, Mikkel Schmidt, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Bo Vinther, Anders Svensson, Nanna Karlsson, Jason E. Box, Sepp Kipfstuhl, and Paul Vallelonga
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Jean-Louis Bonne, Hanno Meyer, Melanie Behrens, Julia Boike, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Benjamin Rabe, Toni Schmidt, Lutz Schönicke, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen, and Martin Werner
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Tetsuro Taranczewski, Johannes Freitag, Olaf Eisen, Bo Vinther, Sonja Wahl, and Sepp Kipfstuhl
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2018-280, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2018-280, 2019
Preprint withdrawn
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We used melt layers detected in ice cores from the Renland ice cap in East Greenland to find evidence of past climate trends in this region. Our record provides such information for the past 10,000 years. We developed an attempt to increase the reliability of such a record by correcting deformation-induced biases. It proves that such simple to obtain melt records can be used to gather information about paleoclimate especially for regions where climate records are sparse.
Thomas Münch and Thomas Laepple
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Andrew M. Dolman and Thomas Laepple
Clim. Past, 14, 1851–1868, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1851-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1851-2018, 2018
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Climate proxies from marine sediments provide an important record of past temperatures, but contain noise from many sources. These include mixing by burrowing organisms, seasonal and habitat biases, measurement error, and small sample size effects. We have created a forward model that simulates the creation of proxy records and provides it as a user-friendly R package. It allows multiple sources of uncertainty to be considered together when interpreting proxy climate records.
Mathieu Casado, Amaelle Landais, Ghislain Picard, Thomas Münch, Thomas Laepple, Barbara Stenni, Giuliano Dreossi, Alexey Ekaykin, Laurent Arnaud, Christophe Genthon, Alexandra Touzeau, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, and Jean Jouzel
The Cryosphere, 12, 1745–1766, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1745-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1745-2018, 2018
Short summary
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Ice core isotopic records rely on the knowledge of the processes involved in the archival processes of the snow. In the East Antarctic Plateau, post-deposition processes strongly affect the signal found in the surface and buried snow compared to the initial climatic signal. We evaluate the different contributions to the surface snow isotopic composition between the precipitation and the exchanges with the atmosphere and the variability of the isotopic signal found in profiles from snow pits.
Nancy A. N. Bertler, Howard Conway, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Daniel B. Emanuelsson, Mai Winstrup, Paul T. Vallelonga, James E. Lee, Ed J. Brook, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Taylor J. Fudge, Elizabeth D. Keller, W. Troy Baisden, Richard C. A. Hindmarsh, Peter D. Neff, Thomas Blunier, Ross Edwards, Paul A. Mayewski, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Christo Buizert, Silvia Canessa, Ruzica Dadic, Helle A. Kjær, Andrei Kurbatov, Dongqi Zhang, Edwin D. Waddington, Giovanni Baccolo, Thomas Beers, Hannah J. Brightley, Lionel Carter, David Clemens-Sewall, Viorela G. Ciobanu, Barbara Delmonte, Lukas Eling, Aja Ellis, Shruthi Ganesh, Nicholas R. Golledge, Skylar Haines, Michael Handley, Robert L. Hawley, Chad M. Hogan, Katelyn M. Johnson, Elena Korotkikh, Daniel P. Lowry, Darcy Mandeno, Robert M. McKay, James A. Menking, Timothy R. Naish, Caroline Noerling, Agathe Ollive, Anaïs Orsi, Bernadette C. Proemse, Alexander R. Pyne, Rebecca L. Pyne, James Renwick, Reed P. Scherer, Stefanie Semper, Marius Simonsen, Sharon B. Sneed, Eric J. Steig, Andrea Tuohy, Abhijith Ulayottil Venugopal, Fernando Valero-Delgado, Janani Venkatesh, Feitang Wang, Shimeng Wang, Dominic A. Winski, V. Holly L. Winton, Arran Whiteford, Cunde Xiao, Jiao Yang, and Xin Zhang
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Temperature and snow accumulation records from the annually dated Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice core show that for the past 2 700 years, the eastern Ross Sea warmed, while the western Ross Sea showed no trend and West Antarctica cooled. From the 17th century onwards, this dipole relationship changed. Now all three regions show concurrent warming, with snow accumulation declining in West Antarctica and the eastern Ross Sea.
Thomas Laepple, Thomas Münch, Mathieu Casado, Maria Hoerhold, Amaelle Landais, and Sepp Kipfstuhl
The Cryosphere, 12, 169–187, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-169-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-169-2018, 2018
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We explain why snow pits across different sites in East Antarctica show visually similar isotopic variations. We argue that the similarity and the apparent cycles of around 20 cm in the δD and δ18O variations are the result of a seasonal cycle in isotopes, noise, for example from precipitation intermittency, and diffusion. The near constancy of the diffusion length across many ice-coring sites explains why the structure and cycle length is largely independent of the accumulation conditions.
Tim Carlsen, Gerit Birnbaum, André Ehrlich, Johannes Freitag, Georg Heygster, Larysa Istomina, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Anaïs Orsi, Michael Schäfer, and Manfred Wendisch
The Cryosphere, 11, 2727–2741, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2727-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2727-2017, 2017
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The optical size of snow grains (ropt) affects the reflectivity of snow surfaces and thus the local surface energy budget in particular in polar regions. The temporal evolution of ropt retrieved from ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne remote sensing could reproduce optical in situ measurements for a 2-month period in central Antarctica (2013/14). The presented validation study provided a unique testbed for retrievals of ropt under Antarctic conditions where in situ data are scarce.
Thomas Münch, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Johannes Freitag, Hanno Meyer, and Thomas Laepple
The Cryosphere, 11, 2175–2188, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2175-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2175-2017, 2017
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The importance of post-depositional changes for the temperature interpretation of water isotopes is poorly constrained by observations. Here, for the first time, temporal isotope changes in the open-porous firn are directly analysed using a large array of shallow isotope profiles. By this, we can reject the possibility of post-depositional change beyond diffusion and densification as the cause of the discrepancy between isotope and local temperature variations at Kohnen Station, East Antarctica.
Ilka Weikusat, Ernst-Jan N. Kuiper, Gill M. Pennock, Sepp Kipfstuhl, and Martyn R. Drury
Solid Earth, 8, 883–898, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-8-883-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-8-883-2017, 2017
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Understanding the flow of large ice masses on Earth is a major challenge in our changing climate. Deformation mechanisms are governed by the strong anisotropy of ice. As anisotropy is currently moving into the focus of ice sheet flow studies, we provide a detailed analysis of microstructure data from natural ice core samples which directly relate to anisotropic plasticity. Our findings reveal surprising dislocation activity which seems to contradict the concept of macroscopic ice anisotropy.
Jan Eichler, Ina Kleitz, Maddalena Bayer-Giraldi, Daniela Jansen, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Wataru Shigeyama, Christian Weikusat, and Ilka Weikusat
The Cryosphere, 11, 1075–1090, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1075-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1075-2017, 2017
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This study contributes to investigations of the effect of impurities on ice microstructure and flow properties. For the first time we mapped over 5000 micro-inclusions in four samples from the EDML and NEEM polar ice cores. The particle distributions show no correlation with grain boundaries and thus we conclude that particle pinning plays only a secondary role for the microstructure evolution. Alternative mechanisms are discussed.
Kira Rehfeld, Mathias Trachsel, Richard J. Telford, and Thomas Laepple
Clim. Past, 12, 2255–2270, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2255-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-2255-2016, 2016
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Indirect evidence on past climate comes from the former composition of ecological communities such as plants, preserved as pollen grains in sediments of lakes. Transfer functions convert relative counts of species to a climatologically meaningful scale (e.g. annual mean temperature in degrees C). We show that the fundamental assumptions in the algorithms impact the reconstruction results in he idealized model world, in particular if the reconstructed variables were not ecologically relevant.
Mathieu Casado, Amaelle Landais, Ghislain Picard, Thomas Münch, Thomas Laepple, Barbara Stenni, Giuliano Dreossi, Alexey Ekaykin, Laurent Arnaud, Christophe Genthon, Alexandra Touzeau, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, and Jean Jouzel
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2016-263, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2016-263, 2016
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Ice core isotopic records rely on the knowledge of the processes involved in the archival of the snow. In the East Antarctic Plateau, post-deposition processes strongly affect the signal found in the surface and buried snow compared to the initial climatic signal. We evaluate the different contributions to the surface snow isotopic composition between the precipitation and the exchanges with the atmosphere and the variability of the isotopic signal found in profiles from snow pits.
Christoph Florian Schaller, Johannes Freitag, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Thomas Laepple, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen, and Olaf Eisen
The Cryosphere, 10, 1991–2002, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-1991-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-1991-2016, 2016
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Along a traverse through North Greenland in May 2015 we collected snow cores up to 2 m in depth and analyzed their properties (e.g., density). A new technique for this sampling and an adapted algorithm for comparing data sets from different positions and aligning stratigraphic features are presented. We find good agreement of the density layering in the snowpack over hundreds of kilometers. This allows the construction of a representative density profile that is statistically validated.
François Ritter, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen, Martin Werner, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Anais Orsi, Melanie Behrens, Gerit Birnbaum, Johannes Freitag, Camille Risi, and Sepp Kipfstuhl
The Cryosphere, 10, 1647–1663, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-1647-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-1647-2016, 2016
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We present successful continuous measurements of water vapor isotopes performed in Antarctica in January 2013. The interest is to understand the impact of the water vapor isotopic composition on the near-surface snow isotopes. Our study reveals a diurnal cycle in the snow isotopic composition in phase with the vapor. This finding suggests fractionation during the sublimation of the ice, which has an important consequence on the interpretation of water isotope variations in ice cores.
D. Jansen, M.-G. Llorens, J. Westhoff, F. Steinbach, S. Kipfstuhl, P. D. Bons, A. Griera, and I. Weikusat
The Cryosphere, 10, 359–370, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-359-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-359-2016, 2016
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In this study we present examples of typical small-scale folds observed in the NEEM ice core, North Greenland, and discuss their characteristics. Numerical modelling of viscoplastic deformation and dynamic recrystallisation was used to improve the understanding of the formation of the observed structures under simple shear boundary conditions. We conclude that the folds originate from bands of grains with a tilted lattice relative to the strong lattice preferred orientation below 1500 m depth.
S. Weißbach, A. Wegner, T. Opel, H. Oerter, B. M. Vinther, and S. Kipfstuhl
Clim. Past, 12, 171–188, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-171-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-171-2016, 2016
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Based on a set of 12 intermediate deep ice cores, covering an area of about 200 000 km2, we studied the spatial and temporal d18O patterns of northern Greenland over the past millennium and found a strong east-west gradient related to the main ice divide. A stacked record with significantly reduced noise revealed distinct climate variations with a pronounced Little Ice Age and distinct warm events such as the Medieval Climate Anomaly, around AD 1420 and in the 20th century.
A. Svensson, S. Fujita, M. Bigler, M. Braun, R. Dallmayr, V. Gkinis, K. Goto-Azuma, M. Hirabayashi, K. Kawamura, S. Kipfstuhl, H. A. Kjær, T. Popp, M. Simonsen, J. P. Steffensen, P. Vallelonga, and B. M. Vinther
Clim. Past, 11, 1127–1137, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1127-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-1127-2015, 2015
J. Christmann, R. Müller, K. G. Webber, D. Isaia, F. H. Schader, S. Kipfstuhl, J. Freitag, and A. Humbert
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 7, 87–92, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-7-87-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-7-87-2015, 2015
C. Elsässer, D. Wagenbach, I. Levin, A. Stanzick, M. Christl, A. Wallner, S. Kipfstuhl, I. K. Seierstad, H. Wershofen, and J. Dibb
Clim. Past, 11, 115–133, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-115-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-115-2015, 2015
P. Vallelonga, K. Christianson, R. B. Alley, S. Anandakrishnan, J. E. M. Christian, D. Dahl-Jensen, V. Gkinis, C. Holme, R. W. Jacobel, N. B. Karlsson, B. A. Keisling, S. Kipfstuhl, H. A. Kjær, M. E. L. Kristensen, A. Muto, L. E. Peters, T. Popp, K. L. Riverman, A. M. Svensson, C. Tibuleac, B. M. Vinther, Y. Weng, and M. Winstrup
The Cryosphere, 8, 1275–1287, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1275-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-1275-2014, 2014
H. C. Steen-Larsen, V. Masson-Delmotte, M. Hirabayashi, R. Winkler, K. Satow, F. Prié, N. Bayou, E. Brun, K. M. Cuffey, D. Dahl-Jensen, M. Dumont, M. Guillevic, S. Kipfstuhl, A. Landais, T. Popp, C. Risi, K. Steffen, B. Stenni, and A. E. Sveinbjörnsdottír
Clim. Past, 10, 377–392, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-377-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-377-2014, 2014
S. O. Rasmussen, P. M. Abbott, T. Blunier, A. J. Bourne, E. Brook, S. L. Buchardt, C. Buizert, J. Chappellaz, H. B. Clausen, E. Cook, D. Dahl-Jensen, S. M. Davies, M. Guillevic, S. Kipfstuhl, T. Laepple, I. K. Seierstad, J. P. Severinghaus, J. P. Steffensen, C. Stowasser, A. Svensson, P. Vallelonga, B. M. Vinther, F. Wilhelms, and M. Winstrup
Clim. Past, 9, 2713–2730, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2713-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2713-2013, 2013
A. Svensson, M. Bigler, T. Blunier, H. B. Clausen, D. Dahl-Jensen, H. Fischer, S. Fujita, K. Goto-Azuma, S. J. Johnsen, K. Kawamura, S. Kipfstuhl, M. Kohno, F. Parrenin, T. Popp, S. O. Rasmussen, J. Schwander, I. Seierstad, M. Severi, J. P. Steffensen, R. Udisti, R. Uemura, P. Vallelonga, B. M. Vinther, A. Wegner, F. Wilhelms, and M. Winstrup
Clim. Past, 9, 749–766, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-749-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-749-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Proxy Use-Development-Validation | Archive: Ice Cores | Timescale: Holocene
An age scale for new climate records from Sherman Island, West Antarctica
An annually resolved chronology for the Mount Brown South ice cores, East Antarctica
The new Kr-86 excess ice core proxy for synoptic activity: West Antarctic storminess possibly linked to Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) movement through the last deglaciation
A multi-ice-core, annual-layer-counted Greenland ice-core chronology for the last 3800 years: GICC21
How precipitation intermittency sets an optimal sampling distance for temperature reconstructions from Antarctic ice cores
Five thousand years of fire history in the high North Atlantic region: natural variability and ancient human forcing
Variations in mineralogy of dust in an ice core obtained from northwestern Greenland over the past 100 years
Cryptotephra from the Icelandic Veiðivötn 1477 CE eruption in a Greenland ice core: confirming the dating of volcanic events in the 1450s CE and assessing the eruption's climatic impact
A first chronology for the East Greenland Ice-core Project (EGRIP) over the Holocene and last glacial termination
High-frequency climate variability in the Holocene from a coastal-dome ice core in east-central Greenland
Greenland temperature and precipitation over the last 20 000 years using data assimilation
Holocene atmospheric iodine evolution over the North Atlantic
The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 1: volcanic matching and annual layer counting
Novel automated inversion algorithm for temperature reconstruction using gas isotopes from ice cores
Particle shape accounts for instrumental discrepancy in ice core dust size distributions
Temperature and mineral dust variability recorded in two low-accumulation Alpine ice cores over the last millennium
Synchronizing the Greenland ice core and radiocarbon timescales over the Holocene – Bayesian wiggle-matching of cosmogenic radionuclide records
A method for analysis of vanillic acid in polar ice cores
Dating a tropical ice core by time–frequency analysis of ion concentration depth profiles
A new Himalayan ice core CH4 record: possible hints at the preindustrial latitudinal gradient
Causes of Greenland temperature variability over the past 4000 yr: implications for northern hemispheric temperature changes
Greenland ice core evidence of the 79 AD Vesuvius eruption
Deglaciation records of 17O-excess in East Antarctica: reliable reconstruction of oceanic normalized relative humidity from coastal sites
Isobel Rowell, Carlos Martin, Robert Mulvaney, Helena Pryer, Dieter Tetzner, Emily Doyle, Hara Madhav Talasila, Jilu Li, and Eric Wolff
Clim. Past, 19, 1699–1714, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1699-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-1699-2023, 2023
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We present an age scale for a new type of ice core from a vulnerable region in West Antarctic, which is lacking in longer-term (greater than a few centuries) ice core records. The Sherman Island core extends to greater than 1 kyr. We provide modelling evidence for the potential of a 10 kyr long core. We show that this new type of ice core can be robustly dated and that climate records from this core will be a significant addition to existing regional climate records.
Tessa R. Vance, Nerilie J. Abram, Alison S. Criscitiello, Camilla K. Crockart, Aylin DeCampo, Vincent Favier, Vasileios Gkinis, Margaret Harlan, Sarah L. Jackson, Helle A. Kjær, Chelsea A. Long, Meredith K. Nation, Chris T. Plummer, Delia Segato, Andrea Spolaor, and Paul T. Vallelonga
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-52, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2023-52, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for CP
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This study presents the chronologies from the new Mount Brown South ice cores, from East Antarctica, which were developed by counting annual layers in the ice core data and aligning these to volcanic sulfate signatures. The uncertainty in the dating is quantified, and we discuss initial results from seasonal cycle analysis and mean annual concentrations. The chronologies will underpin the development of new proxy records for East Antarctica spanning the past millennium.
Christo Buizert, Sarah Shackleton, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, William H. G. Roberts, Alan Seltzer, Bernhard Bereiter, Kenji Kawamura, Daniel Baggenstos, Anaïs J. Orsi, Ikumi Oyabu, Benjamin Birner, Jacob D. Morgan, Edward J. Brook, David M. Etheridge, David Thornton, Nancy Bertler, Rebecca L. Pyne, Robert Mulvaney, Ellen Mosley-Thompson, Peter D. Neff, and Vasilii V. Petrenko
Clim. Past, 19, 579–606, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-579-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-579-2023, 2023
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It is unclear how different components of the global atmospheric circulation, such as the El Niño effect, respond to large-scale climate change. We present a new ice core gas proxy, called krypton-86 excess, that reflects past storminess in Antarctica. We present data from 11 ice cores that suggest the new proxy works. We present a reconstruction of changes in West Antarctic storminess over the last 24 000 years and suggest these are caused by north–south movement of the tropical rain belt.
Giulia Sinnl, Mai Winstrup, Tobias Erhardt, Eliza Cook, Camilla Marie Jensen, Anders Svensson, Bo Møllesøe Vinther, Raimund Muscheler, and Sune Olander Rasmussen
Clim. Past, 18, 1125–1150, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1125-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1125-2022, 2022
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A new Greenland ice-core timescale, covering the last 3800 years, was produced using the machine learning algorithm StratiCounter. We synchronized the ice cores using volcanic eruptions and wildfires. We compared the new timescale to the tree-ring timescale, finding good alignment both between the common signatures of volcanic eruptions and of solar activity. Our Greenlandic timescales is safe to use for the Late Holocene, provided one uses our uncertainty estimate.
Thomas Münch, Martin Werner, and Thomas Laepple
Clim. Past, 17, 1587–1605, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1587-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1587-2021, 2021
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We analyse Holocene climate model simulation data to find the locations of Antarctic ice cores which are best suited to reconstruct local- to regional-scale temperatures. We find that the spatial decorrelation scales of the temperature variations and of the noise from precipitation intermittency set an effective sampling length scale. Following this, a single core should be located at the
target site for the temperature reconstruction, and a second one optimally lies more than 500 km away.
Delia Segato, Maria Del Carmen Villoslada Hidalgo, Ross Edwards, Elena Barbaro, Paul Vallelonga, Helle Astrid Kjær, Marius Simonsen, Bo Vinther, Niccolò Maffezzoli, Roberta Zangrando, Clara Turetta, Dario Battistel, Orri Vésteinsson, Carlo Barbante, and Andrea Spolaor
Clim. Past, 17, 1533–1545, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1533-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1533-2021, 2021
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Human influence on fire regimes in the past is poorly understood, especially at high latitudes. We present 5 kyr of fire proxies levoglucosan, black carbon, and ammonium in the RECAP ice core in Greenland and reconstruct for the first time the fire regime in the high North Atlantic region, comprising coastal east Greenland and Iceland. Climate is the main driver of the fire regime, but at 1.1 kyr BP a contribution may be made by the deforestation resulting from Viking colonization of Iceland.
Naoko Nagatsuka, Kumiko Goto-Azuma, Akane Tsushima, Koji Fujita, Sumito Matoba, Yukihiko Onuma, Remi Dallmayr, Moe Kadota, Motohiro Hirabayashi, Jun Ogata, Yoshimi Ogawa-Tsukagawa, Kyotaro Kitamura, Masahiro Minowa, Yuki Komuro, Hideaki Motoyama, and Teruo Aoki
Clim. Past, 17, 1341–1362, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1341-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-1341-2021, 2021
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Here we present a first high-temporal-resolution record of mineral composition in a Greenland ice core (SIGMA-D) over the past 100 years using SEM–EDS analysis. Our results show that the ice core dust composition varied on multi-decadal scales, which was likely affected by local temperature changes. We suggest that the ice core dust was constantly supplied from distant sources (mainly northern Canada) as well as local ice-free areas in warm periods (1915 to 1949 and 2005 to 2013).
Peter M. Abbott, Gill Plunkett, Christophe Corona, Nathan J. Chellman, Joseph R. McConnell, John R. Pilcher, Markus Stoffel, and Michael Sigl
Clim. Past, 17, 565–585, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-565-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-565-2021, 2021
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Volcanic eruptions are a key source of climatic variability, and greater understanding of their past influence will increase the accuracy of future projections. We use volcanic ash from a 1477 CE Icelandic eruption in a Greenlandic ice core as a temporal fix point to constrain the timing of two eruptions in the 1450s CE and their climatic impact. Despite being the most explosive Icelandic eruption in the last 1200 years, the 1477 CE event had a limited impact on Northern Hemisphere climate.
Seyedhamidreza Mojtabavi, Frank Wilhelms, Eliza Cook, Siwan M. Davies, Giulia Sinnl, Mathias Skov Jensen, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Anders Svensson, Bo M. Vinther, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Gwydion Jones, Nanna B. Karlsson, Sergio Henrique Faria, Vasileios Gkinis, Helle Astrid Kjær, Tobias Erhardt, Sarah M. P. Berben, Kerim H. Nisancioglu, Iben Koldtoft, and Sune Olander Rasmussen
Clim. Past, 16, 2359–2380, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2359-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2359-2020, 2020
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We present a first chronology for the East Greenland Ice-core Project (EGRIP) over the Holocene and last glacial termination. After field measurements and processing of the ice-core data, the GICC05 timescale is transferred from the NGRIP core to the EGRIP core by means of matching volcanic events and common patterns (381 match points) in the ECM and DEP records. The new timescale is named GICC05-EGRIP-1 and extends back to around 15 kyr b2k.
Abigail G. Hughes, Tyler R. Jones, Bo M. Vinther, Vasileios Gkinis, C. Max Stevens, Valerie Morris, Bruce H. Vaughn, Christian Holme, Bradley R. Markle, and James W. C. White
Clim. Past, 16, 1369–1386, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1369-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1369-2020, 2020
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An ice core drilled on the Renland ice cap (RECAP) in east-central Greenland contains a continuous climate record dating through the last glacial period. Here we present the water isotope record for the Holocene, in which high-resolution climate information is retained for the last 8 kyr. We find that the RECAP water isotope record exhibits seasonal and decadal variability which may reflect sea surface conditions and regional climate variability.
Jessica A. Badgeley, Eric J. Steig, Gregory J. Hakim, and Tyler J. Fudge
Clim. Past, 16, 1325–1346, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1325-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1325-2020, 2020
Juan Pablo Corella, Niccolo Maffezzoli, Carlos Alberto Cuevas, Paul Vallelonga, Andrea Spolaor, Giulio Cozzi, Juliane Müller, Bo Vinther, Carlo Barbante, Helle Astrid Kjær, Ross Edwards, and Alfonso Saiz-Lopez
Clim. Past, 15, 2019–2030, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-2019-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-2019-2019, 2019
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This study provides the first reconstruction of atmospheric iodine levels in the Arctic during the last 11 700 years from an ice core record in coastal Greenland. Dramatic shifts in iodine level variability coincide with abrupt climatic transitions in the North Atlantic. Since atmospheric iodine levels have significant environmental and climatic implications, this study may serve as a past analog to predict future changes in Arctic climate in response to global warming.
Dominic A. Winski, Tyler J. Fudge, David G. Ferris, Erich C. Osterberg, John M. Fegyveresi, Jihong Cole-Dai, Zayta Thundercloud, Thomas S. Cox, Karl J. Kreutz, Nikolas Ortman, Christo Buizert, Jenna Epifanio, Edward J. Brook, Ross Beaudette, Jeffrey Severinghaus, Todd Sowers, Eric J. Steig, Emma C. Kahle, Tyler R. Jones, Valerie Morris, Murat Aydin, Melinda R. Nicewonger, Kimberly A. Casey, Richard B. Alley, Edwin D. Waddington, Nels A. Iverson, Nelia W. Dunbar, Ryan C. Bay, Joseph M. Souney, Michael Sigl, and Joseph R. McConnell
Clim. Past, 15, 1793–1808, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1793-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1793-2019, 2019
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A deep ice core was recently drilled at the South Pole to understand past variations in the Earth's climate. To understand the information contained within the ice, we present the relationship between the depth and age of the ice in the South Pole Ice Core. We found that the oldest ice in our record is from 54 302 ± 519 years ago. Our results show that, on average, 7.4 cm of snow falls at the South Pole each year.
Michael Döring and Markus C. Leuenberger
Clim. Past, 14, 763–788, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-763-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-763-2018, 2018
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We present a novel approach for ice-core-based temperature reconstructions, which is based on gas-isotope data measured on enclosed air bubbles in ice cores. The processes of air movement and enclosure are highly temperature dependent due to heat diffusion in and densification of the snow and ice. Our method inverts a model, which describes these processes, to desired temperature histories. This paper examines the performance of our novel approach on different synthetic isotope-data scenarios.
Marius Folden Simonsen, Llorenç Cremonesi, Giovanni Baccolo, Samuel Bosch, Barbara Delmonte, Tobias Erhardt, Helle Astrid Kjær, Marco Potenza, Anders Svensson, and Paul Vallelonga
Clim. Past, 14, 601–608, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-601-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-601-2018, 2018
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Ice core dust size distributions are more often measured today by an Abakus laser sensor than by the more technically demanding but also very accurate Coulter counter. However, Abakus measurements consistently give larger particle sizes. We show here that this bias exists because the particles are flat and elongated. Correcting for this gives more accurate Abakus measurements. Furthermore, the shape of the particles can be extracted from a combination of Coulter counter and Abakus measurements.
Pascal Bohleber, Tobias Erhardt, Nicole Spaulding, Helene Hoffmann, Hubertus Fischer, and Paul Mayewski
Clim. Past, 14, 21–37, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-21-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-21-2018, 2018
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The Colle Gnifetti (CG) glacier is the only drilling site in the European Alps offering ice core records back to some 1000 years. We aim to fully exploit these unique long-term records by establishing a reliable long-term age scale and an improved ice core proxy interpretation for reconstructing temperature. Our findings reveal a site-specific temperature-related signal in the trends of the mineral dust proxy Ca2+ that may supplement other proxy evidence over the last millennium.
F. Adolphi and R. Muscheler
Clim. Past, 12, 15–30, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-15-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-15-2016, 2016
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Here we employ common variations in tree-ring 14C and Greenland ice core 10Be records to synchronize the Greenland ice core (GICC05) and the radiocarbon (IntCal13) timescale over the Holocene. We propose a transfer function between both timescales that allows continuous comparisons between radiocarbon dated and ice core climate records at unprecedented chronological precision.
M. M. Grieman, J. Greaves, and E. S. Saltzman
Clim. Past, 11, 227–232, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-227-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-227-2015, 2015
M. Gay, M. De Angelis, and J.-L. Lacoume
Clim. Past, 10, 1659–1672, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1659-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-10-1659-2014, 2014
S. Hou, J. Chappellaz, D. Raynaud, V. Masson-Delmotte, J. Jouzel, P. Bousquet, and D. Hauglustaine
Clim. Past, 9, 2549–2554, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2549-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2549-2013, 2013
T. Kobashi, K. Goto-Azuma, J. E. Box, C.-C. Gao, and T. Nakaegawa
Clim. Past, 9, 2299–2317, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2299-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-2299-2013, 2013
C. Barbante, N. M. Kehrwald, P. Marianelli, B. M. Vinther, J. P. Steffensen, G. Cozzi, C. U. Hammer, H. B. Clausen, and M.-L. Siggaard-Andersen
Clim. Past, 9, 1221–1232, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1221-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-9-1221-2013, 2013
R. Winkler, A. Landais, H. Sodemann, L. Dümbgen, F. Prié, V. Masson-Delmotte, B. Stenni, and J. Jouzel
Clim. Past, 8, 1–16, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1-2012, 2012
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Short summary
Ice-core oxygen isotope ratios are a key climate archive to infer past temperatures, an interpretation however complicated by non-climatic noise. Based on 50 m firn trenches, we present for the first time a two-dimensional view (vertical × horizontal) of how oxygen isotopes are stored in Antarctic firn. A statistical noise model allows inferences for the validity of ice coring efforts to reconstruct past temperatures, highlighting the need of replicate cores for Holocene climate reconstructions.
Ice-core oxygen isotope ratios are a key climate archive to infer past temperatures, an...
