Near surface snow isotopic observations from 2013 and 2015 snow pits at Summit, Greenland

• Main Authors: Ben Kopec, Xiahong Feng, Erich Osterberg, Alden Adolph, Eric Posmentier
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2022
• Subjects: water isotopes; Greenland Ice Sheet; snow pit; Greenland; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A24J09Z82

The dataset presented here includes observations from three snow pits collected in the summers of 2013 and 2015 at and near Summit Station on the Greenland Ice Sheet. At Summit Station, snow pits of 114 and 153 centimeters (cm) depth were dug in 2013 and 2015, respectively. An additional 168 cm deep snow pit was sampled in 2015 approximately 10 kilometer (km) north-northwest of Summit. In each snow pit, measurements of snow density and isotopic ratios (δ18O, δD, and deuterium excess) were made over the depth of the snow pit. These snow pit data complements a daily precipitation isotopic dataset (Kopec et al., 2019) covering similar time periods (July 2011-September 2014). Approximate timescales in each snow pit were determined using the known dates of the surface snow and the ice layer that is present from the 2012 melt event (on 11 July 2012) at Summit, as well as general patterns of accumulation and the isotopic data. These snow pit data demonstrate that the precipitation isotopic signal translates directly to the snowpack, and thus provide insights to ice core isotopic records.