Analyses of firn cores of a pre-IPICS-campaign on its ionic and dust concentration

• Main Authors: Schmidt, Katrin, Wegner, Anna, Weller, Rolf, Twarloh, Birthe, Oerter, Hans, Wilhelms, Frank
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/20767/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/20767/1/Sch2009au.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.32982; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.32982.d001

Dust is a substance which can have a great influence on the energy balance of the climate system. Those influences depend on different conditions like the dust concentration, the vertical allocation, and its particle size distribution. These criterions can cause either a warming or a cooling of the atmosphere. Due to the fact that the Antarctic continent is nearly totally covered with snow, there are scarcely natural dust origins on the continent itself. As a conclusion, the dust measured in Antarctica must have another origin and hence gets there via a long range transport. Another advantage of measuring aerosols in Antarctica is an environment without the impact of human being. The concentration of dust in the last years can be measured by analysing firn cores. This analysis has the purpose to make a pre site survey for the IPICS- campaign, so a possible timescale and aerosol distribution for the different positions of a deeper drilling can be seen. Results of the measurement can be compared to the measurement of an over-snow laboratory located near the Neumayer station and the atmospheric conditions in Antarctica. Firn cores were taken from two positions near Neumayer station (Antarctica), one in 6.7°W 71.6°S the other one in 9.9°W 71.4°S. In the cold-room laboratory of the Alfred-Wegener-Institute in Bremerhaven, the firn cores are processed. Due to the high accumulation rate a high temporal resolution of the sample can be obtained. Particle size distribution and the ion concentration are analysed.