Accumulation patterns around Dome C, East Antarctica, in the last 73 kyr

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Cavitte, Marie, Parrenin, Frédéric, Ritz, Catherine, Young, Duncan, Van Liefferinge, Brice, Blankenship, Donald, Frezzotti, Massimo, roberts, jason
• Other Authors: Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Dallas Richardson (UT Dallas), Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 ), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG ), Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 ), Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, l'Energia e l'Ambiente (ENEA), Centro Ricerche Casaccia, University of Queensland Brisbane
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2018
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; East Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02395946; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02395946/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02395946/file/tc-12-1401-2018.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1401-2018

International audience We reconstruct the pattern of surface accumulation in the region around Dome C, East Antarctica, since the last glacial. We use a set of 18 isochrones spanning all observable depths of the ice column, interpreted from various ice-penetrating radar surveys and a 1-D ice flow model to invert for accumulation rates in the region. The shallowest four isochrones are then used to calculate paleoaccumulation rates between isochrone pairs using a 1-D assumption where horizontal advection is negligible in the time interval of each layer. We observe that the large-scale (100s km) surface accumulation gradient is spatially stable through the last 73 kyr, which reflects current modeled and observed precipitation gradients in the region. We also observe small-scale (10 s km) accumulation variations linked to snow redistribution at the surface, due to changes in its slope and curvature in the prevailing wind direction that remain spatially stationary since the last glacial.