The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records

Abstract. A new ice core drilled at the South Pole provides a 54 000-year paleoenvironmental record including the composition of the past atmosphere. This paper describes the SP19 chronology for the South Pole atmospheric gas record and complements a previous paper (Winski et al., 2019) describing t...

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Published in:Climate of the Past
Main Authors: Epifanio, Jenna A, Brook, Edward J, Buizert, Christo, Edwards, Jon S, Sowers, Todd A, Kahle, Emma C, Severinghaus, Jeffrey P, Steig, Eric J, Winski, Dominic A, Osterberg, Erich C, Fudge, Tyler J, Aydin, Murat, Hood, Ekaterina, Kalk, Michael, Kreutz, Karl J, Ferris, David G, Kennedy, Joshua A
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: eScholarship, University of California 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://escholarship.org/uc/item/29q967cx
https://escholarship.org/content/qt29q967cx/qt29q967cx.pdf
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2431-2020
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spelling ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org:ark:/13030/qt29q967cx 2024-09-15T17:41:21+00:00 The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records Epifanio, Jenna A Brook, Edward J Buizert, Christo Edwards, Jon S Sowers, Todd A Kahle, Emma C Severinghaus, Jeffrey P Steig, Eric J Winski, Dominic A Osterberg, Erich C Fudge, Tyler J Aydin, Murat Hood, Ekaterina Kalk, Michael Kreutz, Karl J Ferris, David G Kennedy, Joshua A 2431 - 2444 2020-01-01 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/29q967cx https://escholarship.org/content/qt29q967cx/qt29q967cx.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2431-2020 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt29q967cx https://escholarship.org/uc/item/29q967cx https://escholarship.org/content/qt29q967cx/qt29q967cx.pdf doi:10.5194/cp-16-2431-2020 public Climate of the Past, vol 16, iss 6 Climate Action Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience Paleontology article 2020 ftcdlib https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2431-2020 2024-06-28T06:28:20Z Abstract. A new ice core drilled at the South Pole provides a 54 000-year paleoenvironmental record including the composition of the past atmosphere. This paper describes the SP19 chronology for the South Pole atmospheric gas record and complements a previous paper (Winski et al., 2019) describing the SP19 ice chronology. The gas chronology is based on a discrete methane (CH4) record with 20- to 190-year resolution. To construct the gas timescale, abrupt changes in atmospheric CH4 during the glacial period and centennial CH4 variability during the Holocene were used to synchronize the South Pole gas record with analogous data from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core. Stratigraphic matching based on visual optimization was verified using an automated matching algorithm. The South Pole ice core recovers all expected changes in CH4 based on previous records. Gas transport in the firn results in smoothing of the atmospheric gas record with a smoothing function spectral width that ranges from 30 to 78 years, equal to 3 % of the gas-age–ice-age difference, or Δage. The new gas chronology, in combination with the existing ice age scale from Winski et al. (2019), allows a model-independent reconstruction of the gas-age–ice-age difference through the whole record, which will be useful for testing firn densification models. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic ice core Ice Sheet South pole South pole University of California: eScholarship Climate of the Past 16 6 2431 2444
institution Open Polar
collection University of California: eScholarship
op_collection_id ftcdlib
language unknown
topic Climate Action
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Paleontology
spellingShingle Climate Action
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Paleontology
Epifanio, Jenna A
Brook, Edward J
Buizert, Christo
Edwards, Jon S
Sowers, Todd A
Kahle, Emma C
Severinghaus, Jeffrey P
Steig, Eric J
Winski, Dominic A
Osterberg, Erich C
Fudge, Tyler J
Aydin, Murat
Hood, Ekaterina
Kalk, Michael
Kreutz, Karl J
Ferris, David G
Kennedy, Joshua A
The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records
topic_facet Climate Action
Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience
Paleontology
description Abstract. A new ice core drilled at the South Pole provides a 54 000-year paleoenvironmental record including the composition of the past atmosphere. This paper describes the SP19 chronology for the South Pole atmospheric gas record and complements a previous paper (Winski et al., 2019) describing the SP19 ice chronology. The gas chronology is based on a discrete methane (CH4) record with 20- to 190-year resolution. To construct the gas timescale, abrupt changes in atmospheric CH4 during the glacial period and centennial CH4 variability during the Holocene were used to synchronize the South Pole gas record with analogous data from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide ice core. Stratigraphic matching based on visual optimization was verified using an automated matching algorithm. The South Pole ice core recovers all expected changes in CH4 based on previous records. Gas transport in the firn results in smoothing of the atmospheric gas record with a smoothing function spectral width that ranges from 30 to 78 years, equal to 3 % of the gas-age–ice-age difference, or Δage. The new gas chronology, in combination with the existing ice age scale from Winski et al. (2019), allows a model-independent reconstruction of the gas-age–ice-age difference through the whole record, which will be useful for testing firn densification models.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Epifanio, Jenna A
Brook, Edward J
Buizert, Christo
Edwards, Jon S
Sowers, Todd A
Kahle, Emma C
Severinghaus, Jeffrey P
Steig, Eric J
Winski, Dominic A
Osterberg, Erich C
Fudge, Tyler J
Aydin, Murat
Hood, Ekaterina
Kalk, Michael
Kreutz, Karl J
Ferris, David G
Kennedy, Joshua A
author_facet Epifanio, Jenna A
Brook, Edward J
Buizert, Christo
Edwards, Jon S
Sowers, Todd A
Kahle, Emma C
Severinghaus, Jeffrey P
Steig, Eric J
Winski, Dominic A
Osterberg, Erich C
Fudge, Tyler J
Aydin, Murat
Hood, Ekaterina
Kalk, Michael
Kreutz, Karl J
Ferris, David G
Kennedy, Joshua A
author_sort Epifanio, Jenna A
title The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records
title_short The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records
title_full The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records
title_fullStr The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records
title_full_unstemmed The SP19 chronology for the South Pole Ice Core – Part 2: gas chronology, Δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records
title_sort sp19 chronology for the south pole ice core – part 2: gas chronology, δage, and smoothing of atmospheric records
publisher eScholarship, University of California
publishDate 2020
url https://escholarship.org/uc/item/29q967cx
https://escholarship.org/content/qt29q967cx/qt29q967cx.pdf
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2431-2020
op_coverage 2431 - 2444
genre Antarc*
Antarctic
ice core
Ice Sheet
South pole
South pole
genre_facet Antarc*
Antarctic
ice core
Ice Sheet
South pole
South pole
op_source Climate of the Past, vol 16, iss 6
op_relation qt29q967cx
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/29q967cx
https://escholarship.org/content/qt29q967cx/qt29q967cx.pdf
doi:10.5194/cp-16-2431-2020
op_rights public
op_doi https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-2431-2020
container_title Climate of the Past
container_volume 16
container_issue 6
container_start_page 2431
op_container_end_page 2444
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