Mass-balance measurements at Vostok Station (Antarctica): methods and results
Since Vostok Station was opened in December 1957, a number of snow accumulation studies have been carried out using various methods such as stratigraphic observations in snow pits, absolute snow dating based on geochemical analyses of snow samples, and measurements of snow build-up at stakes. During...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.195.7940 http://www.cecs.cl/documentos/Abstracts.pdf |
| Summary: | Since Vostok Station was opened in December 1957, a number of snow accumulation studies have been carried out using various methods such as stratigraphic observations in snow pits, absolute snow dating based on geochemical analyses of snow samples, and measurements of snow build-up at stakes. During the first 12 years, the mass-balance studies at Vostok were mainly limited to observations of stratigraphic features in a few shallow pits. It was not until January 1970, when a snow accumulation-stake network was set up, that systematic observations of snow surface build-up and density began. The data obtained from those stakes allowed investigation of the role of snow surface topography in spatial and temporal variability of snow accumulation. At the same time, the development of the stratigraphic observation technique in the conditions of extreme low accumulation rate of t he Antarctic plateau, made it possible to obtain reliable values of snow mass-balance from pits. An extensive program of stratigraphic studies launched in 1998 allowed to recover the snow accumulation rates in Vostok’s vicinity for the last 60 years. The use of data from three deep (10–12 m) pits and several shallow cores recently lead to reconstruction of mass-balance history over the past |
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