Allllals of Glaciology 10 1988 © International Glaciological Society SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN HYDROGEN PEROXIDE IN POLAR ICE CORES

• Main Authors: Andreas Sigg, Albrecht Neftel
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; Siple; Antarc*; Antarctica; Dye 3; Dye-3; Greenland ice core; ice core
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.475.7059; http://www.igsoc.org:8080/annals/10/igs_annals_vol10_year1988_pg157-162.pdf

Hydrogen peroxide is present in polar snow and ice in remarkably high concentrations. With values up to 300 ppb, H20 2 is one of the most concentrated impurities in polar ice. We present a continuous H20 2 firn record from Siple Station (Antarctica); it covers the last 83 years with a resolution of 10-20 samples per year. A very strong seasonality is present in this record. This seasonality is also observed in a Greenland ice core from Dye 3, where we have continuously measured the top 10 m with the same resolution. The maximum concentrations correspond to summer snow layers and can exceed winter snow concentrations by a factor of 10. This property makes H20 2 a useful tracer for dating suitable cores by counting annual layers. The different steps needed to relate the atmospheric to the ice-core H20 2 concentration are discussed. As with isotopic tracers, diffusion in the firn smooths the original H 20 2 concentration profile.