Evaluating the 11-year solar cycle and short-term 10Be deposition events with novel excess water samples from the East Greenland Ice-core Project (EGRIP)

• Published in: Climate of the Past
• Main Authors: Paleari, Chiara I., Mekhaldi, Florian, Erhardt, Tobias, Zheng, Minjie, Christl, Marcus, Adolphi, Florian, Hörhold, Maria, Muscheler, Raimund
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Greenland; Antarc*; Antarctica; East Greenland; East Greenland Ice-core Project; Greenland ice core; Greenland Ice core Project; ice core
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2409-2023; https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/2409/2023/

10 Be is produced by the interaction between galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) and solar energetic particles (SEPs) with the Earth's atmospheric constituents. The flux of GCRs is modulated by the varying strength of the magnetic fields of the Earth and the Sun. Measurement of 10 Be concentrations from polar ice cores is thus a valuable tool to reconstruct the variations in the geomagnetic field and solar activity levels. The interpretation of 10 Be records is, however, complicated by non-production-related effects on the 10 Be deposition rate caused by climate- or weather-induced variability. Furthermore, volcanic eruptions have been proposed to lead to short-term 10 Be deposition enhancements. In this study, we test the use of excess meltwater from continuous flow analysis (CFA) to measure 10 Be, allowing less time-consuming and more cost-effective sample preparation. We compare two records obtained from CFA and discrete samples from the East Greenland Ice core Project (EGRIP) S6 firn core, reaching back to 1900 CE. We find that the two records agree well and that the 10 Be record from CFA samples agrees as well as the discrete samples with other records from Greenland. Furthermore, by subtracting the theoretically expected GCR-induced signal, we investigate the high-frequency variability in the 10 Be records from Greenland and Antarctica after 1951 CE, focusing on SEP events and volcanic eruptions. Finally, we use the 10 Be records from Greenland and Antarctica to study the 11-year solar cycles, allowing us to assess the suitability of the CFA samples for the reconstruction of solar activity. This result opens new opportunities for the collection of continuous 10 Be records with less time-consuming sample preparation, while saving an important portion of the ice cores for other measurements.