High resolution aerosol concentration data from the Greenland NorthGRIP and NEEM deep ice cores

• Main Authors: Erhardt, Tobias, Bigler, Matthias, Federer, Urs, Gfeller, Gideo, Leuenberger, Daiana, Stowasser, Olivia, Röthlisberger, Regine, Schüpbach, Simon, Ruth, Urs, Twarloh, Birthe, Wegner, Anna, Goto-Azuma, Kumiko, Kuramoto, Takayuki, Kjær, Helle A., Vallelonga, Paul T., Siggaard-Andersen, Marie-Louise, Hansson, Margaretha E., Benton, Ailsa K., Fleet, Louise G., Mulvaney, Rob, Thomas, Elizabeth R., Abram, Nerilie, Stocker, Thomas F., Fischer, Hubertus
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Greenland; Greenland ice core; Greenland Ice core Project; ice core; NGRIP; North Greenland; North Greenland Ice Core Project
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2021-324; https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2021-324/

Records of chemical impurities from ice cores enable us to reconstruct the past deposition of aerosols onto the polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Through that, they allow us to gain insight into changes of the source, transport and deposition processes that ultimately determine the deposition flux at the coreing location. However, the low concentrations of the aerosol species in the ice and the resulting high risk of contamination poses a formidable analytical challenge, especially if long, continuous and highly resolved records are needed. Continuous Flow Analysis, CFA, the continuous melting, decontamination and analysis of ice-core samples has mostly overcome this issue and has quickly become the de-facto standard to obtain high-resolution aerosol records from ice cores after its inception at the University of Bern in the mid 90s. Here we present continuous records of calcium (Ca 2+ ), sodium (Na + ), ammonium (NH 4 + ), nitrate (NO 3 −1 ) and electrolytic conductivity at 1 mm depth resolution from the NGRIP (North Greenland Ice Core Project) and NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) ice cores produced by the Bern Continuous Flow Analysis group in the years 2000 to 2011. Both of the records have previously been used in a number of studies but have never been published in the full 1 mm resolution. Alongside the 1 mm datasets we provide decadal averages, a detailed description of the methods, relevant references, an assessment of the quality of the data and its usable resolution. Along the way we will also give some historical context on the development of the Bern CFA system.