Local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the Greenland ice sheet
Ice cores from polar ice sheets and glaciers are an important climate archive. Snow layers, consecutively deposited and buried, contain climatic information of the time of their formation. However, particularly low-accumulation areas are characterised by temporally intermittent precipitation, which...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tcd92650 2023-05-15T16:03:54+02:00 Local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the Greenland ice sheet Zuhr, Alexandra M. Münch, Thomas Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian Hörhold, Maria Laepple, Thomas 2021-02-10 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-36 https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-36/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-2021-36 https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-36/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2021 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-36 2021-02-15T17:22:13Z Ice cores from polar ice sheets and glaciers are an important climate archive. Snow layers, consecutively deposited and buried, contain climatic information of the time of their formation. However, particularly low-accumulation areas are characterised by temporally intermittent precipitation, which can be further re-distributed after initial deposition. Therefore, the local conditions of accumulation at an ice core site influence the quantity and quality of the recorded climate signal in proxy records. Local surface features at different spatial scales further affect the signal imprint. This study therefore aims to characterise the local accumulation patterns and the evolution of the snow height to describe the contribution of snow (re-)deposition to noise in climate records from ice cores. By using a photogrammetry Structure-from-Motion approach, we generated near-daily elevation models of the snow surface for a 195 m 2 area in the vicinity of the deep drilling site of the East Greenland Ice Core Project in northeast Greenland. Based on the snow height information we derived snow height changes on a day-to-day basis throughout our observation period from May to August 2018. Specifically, the average snow height increased by ~11 cm. The spatial and temporal data set allowed an investigation of snow deposition versus depositional modifications. We observed irregular snow deposition, erosion, and the re-distribution of snow, which caused uneven snow accumulation patterns, a removal of more than 60 % of the deposited snow, and a negative relationship between the initial snow height and the amount of accumulated snow. Furthermore, the surface roughness decreased from 4 to 2 cm throughout the spring and summer season at our study site. Finally, our study further shows that our method has several advantages over previous approaches, making it possible to demonstrate the importance of accumulation intermittency, and the potential influences of depositional processes on proxy signals in snow and ice. Text East Greenland East Greenland Ice-core Project Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland Ice core Project ice core Ice Sheet Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Greenland |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Ice cores from polar ice sheets and glaciers are an important climate archive. Snow layers, consecutively deposited and buried, contain climatic information of the time of their formation. However, particularly low-accumulation areas are characterised by temporally intermittent precipitation, which can be further re-distributed after initial deposition. Therefore, the local conditions of accumulation at an ice core site influence the quantity and quality of the recorded climate signal in proxy records. Local surface features at different spatial scales further affect the signal imprint. This study therefore aims to characterise the local accumulation patterns and the evolution of the snow height to describe the contribution of snow (re-)deposition to noise in climate records from ice cores. By using a photogrammetry Structure-from-Motion approach, we generated near-daily elevation models of the snow surface for a 195 m 2 area in the vicinity of the deep drilling site of the East Greenland Ice Core Project in northeast Greenland. Based on the snow height information we derived snow height changes on a day-to-day basis throughout our observation period from May to August 2018. Specifically, the average snow height increased by ~11 cm. The spatial and temporal data set allowed an investigation of snow deposition versus depositional modifications. We observed irregular snow deposition, erosion, and the re-distribution of snow, which caused uneven snow accumulation patterns, a removal of more than 60 % of the deposited snow, and a negative relationship between the initial snow height and the amount of accumulated snow. Furthermore, the surface roughness decreased from 4 to 2 cm throughout the spring and summer season at our study site. Finally, our study further shows that our method has several advantages over previous approaches, making it possible to demonstrate the importance of accumulation intermittency, and the potential influences of depositional processes on proxy signals in snow and ice. |
format |
Text |
author |
Zuhr, Alexandra M. Münch, Thomas Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian Hörhold, Maria Laepple, Thomas |
spellingShingle |
Zuhr, Alexandra M. Münch, Thomas Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian Hörhold, Maria Laepple, Thomas Local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the Greenland ice sheet |
author_facet |
Zuhr, Alexandra M. Münch, Thomas Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian Hörhold, Maria Laepple, Thomas |
author_sort |
Zuhr, Alexandra M. |
title |
Local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_short |
Local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_full |
Local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_fullStr |
Local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_full_unstemmed |
Local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the Greenland ice sheet |
title_sort |
local scale depositional processes of surface snow on the greenland ice sheet |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-36 https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-36/ |
geographic |
Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Greenland |
genre |
East Greenland East Greenland Ice-core Project Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland Ice core Project ice core Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
East Greenland East Greenland Ice-core Project Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland Ice core Project ice core Ice Sheet |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-2021-36 https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-36/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-36 |
_version_ |
1766399594859593728 |