The role of sublimation as a driver of climate signals in the water isotope content of surface snow: Laboratory and field experimental results

• Main Authors: Hughes, Abigail G., Wahl, Sonja, Jones, Tyler R., Zuhr, Alexandra, Hörhold, Maria, White, James W. C., Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• 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/tc-2021-87; https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-87/

Ice core water isotope records from Greenland and Antarctica are a valuable proxy for paleoclimate reconstruction, yet the processes influencing the climate signal stored in the isotopic composition of the snow are being revisited. Apart from precipitation input, post-depositional processes such as wind-driven redistribution and vapor-snow exchange processes at and below the surface are hypothesized to contribute to the isotope climate signal. Recent field studies have shown that surface snow isotopes vary between precipitation events and co-vary with vapor isotopes, which demonstrates that vapor- snow exchange is an important driving mechanism. Here we investigate how vapor-snow exchange and sublimation processes influence the isotopic composition of the snowpack. Controlled laboratory experiments under dry air flow show an increase of snow isotopic composition of up to 8 ‰ δ 18 O in the uppermost layer, with an attenuated signal down to 3 cm snow depth over the course of 4–6 days. This enrichment is accompanied by a decrease in the second-order parameter d-excess, indicating kinetic fractionation processes. Using a simple mass-balance and diffusion box model in conjunction with our observed laboratory vapor isotope signals, we are able to reproduce the observed changes in the snow. This confirms that sublimation alone can lead to a strong enrichment of stable water isotopes in surface snow and subsequent enrichment in the layers below. To compare laboratory experiments with realistic polar conditions, we completed four 2–3 day field experiments at the East Greenland Ice Core Project site (Northeast Greenland) in summer 2019. High-resolution temporal sampling of both natural and isolated snow was conducted under clear-sky conditions, and demonstrated that the snow isotopic composition changes on hourly timescales. A change of snow isotope content associated with sublimation is currently not implemented in isotope-enabled climate models and is not taken into account when interpreting ice core isotopic records. However, our results demonstrate that post-depositional processes such as sublimation play a role in creating the climate signal recorded in the water isotopes in surface snow. This suggests that the ice core water isotope signal may effectively integrate across multiple parameters, and the ice core climate record should be interpreted as such.