Grain size and ice layer stratigraphy from the upper 10 meters of Cores 1-7 collected during the 2016 Greenland Traverse for Accumulation and Climate Studies (GreenTrACS), western Greenland ...

• Main Authors: McDowell, Ian, Keegan, Kaitlin, Osterberg, Erich, Hawley, Robert, Marshall, Hans-Peter
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: NSF Arctic Data Center 2022
• Subjects: Greenland; Firn core; Grain size; Ice layers; Firn stratigraphy; GreenTrACS; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a24b2x61z; https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A24B2X61Z

Firn structure influences the fate and transport of meltwater generated in the accumulation zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Meltwater can be stored as refrozen ice layers within the firn column, but these features decrease future storage capacity as they act as impermeable barriers to deep infiltration. Observations of firn structure are necessary to validate firn model percolation schemes and predict future ice layer formation within the firn column for accurate ice sheet mass balance estimates. Here, we present grain size measurements and ice layer stratigraphy from seven firn cores collected in western Greenland during the 2016 Greenland Traverse for Accumulation and Climate Studies (GreenTrACS). We use the grain size data to count the number of grain size transitions within each firn core, and relate the number of grain size transitions, and particularly the number of fine-over-coarse grain size transitions to the total number of ice layers in each core. Unexpectedly, ice layers are strongly negatively ...