What controls the isotopic composition of Greenland surface snow? ...

• Main Authors: Steen-Larsen, Hans C., Masson-Delmotte, Valérie, Hirabayashi, Motohiro, Winkler, Renato, Satow, Kazuhide, Prié, F., Bayou, Nicolas, Cuffey, Kurt M., Dahl-Jensen, Dorthe, Dumont, Marie, Guillevic, Myriam, Kipfstuhl, Sepp, Landais, Amaelle, Popp, Trevor, Risi, Camille, Steffen, Konrad, Stenni, Barbara, Sveinbjörnsdottír, Árný E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2014
• Subjects: Greenland; Greenland ice core; ice core
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000083431; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/83431

Water stable isotopes in Greenland ice core data provide key paleoclimatic information, and have been compared with precipitation isotopic composition simulated by isotopically enabled atmospheric models. However, post-depositional processes linked with snow metamorphism remain poorly documented. For this purpose, monitoring of the isotopic composition (δ18O, δD) of near-surface water vapor, precipitation and samples of the top (0.5 cm) snow surface has been conducted during two summers (2011–2012) at NEEM, NW Greenland. The samples also include a subset of 17O-excess measurements over 4 days, and the measurements span the 2012 Greenland heat wave. Our observations are consistent with calculations assuming isotopic equilibrium between surface snow and water vapor. We observe a strong correlation between near-surface vapor δ18O and air temperature (0.85 ± 0.11‰ °C−1 (R = 0.76) for 2012). The correlation with air temperature is not observed in precipitation data or surface snow data. Deuterium excess ... : Climate of the Past, 10 (1) ...