THE INTEGRITY OF THE ICE RECORD OF GREENHOUSE GASES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC CO2

Over the last 25 years, the ice core record has provided a unique and precious archive of past changes in three important greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4 and nitrous oxide N2O. Recovering the Vostok ice core has played a major role, being the first ice record showing the variations...

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Published in:Ice and Snow
Main Author: Dominique Raynaud
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:Russian
Published: Nauka 2015
Subjects:
Q
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2012-2-5-14
https://doaj.org/article/7d27d8a2278f4c13a936483268bcf63f
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spelling ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:7d27d8a2278f4c13a936483268bcf63f 2023-05-15T16:38:46+02:00 THE INTEGRITY OF THE ICE RECORD OF GREENHOUSE GASES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC CO2 Dominique Raynaud 2015-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2012-2-5-14 https://doaj.org/article/7d27d8a2278f4c13a936483268bcf63f RU rus Nauka https://ice-snow.igras.ru/jour/article/view/198 https://doaj.org/toc/2076-6734 https://doaj.org/toc/2412-3765 2076-6734 2412-3765 doi:10.15356/2076-6734-2012-2-5-14 https://doaj.org/article/7d27d8a2278f4c13a936483268bcf63f Лëд и снег, Vol 52, Iss 2, Pp 5-14 (2015) антарктида диоксид углерода ледниковая скважина ледяной керн метан станция восток Science Q article 2015 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2012-2-5-14 2023-03-19T01:40:13Z Over the last 25 years, the ice core record has provided a unique and precious archive of past changes in three important greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4 and nitrous oxide N2O. Recovering the Vostok ice core has played a major role, being the first ice record showing the variations of CO2 and CH4 during a full glacial-interglacial cycle, and a few years later being extended to three more cycles. This information, by revealing the tight coupling between climate and carbon cycle during the last glacial-interglacial cycles, has become a benchmark against which climate and carbon cycle models can be tested. The purpose of the present work is to discuss the degree of integrity of the ice core record of greenhouse gases and to assess to which degree it provides an accurate reconstruction of the past atmospheric changes. The various processes potentially affecting the integrity of the record are discussed. They include the interactions of trace gases with precipitation or firn grains, the effect of summer-melting at the surface of the ice sheet, the diffusion and the gravitational setting of gases in the open spaces of the firn, the physical, chemical and biological interactions between the air trapped and the ice matrix, the role of the transformation of air bubbles into air hydrates with depth in the ice column. Providing to select an appropriate sampling site, to take specific precautions during storage and transportation of the ice cores, and to select ice of good quality, the ice core record of initial atmospheric gases is hardly affected by the processes listed above. Such conclusion is strongly supported by the remarkable agreement of global signals like CO2 or CH4 measured in different cores taken at different locations. Finally, I bring back here the history of how the ice core record of atmospheric CO2 has been obtained, from the pioneering times to today, and summarize the main conclusions reached in terms of climate – carbon cycle interactions. Article in Journal/Newspaper ice core Ice Sheet Антарктида Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ice and Snow 52 2 5
institution Open Polar
collection Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles
op_collection_id ftdoajarticles
language Russian
topic антарктида
диоксид углерода
ледниковая скважина
ледяной керн
метан
станция восток
Science
Q
spellingShingle антарктида
диоксид углерода
ледниковая скважина
ледяной керн
метан
станция восток
Science
Q
Dominique Raynaud
THE INTEGRITY OF THE ICE RECORD OF GREENHOUSE GASES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC CO2
topic_facet антарктида
диоксид углерода
ледниковая скважина
ледяной керн
метан
станция восток
Science
Q
description Over the last 25 years, the ice core record has provided a unique and precious archive of past changes in three important greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4 and nitrous oxide N2O. Recovering the Vostok ice core has played a major role, being the first ice record showing the variations of CO2 and CH4 during a full glacial-interglacial cycle, and a few years later being extended to three more cycles. This information, by revealing the tight coupling between climate and carbon cycle during the last glacial-interglacial cycles, has become a benchmark against which climate and carbon cycle models can be tested. The purpose of the present work is to discuss the degree of integrity of the ice core record of greenhouse gases and to assess to which degree it provides an accurate reconstruction of the past atmospheric changes. The various processes potentially affecting the integrity of the record are discussed. They include the interactions of trace gases with precipitation or firn grains, the effect of summer-melting at the surface of the ice sheet, the diffusion and the gravitational setting of gases in the open spaces of the firn, the physical, chemical and biological interactions between the air trapped and the ice matrix, the role of the transformation of air bubbles into air hydrates with depth in the ice column. Providing to select an appropriate sampling site, to take specific precautions during storage and transportation of the ice cores, and to select ice of good quality, the ice core record of initial atmospheric gases is hardly affected by the processes listed above. Such conclusion is strongly supported by the remarkable agreement of global signals like CO2 or CH4 measured in different cores taken at different locations. Finally, I bring back here the history of how the ice core record of atmospheric CO2 has been obtained, from the pioneering times to today, and summarize the main conclusions reached in terms of climate – carbon cycle interactions.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Dominique Raynaud
author_facet Dominique Raynaud
author_sort Dominique Raynaud
title THE INTEGRITY OF THE ICE RECORD OF GREENHOUSE GASES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC CO2
title_short THE INTEGRITY OF THE ICE RECORD OF GREENHOUSE GASES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC CO2
title_full THE INTEGRITY OF THE ICE RECORD OF GREENHOUSE GASES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC CO2
title_fullStr THE INTEGRITY OF THE ICE RECORD OF GREENHOUSE GASES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC CO2
title_full_unstemmed THE INTEGRITY OF THE ICE RECORD OF GREENHOUSE GASES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC CO2
title_sort integrity of the ice record of greenhouse gases with a special focus on atmospheric co2
publisher Nauka
publishDate 2015
url https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2012-2-5-14
https://doaj.org/article/7d27d8a2278f4c13a936483268bcf63f
genre ice core
Ice Sheet
Антарктида
genre_facet ice core
Ice Sheet
Антарктида
op_source Лëд и снег, Vol 52, Iss 2, Pp 5-14 (2015)
op_relation https://ice-snow.igras.ru/jour/article/view/198
https://doaj.org/toc/2076-6734
https://doaj.org/toc/2412-3765
2076-6734
2412-3765
doi:10.15356/2076-6734-2012-2-5-14
https://doaj.org/article/7d27d8a2278f4c13a936483268bcf63f
op_doi https://doi.org/10.15356/2076-6734-2012-2-5-14
container_title Ice and Snow
container_volume 52
container_issue 2
container_start_page 5
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