Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores
The oldest ice core records are obtained from the East Antarctic Plateau. Water isotopes are key proxies to reconstructing past climatic conditions over the ice sheet and at the evaporation source. The accuracy of climate reconstructions depends on knowledge of all processes affecting water vapour,...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:ab9f0afe67d14366bf1f7386d48c70cc 2023-05-15T13:51:45+02:00 Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores M. Casado A. Landais G. Picard T. Münch T. Laepple B. Stenni G. Dreossi A. Ekaykin L. Arnaud C. Genthon A. Touzeau V. Masson-Delmotte J. Jouzel 2018-05-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1745-2018 https://doaj.org/article/ab9f0afe67d14366bf1f7386d48c70cc EN eng Copernicus Publications https://www.the-cryosphere.net/12/1745/2018/tc-12-1745-2018.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-12-1745-2018 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/ab9f0afe67d14366bf1f7386d48c70cc The Cryosphere, Vol 12, Pp 1745-1766 (2018) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1745-2018 2022-12-31T00:04:39Z The oldest ice core records are obtained from the East Antarctic Plateau. Water isotopes are key proxies to reconstructing past climatic conditions over the ice sheet and at the evaporation source. The accuracy of climate reconstructions depends on knowledge of all processes affecting water vapour, precipitation and snow isotopic compositions. Fractionation processes are well understood and can be integrated in trajectory-based Rayleigh distillation and isotope-enabled climate models. However, a quantitative understanding of processes potentially altering snow isotopic composition after deposition is still missing. In low-accumulation sites, such as those found in East Antarctica, these poorly constrained processes are likely to play a significant role and limit the interpretability of an ice core's isotopic composition. By combining observations of isotopic composition in vapour, precipitation, surface snow and buried snow from Dome C, a deep ice core site on the East Antarctic Plateau, we found indications of a seasonal impact of metamorphism on the surface snow isotopic signal when compared to the initial precipitation. Particularly in summer, exchanges of water molecules between vapour and snow are driven by the diurnal sublimation–condensation cycles. Overall, we observe in between precipitation events modification of the surface snow isotopic composition. Using high-resolution water isotopic composition profiles from snow pits at five Antarctic sites with different accumulation rates, we identified common patterns which cannot be attributed to the seasonal variability of precipitation. These differences in the precipitation, surface snow and buried snow isotopic composition provide evidence of post-deposition processes affecting ice core records in low-accumulation areas. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica ice core Ice Sheet The Cryosphere Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Antarctic East Antarctica The Cryosphere 12 5 1745 1766 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 M. Casado A. Landais G. Picard T. Münch T. Laepple B. Stenni G. Dreossi A. Ekaykin L. Arnaud C. Genthon A. Touzeau V. Masson-Delmotte J. Jouzel Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
The oldest ice core records are obtained from the East Antarctic Plateau. Water isotopes are key proxies to reconstructing past climatic conditions over the ice sheet and at the evaporation source. The accuracy of climate reconstructions depends on knowledge of all processes affecting water vapour, precipitation and snow isotopic compositions. Fractionation processes are well understood and can be integrated in trajectory-based Rayleigh distillation and isotope-enabled climate models. However, a quantitative understanding of processes potentially altering snow isotopic composition after deposition is still missing. In low-accumulation sites, such as those found in East Antarctica, these poorly constrained processes are likely to play a significant role and limit the interpretability of an ice core's isotopic composition. By combining observations of isotopic composition in vapour, precipitation, surface snow and buried snow from Dome C, a deep ice core site on the East Antarctic Plateau, we found indications of a seasonal impact of metamorphism on the surface snow isotopic signal when compared to the initial precipitation. Particularly in summer, exchanges of water molecules between vapour and snow are driven by the diurnal sublimation–condensation cycles. Overall, we observe in between precipitation events modification of the surface snow isotopic composition. Using high-resolution water isotopic composition profiles from snow pits at five Antarctic sites with different accumulation rates, we identified common patterns which cannot be attributed to the seasonal variability of precipitation. These differences in the precipitation, surface snow and buried snow isotopic composition provide evidence of post-deposition processes affecting ice core records in low-accumulation areas. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
M. Casado A. Landais G. Picard T. Münch T. Laepple B. Stenni G. Dreossi A. Ekaykin L. Arnaud C. Genthon A. Touzeau V. Masson-Delmotte J. Jouzel |
author_facet |
M. Casado A. Landais G. Picard T. Münch T. Laepple B. Stenni G. Dreossi A. Ekaykin L. Arnaud C. Genthon A. Touzeau V. Masson-Delmotte J. Jouzel |
author_sort |
M. Casado |
title |
Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores |
title_short |
Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores |
title_full |
Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores |
title_fullStr |
Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores |
title_full_unstemmed |
Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores |
title_sort |
archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in east antarctic ice cores |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1745-2018 https://doaj.org/article/ab9f0afe67d14366bf1f7386d48c70cc |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica ice core Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica ice core Ice Sheet The Cryosphere |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 12, Pp 1745-1766 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.the-cryosphere.net/12/1745/2018/tc-12-1745-2018.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-12-1745-2018 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/ab9f0afe67d14366bf1f7386d48c70cc |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1745-2018 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
12 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
1745 |
op_container_end_page |
1766 |
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1766255783039729664 |