Measurement report: Spatial variations in ionic chemistry and water-stable isotopes in the snowpack on glaciers across Svalbard during the 2015–2016 snow accumulation season

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: E. Barbaro, K. Koziol, M. P. Björkman, C. P. Vega, C. Zdanowicz, T. Martma, J.-C. Gallet, D. Kępski, C. Larose, B. Luks, F. Tolle, T. V. Schuler, A. Uszczyk, A. Spolaor
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2021
• Subjects: Physics; QC1-999; Chemistry; QD1-999; Arctic; Svalbard; Svalbard Archipelago; glacier; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3163-2021; https://doaj.org/article/e5bee1f506534e4ca761ad57e9c93b82

The Svalbard archipelago, located at the Arctic sea-ice edge between 74 and 81 ∘ N, is ∼60 % covered by glaciers. The region experiences rapid variations in atmospheric flow during the snow season (from late September to May) and can be affected by air advected from both lower and higher latitudes, which likely impact the chemical composition of snowfall. While long-term changes in Svalbard snow chemistry have been documented in ice cores drilled from two high-elevation glaciers, the spatial variability of the snowpack composition across Svalbard is comparatively poorly understood. Here, we report the results of the most comprehensive seasonal snow chemistry survey to date, carried out in April 2016 across 22 sites on seven glaciers across the archipelago. At each glacier, three snowpits were sampled along the altitudinal profiles and the collected samples were analysed for major ions ( Ca 2+ , K + , Na + , Mg 2+ , <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M7" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow class="chem"><msubsup><mi mathvariant="normal">NH</mi><mn mathvariant="normal">4</mn><mo>+</mo></msubsup></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="24pt" height="15pt" class="svg-formula" dspmath="mathimg" md5hash="3226c502fdca30fe88bf9305df4b3716"><svg:image xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="acp-21-3163-2021-ie00001.svg" width="24pt" height="15pt" src="acp-21-3163-2021-ie00001.png"/></svg:svg> , <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" id="M8" display="inline" overflow="scroll" dspmath="mathml"><mrow class="chem"><msubsup><mi mathvariant="normal">SO</mi><mn mathvariant="normal">4</mn><mrow><mn mathvariant="normal">2</mn><mo>-</mo></mrow></msubsup></mrow></math> <svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="29pt" height="17pt" ...