Deuterium excess record from central Greenland over the last millennium: Hints of a North Atlantic signal during the Little Ice Age

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
• Main Authors: Hoffmann, Georg, Jouzel, Jean, Johnsen, Sigfus
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables (GLACCIOS), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA))
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2001
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; Greenland; GRIP; ice core; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-03110159; https://hal.science/hal-03110159/document; https://hal.science/hal-03110159/file/2000JD900585.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900585

International audience A stacked water isotope record for Summit, central Greenland, has been established covering approximately the last 900 years. Measurements of b•80 and bD in the GRIP deep ice core and the 230-m core, S93, allow the reconstruction of a millennial record of the deuterium excess in a near-annual resolution. A short period of particularly high values of the Deuterium Excess at the beginning of the fourteenth century may be associated with the medieval warm period (MWP). The Little Ice Age (LIA) might be represented by a 100-year period of very low excess values in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Using a simple isotope model, b180 and deuterium excess are interpreted in terms of surface temperature variations over central Greenland and over the subtropical North Atlantic, Greenland's principal vapor source region. An estimated cooling of-0.7øC of subtropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) during the Little Ice Age and a warming of 0.6øC during the short warm period in the medieval is in agreement with previous studies. Over periods of about 100 years, an antiphasing between gradually decreasing 6•80 and increasing deuterium excess is observed. Interannual-to-decadal-scale variability associated to the North Atlantic Oscillation may be responsible for this anti-phase relationship. An alternative explication is a North-South oscillation in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures associated with short-term changes in the thermohaline circulation.