A decade (2008–2017) of water stable-isotope composition of precipitation at Concordia Station, East Antarctica

• Main Authors: Dreossi, Giuliano, Masiol, Mauro, Stenni, Barbara, Zannoni, Daniele, Scarchilli, Claudio, Ciardini, Virginia, Casado, Mathieu, Landais, Amaëlle, Werner, Martin, Cauquoin, Alexandre, Casasanta, Giampietro, Del Guasta, Massimo, Posocco, Vittoria, Barbante, Carlo
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2023
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; Antarctic; Concordia Station; East Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2813; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00070355; https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00068705/egusphere-2023-2813.pdf; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-2813/egusphere-2023-2813.pdf

A ten-year record of oxygen and hydrogen isotopic composition of precipitation is here presented: from 2008 to 2017, 1483 daily precipitation samples were collected all-year round on a raised platform at Concordia Station, East Antarctica. Weather data were retrieved from the Italian Antarctic Meteo-Climatological Observatory AWS, while ERA5 was used to estimate total precipitation. The δ-temperature relationships were moderately high for daily data (r2=0.63 and 0.64 for δ18O and δ2H, respectively) and stronger using monthly data (r2=0.82 for both δ18O and δ2H), with a slope of about 0.5 ‰/°C for δ18O/TAWS (3.5 ‰/°C for δ18O/TAWS), which remains consistent also using annual averages. The isotopic composition of precipitation is the input signal of the snow/ice system and this dataset will be useful to improve the interpretation of paleoclimate records and promote a better understanding of the post-depositional processes affecting the isotopic signal in ice cores. Isotope-enabled GCM ECHAM6-wiso output for the isotopic composition of precipitation was also compared to experimental data, showing moderately good relationships for δ18O and δ2H, but not for d-excess, nonetheless marking a substantial improvement from the previous release of the model.