Spatial and temporal variability of snow accumulation in East Antarctica from traverse data

• Published in: Journal of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Frezzotti, Massimo, Pourchet, Michel, Flora, Onelio, Gandolfi, Stefano, Gay, Michel, Urbini, Stefano, Vincent, Christian, Becagli, Silvia, Gragnani, Roberto, Proposito, Marco, Severi, Mirko, Traversi, Rita, Udisti, Roberto, Fily, Michel
• Other Authors: Italian National agency for new technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development Frascati (ENEA), Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Dipartimento di Scienze Geologiche Trieste, Università degli studi di Trieste = University of Trieste, Dipartimento di Ingegneria delle Strutture, dei Trasporti, delle Acque, del Rilevamento, del Territorio (DISTART), Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna (UNIBO), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Sezione di Roma (INGV), Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Department of Chemistry, Università degli Studi di Firenze = University of Florence = Université de Florence (UniFI), European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2005
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; East Antarctica; Terra Nova Bay; Antarc*; Antarctica; ice core; Journal of Glaciology
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-00374309; https://insu.hal.science/insu-00374309/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-00374309/file/spatial-and-temporal-variability-of-snow-accumulation-in-east-antarctica-from-traverse-data.pdf; https://doi.org/10.3189/172756505781829502

International audience Recent snow accumulation rate is a key quantity for ice-core and mass-balance studies. Several accumulation measurement methods (stake farm, fin core, snow-radar profiling, surface morphology, remote sensing) were used, compared and integrated at eight sites along a transect from Terra Nova Bay to Dome C, East Antarctica, to provide information about the spatial and temporal variability of snow accumulation. Thirty-nine cores were dated by identifying tritium/b marker levels (1965-66) and non-sea-salt (nss) SO4 2- spikes of the Tambora (Indonesia) volcanic event (1816) in order to provide information on temporal variability. Cores were linked by snow radar and global positioning system surveys to provide detailed information on spatial variability in snow accumulation. Stake-farm and ice-core accumulation rates are observed to differ significantly, but isochrones (snow radar) correlate well with ice-core derived accumulation. The accumulation/ablation pattern from stake measurements suggests that the annual local noise (metre scale) in snow accumulation can approach 2 years of ablation and more than four times the average annual accumulation, with no accumulation or ablation for a 5 year period in up to 40% of cases. The spatial variability of snow accumulation at the kilometre scale is one order of magnitude higher than temporal variability at the multi-decadal/secular scale. Stake measurements and firn cores at Dome C confirm an approximate 30% increase in accumulation over the last two centuries, with respect to the average over the last 5000 years.