Oxygen isotope variability in snow from western Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica and its relation to temperature

This paper presents delta(18)O records from snow pits from four locations in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica that contain at least four annual cycles. The aim of the study was to analyse in detail these records as well as the prevailing temperatures during accumulation in order to infer to what exten...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Tellus B
Main Authors: Helsen, MM, Van de Wal, RSW, Van den Broeke, MR, Van As, D, Meijer, HAJ, Reijmer, CH
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2005
Subjects:
SURFACE MASS-BALANCE
ICE-CORE
PRECIPITATION
ACCUMULATION
GREENLAND
CLIMATE
FIRN
RECONSTRUCTION
AMUNDSENISEN
SEASONALITY
Amundsenisen
Dronning Maud Land
Greenland
Antarc*
Antarctica
ice core
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11370/c1da51d7-068a-44b7-8cc6-2d2523e7252c
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/c1da51d7-068a-44b7-8cc6-2d2523e7252c
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2005.00162.x
https://pure.rug.nl/ws/files/9827040/2005TellusBHelsen.pdf
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Summary:This paper presents delta(18)O records from snow pits from four locations in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica that contain at least four annual cycles. The aim of the study was to analyse in detail these records as well as the prevailing temperatures during accumulation in order to infer to what extent isotopic composition in this area can be interpreted as temperature information. The original seasonal amplitudes of the isotope records were reconstructed by use of a simple back-diffusion model. Automatic weather station data were used to describe the accumulation history and the near-surface temperatures; the temperatures at the atmospheric level of snow formation were inferred from a regional climate model. The results show that the strongly intermittent nature of the accumulation in this area can result in the exclusion of entire seasons from the isotope records. The temperature records also reveal that the oxygen isotope records in these snow pits are biased towards higher temperatures, since snowfall conditions are associated with higher temperatures. This effect is greatest at low temperatures. A comparison between the seasonal extreme isotopic and temperature values points out that on timescales of seasons to several years, isotopic variability cannot be interpreted with confidence as temperature changes at the accumulation sites.

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