Acquisition of isotopic composition for surface snow in East Antarctica and the links to climatic parameters

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Touzeau, Alexandra, Landais, Amaëlle, Stenni, Barbara, Uemura, Ryu, Fukui, Kotaro, Fujita, Shuji, Guilbaud, Sarah, Ekaykin, Alexey, Casado, Mathieu, Barkan, Eugeni, Luz, Boaz, Magand, Olivier, Teste, Grégory, Le Meur, Emmanuel, Baroni, Mélanie, Savarino, Joël, Bourgeois, Ilann, Risi, Camille
• 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)), Departemanto di Scienze Ambientali Informatica e Statistica (DAIS), University of Ca’ Foscari Venice, Italy, University of the Ryukyus Okinawa, Tateyama Caldera Sabo Museum, Graduate University for Advanced Studies Hayama (SOKENDAI), National Institute of Polar Research Tokyo (NiPR), Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie de l'Atmosphère (LPCA), Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale (ULCO), Saint Petersburg State Technical University, Saint Petersburg State Polytechnical University (SPSPU), Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet), The Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ), Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG ), 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 Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 )-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-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 Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 ), Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA ), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes 2016-2019 (UGA 2016-2019 ), Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; [SDU.STU.CL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Climatology; Antarc*; Antarctica; East Antarctica; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-01388903; https://insu.hal.science/insu-01388903/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-01388903/file/CRYOSPHERE%20-%20%20Acquisition%20of%20isotopic%20composition%20for%20surface%20snow%20in%20East%20Antarctica%20and%20the%20links%20to%20climatic%20parameters.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-837-2016

International audience The isotopic compositions of oxygen and hydrogen in ice cores are invaluable tools for the reconstruction of past climate variations. Used alone, they give insights into the variations of the local temperature, whereas taken together they can provide information on the climatic conditions at the point of origin of the moisture. However, recent analyses of snow from shallow pits indicate that the climatic signal can become erased in very low accumulation regions, due to local processes of snow reworking. The signal-to-noise ratio decreases and the climatic signal can then only be retrieved using stacks of several snow pits. Obviously, the signal is not completely lost at this stage, otherwise it would be impossible to extract valuable climate information from ice cores as has been done, for instance, for the last glaciation. To better understand how the climatic signal is passed from the precipitation to the snow, we present here results from varied snow samples from East Antarctica. First, we look at the relationship between isotopes and temperature from a geographical point of view, using results from three traverses across Antarctica, to see how the relationship is built up through the distillation process. We also take advantage of these measures to see how second-order parameters (d-excess and 17 O-excess) are related to δ 18 O and how they are controlled. d-excess increases in the interior of the continent (i.e., when δ 18 O decreases), due to the distillation process, whereas 17 O-excess decreases in remote areas, due to kinetic fractionation at low temperature. In both cases, these changes are associated with the loss of original information regarding the source. Then, we look at the same relationships in precipitation samples collected over 1 year at Dome C and Vos-tok, as well as in surface snow at Dome C. We note that the slope of the δ 18 O vs. temperature (T) relationship decreases in these samples compared to those from the traverses, and thus caution is advocated when using ...