Large scale changes in 20th century black carbon deposition to Antarctica

• Main Authors: Bisiaux, MM, Edwards, R, McConnell, JR, Curran, MAJ, van Ommen, TD, Smith, AM, Neumann, TA, Pasteris, DR, Penner, JE, Taylor, K
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2011
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Physical geography and environmental geoscience; Glaciology; Antarctic; Indian; Law Dome; Pacific; Southern Ocean; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Antarc*; Antarctica; ice core; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/acpd-11-27815-2011; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/76842

Refractory black carbon aerosols (rBC) emitted by biomass burning (fires) and fossilfuel combustion, affect global climate and atmospheric chemistry. In the SouthernHemisphere (SH), rBC is transported in the atmosphere from low latitudes to Antarctica5 and deposited to the polar ice sheet preserving a history of emissions and atmospherictransport. Here, we present two high-resolution Antarctic rBC ice core records drilledfrom the West Antarctic Ice Sheet divide and Law Dome on the periphery of the EastAntarctic ice sheet. Separated by ~3500 km, the records span calendar years 1850-2001 and reflect the rBC distribution over the Indian and Pacific ocean sectors of the10 Southern Ocean. Highly correlated over the past 60 yr, the records show that coherentlarge-scale changes in SH rBC occurred at decadal to inter-annual time scales, notablyin ENSO-like periodicities. Decadal trends in the records are similar to inventories ofSH rBC emissions from grass fires and biofuels. The combined records suggest alarge-scale reduction in rBC from 1950 to 1990 over the remote Southern Hemisphere.