Chemical and physical analyses of firn and firn air : from Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

• Main Author: Kaspers, K.A.
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Utrecht University 2004
• Subjects: Natuur- en Sterrenkunde; firn air; chemical composition atmosphere; ice core volcanic layer; Antarctic; Dronning Maud Land; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; ice core
• Online Access: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/1104

Important information about the past global climate is preserved in the Antarctic ice. This information becomes available from studying ice cores, where the change in the chemical composition of the past atmosphere is stored. Although ice cores can provide valuable information over a large time span for major atmospheric components, to study the industrial period, the last 150 years, detailed measurements, measuring trace gases components of the past atmosphere, are required. In order to make the analyses of atmospheric trace gasses possible, large volumes of past air are needed. Large volumes of air can be taken from firn air. Firn air is the air that is trapped in the porous medium of firn, which is typically the first one hundred meters of an ice core. In this thesis the firn air analyses of Site M in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica (15°E, 75°S, 3453 m.a.s.l) are described. These firn air analyses were measured with gas chromatography, yielding concentration profiles with depth for a wide variety of trace gases. In the chapters three and four, the firn air analyses are focussed on the non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs): ethane, propane and acetylene, and methyl chloride. The NMHCs were studied because very little is known about their long-term and seasonal trend in the atmosphere around Antarctica and Southern Hemisphere in general whereas these NMHCs play an important role in the atmospheric oxidation chemistry. Studying the long-term and seasonal trend for methyl chloride is very interesting because this gas shows a large spatial variability although this is not expected because of its large lifetime. In chapter three measurements are discussed obtaining a 25-year old record of trace gases. Naturally longer records are more valuable, particularly if pre-industrial levels can be recorded. Although one would expect that old firn air could be found at locations high on the Antarctic plateau, with low temperatures, low accumulation rates and low surface pressures, firn air analyses on various locations showed that ...