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Water isotopes in ice cores offer a window into the climate of the past. Often the measurement of these water isotopes is done discretely, with the ice cores cut into many regularly spaced samples. Determining the optimal sampling rate for these measurements is a question of balancing high temporal resolution with processing time and effort. Furthermore, the effect of isotopic diffusion smooths the record, attenuating high frequency variability far below the measurement noise level. This results in some climate information becoming unobtainable and limits the usefulness of very high resolution data. Deconvolving (un-diffusing) the time-series can further enhance the signal but strongly depends on the precision of the isotope data that is mainly determined by the measurement error.Here, we discuss the optimal measurement specifications in terms of sampling resolution and precision for different uses of the water isotope data, such as the estimation of the diffusion length, the direct interpretation of the time-series and the interpretation of the time-series after it has been deconvolved. We do this theoretically, based on how we model diffusion, and empirically through simulations of surrogate ice core records. Our findings can provide guidance on how to process new deep ice cores such as the Oldest Ice Core record.

Thinning of the deep ice core layers must be considered when the water isotopic composition of the Oldest Ice Core is to be analyzed. From an experimental point of view, a novel instrument combining a micro-destructive cold femtosecond - Laser Ablation (LA) sampling system, that provides high spatial resolution together with minimal usage of ice sample, and a Cavity Ring Down Spectrometer is being built for high-quality water isotope measurements. Laser ablation results in crater formation and its morphology depends on the laser parameters used. Optical images that show crater morphology under different experimental conditions allow crater characterization towards an efficient cold LA sampling. An ablation chamber and a transfer line are both the connecting parts between the LA system and the CRDS instrument. They are to be designed and constructed in the optimal size and shape to collect the ablated mass and guarantee its smooth delivery to the CRDS analyzer with minimum disturbance. Coupling a Laser Ablation system with a CRDS analyzer has already been achieved using a laser operating at the nanosecond regime and a cryo-cell as the ablation chamber. Comparison of the two Laser Ablation systems, by the means of ice sampling and collection of the ablated material, will be of great importance to understand the ablation mechanism and post-ablation processes on ice and further develop a system dedicated to water isotope measurements.

9 pags., 5 figs., 2 tabs., Sea ice decline in the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas has been proposed to contribute to the repeated abrupt atmospheric warmings recorded in Greenland ice cores during the last glacial period, known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events. However, the understanding of how sea ice changes were coupled with abrupt climate changes during D-O events has remained incomplete due to a lack of suitable high-resolution sea ice proxy records from northwestern North Atlantic regions. Here, we present a subdecadal-scale bromine enrichment (Brenr) record from the NEEM ice core (Northwest Greenland) and sediment core biomarker records to reconstruct the variability of seasonal sea ice in the Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea over a suite of D-O events between 34 and 42 ka. Our results reveal repeated shifts between stable, multiyear sea ice (MYSI) conditions during cold stadials and unstable, seasonal sea ice conditions during warmer interstadials. The shift from stadial to interstadial sea ice conditions occurred rapidly and synchronously with the atmospheric warming over Greenland, while the amplitude of high-frequency sea ice fluctuations increased through interstadials. Our findings suggest that the rapid replacement of widespread MYSI with seasonal sea ice amplified the abrupt climate warming over the course of D-O events and highlight the role of feedbacks associated with late-interstadial seasonal sea ice expansion in driving the North Atlantic ocean-climate system back to stadial conditions., The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) grant agreements #243908 “Past4Future. Climate change—Learning from the past climate” and #610055 “Ice2ice”. We thank our colleagues at Centre for Ice and Climate (Copenhagen, Denmark) for their generous contribution and providing the NEEM ice core samples. NEEM is directed and organized by the Center of Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute and US NSF, Office of Polar Programs. It is supported by funding agencies and institutions in Belgium (FNRS-CFB and FWO), Canada (NRCan/GSC), China (CAS), Denmark (FIST), France (IPEV, CNRS/INSU, CEA and ANR), Germany (AWI), Iceland (RannIs), Japan (NIPR), Korea (KOPRI), The Netherlands (NWO/ALW), Sweden (VR), Switzerland (SNF), United Kingdom (NERC), and the USA (US NSF, Office of Polar Programs).

The EPICA Dome C (EDC) ice core provides the longest continuous climatic record, covering the last 800 000 years (800 kyr). A unique opportunity to investigate decadal to millennial variability during past glacial and interglacial periods is provided by the high-resolution water isotopic record (δ18O and δD) available for the EDC ice core. We present here a continuous compilation of the EDC water isotopic record at a sample resolution of 11 cm, which consists of 27 000 δ18O measurements and 7920 δD measurements (covering, respectively, 94 % and 27 % of the whole EDC record), including published and new measurements (2900 for both δ18O and δD) for the last 800 kyr. Here, we demonstrate that repeated water isotope measurements of the same EDC samples from different depth intervals obtained using different analytical methods are comparable within analytical uncertainty. We thus combine all available EDC water isotope measurements to generate a high-resolution (11 cm) dataset for the past 800 kyr. A frequency decomposition of the most complete δ18O record and a simple assessment of the possible influence of diffusion on the measured profile shows that the variability at the multi-decadal to multi-centennial timescale is higher during glacial than during interglacial periods and higher during early interglacial isotopic maxima than during the Holocene. This analysis shows as well that during interglacial periods characterized by a temperature optimum at the beginning, the multi-centennial variability is strongest over this temperature optimum.

Advances in analytical methods have made it possible to obtain high-resolution water isotopic data from ice cores. Their spectral signature contains information on the diffusion process that attenuated the isotopic signal during the firn densification process. Here, we provide a tool for estimating firn-diffusion rates that builds on the Community Firn Model. Our model requires two main inputs, temperature and accumulation, and it calculates the diffusion lengths for δ17O, δ18O and δD. Prior information on the isotopic signal of the precipitation is not a requirement. In combination with deconvolution techniques, diffusion lengths can be used in order reconstruct the pre-diffusion isotopic signal. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the isotope diffusion and firn densification makes the diffusion length an interesting candidate as a temperature proxy. We test the model under steady state and transient scenarios and compare four densification models. Comparisons with ice core data provide an evaluation of the four models and indicate that there are differences in their performance. Combining data-based diffusion length estimates with information on past accumulation rates and ice flow thinning, we reconstruct absolute temperatures from three Antarctic ice core sites.

Emission of CH4 and CO2 was recently discovered at the western margin of the Greenlandic Ice Sheet (GrIS) 1,2. While knowledge on both carbon sources, extent and magnitude of these emissions are still very limited, the previous studies indicate that a primary driver for emission is degassing of dissolved and pressurized gases in the meltwater as it reaches the glacial margin. In this way we suggest that glacial hydrology plays a key role in regulating emission on both temporal and spatial scale.In our studies of subglacial CH4 and CO2 emissions we have so far observed that the seasonal variations in meltwater discharge is correlated to both the magnitude of gas concentrations as well as timing of emissions3,4. We propose that the seasonal variations in the connectivity of subglacial channels to both 1) pockets of sediment with CH4 and CO2 production from both anaerobic and aerobic biological processes and 2) supraglacial meltwater via englacial conduits could be a mechanism, which could explain the overall temporal and seasonal patterns of gas concentrations observed at the glacial margin.We hypothesize that by observing hydrological and geochemical processes at the margin together with CH4 and CO2 in high frequency over the melt season it can be inferred how subglacial hydrological processes regulate biogeochemical and carbon turnover processes. Knowledge on these mechanism and processes are important for future upscaling CH4 and CO2 emission to seasonal periods and larger spatial scales through modeling as well as the assessment of the potential importance of subglacial carbon emissions to the climate system.Here, we will present data that couples meltwater discharge to measurements of dissolved CH4 and gaseous CH4 and CO2 as well as campaign measurements of water geochemistry and its isotopic composition. Preliminary data shows that CH4 and CO2 export display a clear diurnal signal in response to variations in the composition of melt water discharge. EC measurements and isotopic composition of melt water show a dominance of surface meltwater to subglacial meltwater, but clear diurnal trends in the mixing between these two water sources can be deduced from both isotope and elemental geochemistry of the meltwater.1. Christiansen, J. R. & Jørgensen, C. J. First observation of direct methane emission to the atmosphere from the subglacial domain of the Greenland Ice Sheet. Sci. Rep. 8, 16623 (2018).2. Lamarche-Gagnon, G. et al. Greenland melt drives continuous export of methane from its bed. Nature 73–77 (2018). doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0800-03. Jørgensen, C. J., Mønster, J., Fuglsang, K. & Christiansen, J. R. Continuous methane concentration measurements at the Greenland Ice Sheet-atmosphere interface using a low-cost low-power metal oxide sensor system. Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss. 13, 3319–3328 (2020).4. Christiansen, J. R., Röckmann, T., Popa, M. E., Sapart, C. J. & Jørgensen, C. J. Carbon emissions from the edge of the Greenland Ice sheet reveal subglacial processes of methane and carbon dioxide turnover. J. Geophys. Res. Biogeosciences 1–13 (2021). doi:10.1029/2021jg006308

The Beyond EPICA project for retrieving the Oldest Ice Core (1.5 Myr) in Antarctica aims at obtaining high resolution climate records and water isotopes will be one of the most important parameters investigated. Given the extremely thin nature of the annual ice core layers, as we get deep down to the core, analysis of such an ice core requires new adopted techniques on water isotopes with high accuracy and precision. Laser ablation (LA) is an established powerful technique used in various fields and it can also be applied in ice sampling serving a dual purpose: a.direct solid-gas transition and b. the smallest amount of sample possible is used for analysis and that makes LA a micro-distructive process. A new instrument which couples LA sampling with the established Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) for water isotopic analysis is developed. This novel design will allow both fast gas phase sample collection directly from the ice sample and high quality water isotopic measurements. Particular focus was given in the LA system which consists of a High Energy femtosecond IR LASER and the optical elements that focus the LASER beam into the ice surface. The focusing lens system is placed inside a freezer, up above a motorized stage that accomodates the ice sample. An enclosure supplied with dry air flow was build around the optics and tested by the means of humidity experiments. Subsequent series of experiments with varying laser ablation parameters: pulse energy, repetition rate, ablation time, together with the ablated crater characterization allow the evaluation of LA efficiency in ice and thus the optimization of the parameters controlling the ablation mechanism. Understanding the LA mechanism will provide the knowledge to further develop the sampling procedure and efficiently control and guide the vaporized ice into a CRDS instrument for detection.

The recently commenced drilling operation at the Beyond EPICA Little Dome C (BELDC) site will attempt to recover an ice core that reaches back to 1.5 Ma, a time during which the enigmatic Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT) took place. While the ice flow and heat flux regime at the drilling site will largely determine the age, as well as the nominal temporal resolution of the deeper parts of the BELDC core, molecular diffusion in solid ice will play a significant role in the effective temporal resolution of the δ18O signal. Here we look into the expected diffusion characteristics of the BELDC ice core by firstly addressing a previously reported problem, that of the δ18O signal loss in the deeper parts of the Dome-C ice core, particularly over Marine Isotope Stage 19 (MIS-19). By using isotope diffusion modelling in combination with high resolution δ18O data, we show the importance of the ice flow thinning function for the estimation of the diffusion length. We also comment on the large uncertainty imposed by the poor knowledge of the diffusivity coefficient. Based on recently published results on the dating of the BELDC site we provide a first order estimate of the effective resolution of the δ18O signal over the MPT transition.

The diffusion of stable water isotopes in firn and ice is a complex process which can smooth the measured isotope profile and thus remove the high frequency variations. While for the firn this process is relatively well understood and can be accounted for, this is not the case in the deepest parts of the ice core, where additional processes are introduced due to the increased temperatures near bedrock. Combined with the extreme thinning the deep ice has experienced over hundreds of thousands of years, variations up to centennial or even millennial timescales can be heavily attenuated. Understanding how to best recover this signal in the deep ice is crucial to get a reliable record in deep ice cores such as the Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice Core that is currently being drilled.In order to reconstruct the climate signal of this old ice, an accurate estimation of the diffusion length is necessary. Current estimation methods are mostly suitable for firn and shallow ice as they are assuming a rather stationary underlying climate signal. In this contribution, we present a method which approaches the issue without assuming the low frequency climate variability is negligible. Using this method on the high-resolution Dome-C isotope data (doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.939445), we provide an improved estimate of the diffusion length of the Dome-C ice-core. Both the diffusion length estimate of the deep ice in Dome-C as well as the new method are useful for the interpretation of future deep ice coring projects such as Beyond EPICA Oldest Ice Core.

An ice core drilled on the Renland ice cap in east-central Greenland contains a continuous climate record dating through the last glacial period. The Renland record is valuable because the coastal environment is more likely to reflect regional sea surface conditions compared to inland Greenland ice cores that capture synoptic variability. Here we present the δ18O water isotope record for the Holocene, in which decadal-scale climate information is retained for the last 8 kyr, while the annual water isotope signal is preserved throughout the last 2.6 kyr. To investigate regional climate information preserved in the water isotope record, we apply spectral analysis techniques to a 300-year moving window to determine the mean strength of varying frequency bands through time. We find that the strength of 15–20-year δ18O variability exhibits a millennial-scale signal in line with the well-known Bond events. Comparison to other North Atlantic proxy records suggests that the 15–20-year variability may reflect fluctuating sea surface conditions throughout the Holocene, driven by changes in the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Additional analysis of the seasonal signal over the last 2.6 kyr reveals that the winter δ18O signal has experienced a decreasing trend, while the summer signal has predominantly remained stable. The winter trend may correspond to an increase in Arctic sea ice cover, which is driven by a decrease in total annual insolation, and is also likely influenced by regional climate variables such as atmospheric and oceanic circulation. In the context of anthropogenic climate change, the winter trend may have important implications for feedback processes as sea ice retreats in the Arctic.

Glaciers erode their beds by abrasion and plucking and entraining sediment on their way downwards driven by gravity. Basal ice becomes a sediment transport agent. To determine glacial transport of sediment, measurements of both the ice flux and its concentration of sediment are needed. Once glaciers reach the ocean, ice and its entrained sediment is released into the ocean by calving. Further transport takes place by icebergs. Quantification of IRD (ice-rafted debris) fluxes, which upon ultimate deposition on the ocean floor is an important climate indicator, becomes even more complicated as icebergs topple and differentially melt while being in transport. While the volume of tidewater glacier ice released by recent calving is quite well constrained by satellite measurements, there is a lack of measurements of the concentration of sediment within the moving ice.Here, we describe a method to collect samples of ice from icebergs systematically for the first time in Greenland together with a strategy to obtain representative samples. Our method is tested in Scoresby Sound, East Greenland in order to describe the transport of sediment into the fjord system related to calving from known glacial source areas. Our data clearly demonstrate that biased and sparse sampling potentially produces unrealistic values of sediment concentrations. Seventy-two samples from 24 icebergs had an average concentration of sediment of 35.5 g/l of ice with a standard deviation of 97%, between the 24 individual icebergs. The origin of the sediment is related to specific source areas. Based on the samples, we present an estimate of the annual transport of sediment out of Scoresby Sound related to calving ~100 (0.3-200) million t yr-1. Finally, we discuss the uncertainties of our estimate.

This study examines the stable water isotope signal (δ18O) of three ice cores drilled on the Renland peninsula (east Greenland coast). While ice core δ18O measurements qualitatively are a measure of the local temperature history, the δ18O variability in precipitation actually reflects the integrated hydrological activity that the deposited ice experienced from the evaporation source to the condensation site. Thus, as Renland is located next to fluctuating sea ice cover, the transfer function used to infer past temperatures from the δ18O variability is potentially influenced by variations in the local moisture conditions. The objective of this study is therefore to evaluate the δ18O variability of ice cores drilled on Renland and examine the amount of the signal that can be attributed to regional temperature variations. In the analysis, three ice cores are utilized to create stacked summer, winter and annually averaged δ18O signals (1801–2014 CE). The imprint of temperature on δ18O is first examined by correlating the δ18O stacks with instrumental temperature records from east Greenland (1895–2014 CE) and Iceland (1830–2014 CE) and with the regional climate model HIRHAM5 (1980–2014 CE). The results show that the δ18O variability correlates with regional temperatures on both a seasonal and an annual scale between 1910 and 2014, while δ18O is uncorrelated with Iceland temperatures between 1830 and 1909. Our analysis indicates that the unstable regional δ18O–temperature correlation does not result from changes in weather patterns through strengthening and weakening of the North Atlantic Oscillation. Instead, the results imply that the varying δ18O–temperature relation is connected with the volume flux of sea ice exported through Fram Strait (and south along the coast of east Greenland). Notably, the δ18O variability only reflects the variations in regional temperature when the temperature anomaly is positive and the sea ice export anomaly is negative. It is hypothesized that this could be caused by a larger sea ice volume flux during cold years which suppresses the Iceland temperature signature in the Renland δ18O signal. However, more isotope-enabled modeling studies with emphasis on coastal ice caps are needed in order to quantify the mechanisms behind this observation. As the amount of Renland δ18O variability that reflects regional temperature varies with time, the results have implications for studies performing regression-based δ18O–temperature reconstructions based on ice cores drilled in the vicinity of a fluctuating sea ice cover.

The Holocene, which currently spans ~11 700 years, is the shortest series/epoch within the geological time scale (GTS), yet it contains a rich archive of evidence in stratigraphical contexts that are frequently continuous and often preserved at high levels of resolution. On 14 June 2018, the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences formally ratified a proposal to subdivide the Holocene into three stages/ages, along with their equivalent subseries/subepochs, each anchored by a Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP). The new stages are the Greenlandian (Lower/Early Holocene Subseries/Subepoch) with its GSSP in the Greenland NGRIP2 ice core and dated at 11 700 a b2k (before 2000 CE); the Northgrippian (Middle Holocene Subseries/Subepoch) with its GSSP in the Greenland NGRIP1 ice core and dated at 8236 a b2k; and the Meghalayan (Upper/Late Holocene Subseries/Subepoch) with its GSSP in a speleothem from Mawmluh Cave, north-eastern India, with a date of 4250 a b2k. We explain the nomenclature of the new divisions, describe the procedures involved in the ratification process, designate auxiliary stratotypes to support the GSSPs and consider the implications of the subdivision for defining the Anthropocene as a new unit within the GTS. (Less)

Data availability and temporal resolution make it challenging to unravel the anatomy (duration and temporal phasing) of the Last Glacial abrupt climate changes. Here, we address these limitations by investigating the anatomy of abrupt changes using sub-decadal-scale records from Greenland ice cores. We highlight the absence of a systematic pattern in the anatomy of abrupt changes as recorded in different ice parameters. This diversity in the sequence of changes seen in ice-core data is also observed in climate parameters derived from numerical simulations which exhibit self-sustained abrupt variability arising from internal atmosphere-ice-ocean interactions. Our analysis of two ice cores shows that the diversity of abrupt warming transitions represents variability inherent to the climate system and not archive-specific noise. Our results hint that during these abrupt events, it may not be possible to infer statistically-robust leads and lags between the different components of the climate system because of their tight coupling., Palaeodata resolution and dating limit the study of the sequence of changes across Earth during past abrupt warmings. Here, the authors show tight decadal-scale coupling between Greenland climate, North Atlantic sea ice and atmospheric circulation during these past events using two highly resolved ice-core records.

With recent advances in analytical techniques, water stable isotope ratios can be measured in astounding detail in ice core records (~mm scale or equivalent to subannual resolution). While this has enabled the study of past climates across a vast range of timescales, the full set of processes driving the highest frequency variability in these water isotope records remains poorly understood. In the EastGRIP ice core, we observe a strong relationship between high-frequency water isotope anomalies (sharp transitions on the scale of cms) and variability in the visual stratigraphy of the ice. The water isotope timeseries reveals these anomalies that would otherwise be missed using traditional lower resolution discrete sampling methods (5-50 cm scale). A comparison with the dark-field imaging of stratigraphic layers (high-resolution line-scanning system; 50µm/pix) from the EGRIP ice core indicates a correlation between bubble-free ice layers and the sharp transitions observed in the isotope record. Prior to this comparison, such anomalies in high-resolution isotope records were often dismissed as analytical artifacts. The striking correspondence to the bubble-free ice layers, which is a parameter measured independently from the isotopes, suggests the isotope variability is real. We are investigating a range of depositional and post-depositional processes that may may be able to explain the origin of this variability and its relationship to the physical properties of the ice. This study has implications for frequency analysis of the isotope data, and the related analysis of isotope diffusion and its effects on the recorded climate signal. Understanding these anomalies opens new doors to the interpretation of climate signals in ice cores.

This work presents the results from the first investigation of Br and Cl isotopic partitioning in Southern Ocean sea ice. The sea ice samples were collected during the Australian-led Sea Ice Physics and Ecosystem eXperiment-2 (SIPEX-2) marine voyage in austral spring of 2012 (26 Sept – 10 Nov), within the area bounded by 115–125°E and 62–66oS off the East Antarctic coast. Multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to provide isotopic data for bromine and chlorine. Bromine concentrations ranged from 710 ± 20 μg L−1 to 31440 ± 570 μg L−1 and chlorine concentrations ranged from 218 ± 12 mg L−1 to 7945 ± 351 mg L−1. Bromine and chlorine concentrations were positively correlated with a slope of 0.0038, consistent with the seawater Br/Cl ratio of 0.0035. Bromine isotopic compositions (denoted δ81Br with respect to SMOB isotopic reference) varied from −0.64 to 0.10‰ with a mean of −0.16‰ and standard deviation of 0.04‰. Chlorine isotopic compositions (denoted δ37Cl with respect to SMOC isotopic reference) varied from −1.10‰ to 0.43‰ with a mean of −0.26‰ and standard deviation of 0.10‰. Despite their strong concentration correlation, there was a much less consistent relation between Br and Cl isotopic compositions and great variability within individual sea ice cores. The samples showing the largest degree of fractionation in their Br and Cl isotopic compositions were found deepest in the sea ice samples. Multiple parameters may influence isotopic fractionation processes in sea ice, including ice texture, age, salt content, and algal biomass content (represented by chlorophyll-a concentrations), although no single factor was found to consistently correlate with the bromine or chlorine isotopic signature. We consider the possibility of isotopic fractionation resulting from brine rejection and desalinization processes.

We report high resolution measurements of the stable isotope ratios of ancient ice (δ18O, δD) from the North Greenland Eemian deep ice core (NEEM, 77.45° N, 51.06° E). The record covers the period 8–130 ky b2k (y before 2000) with a temporal resolution of ≈0.5 and 7 y at the top and the bottom of the core respectively and contains important climate events such as the 8.2 ky event, the last glacial termination and a series of glacial stadials and interstadials. At its bottom part the record contains ice from the Eemian interglacial. Isotope ratios are calibrated on the SMOW/SLAP scale and reported on the GICC05 (Greenland Ice Core Chronology 2005) and AICC2012 (Antarctic Ice Core Chronology 2012) time scales interpolated accordingly. We also provide estimates for measurement precision and accuracy for both δ18O and δD., Measurement(s) isotope analysis • water ice core Technology Type(s) cavity ring-down spectroscopy Factor Type(s) δ18O • δD Sample Characteristic - Location Greenland Ice Sheet Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.14216441

An ice core drilled on the Renland Ice Cap in east-central Greenland contains a continuous climate record dating through the last glacial period. The Renland record is valuable because the coastal environment is more likely to reflect regional sea surface conditions, compared to inland Greenland ice cores that capture synoptic variability. Here we present the δ18O water isotope record for the Holocene, in which decadal-scale climate information is retained for the last 8 ka, and the annual water isotope signal is preserved throughout the last 2.6 ka. To investigate regional climate information preserved in the water isotope record, we apply spectral analysis techniques to a 300-year moving window to determine the mean strength of varying frequency bands through time. The strength of interannual frequency bands decays rapidly, but we find that the mean 15–20 year δ18O variability exhibits a millennial-scale cycle in line with the well-known Bond Cycle. Comparison to other North Atlantic proxy records suggests that the 15–20 year variability may reflect fluctuating sea ice conditions throughout the Holocene, driven by changes in the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. Additional analysis of the seasonal signal over the last 2.6 ka reveals that the winter δ18O signal has experienced a decreasing trend, while the summer signal has predominantly remained stable. The winter trend likely corresponds to an increase in Arctic sea ice cover, driven by a decrease in total annual insolation. In the context of anthropogenic climate change, the winter trend may have important implications for feedback processes as sea ice retreats in the Arctic.

The last glacial period is characterized by a number of millennial climate events that have been identified in both Greenland and Antarctic ice cores and that are abrupt in Greenland climate records. The mechanisms governing this climate variability remain a puzzle that requires a precise synchronization of ice cores from the two hemispheres to be resolved. Previously, Greenland and Antarctic ice cores have been synchronized primarily via their common records of gas concentrations or isotopes from the trapped air and via cosmogenic isotopes measured on the ice. In this work, we apply ice core volcanic proxies and annual layer counting to identify large volcanic eruptions that have left a signature in both Greenland and Antarctica. Generally, no tephra is associated with those eruptions in the ice cores, so the source of the eruptions cannot be identified. Instead, we identify and match sequences of volcanic eruptions with bipolar distribution of sulfate, i.e. unique patterns of volcanic events separated by the same number of years at the two poles. Using this approach, we pinpoint 82 large bipolar volcanic eruptions throughout the second half of the last glacial period (12–60 ka). This improved ice core synchronization is applied to determine the bipolar phasing of abrupt climate change events at decadal-scale precision. In response to Greenland abrupt climatic transitions, we find a response in the Antarctic water isotope signals (δ18O and deuterium excess) that is both more immediate and more abrupt than that found with previous gas-based interpolar synchronizations, providing additional support for our volcanic framework. On average, the Antarctic bipolar seesaw climate response lags the midpoint of Greenland abrupt δ18O transitions by 122±24 years. The time difference between Antarctic signals in deuterium excess and δ18O, which likewise informs the time needed to propagate the signal as described by the theory of the bipolar seesaw but is less sensitive to synchronization errors, suggests an Antarctic δ18O lag behind Greenland of 152±37 years. These estimates are shorter than the 200 years suggested by earlier gas-based synchronizations. As before, we find variations in the timing and duration between the response at different sites and for different events suggesting an interaction of oceanic and atmospheric teleconnection patterns as well as internal climate variability.

Publisher's version (útgefin grein), The Holocene climatic optimum was a period 8–5 kyr ago when annual mean surface temperatures in Greenland were 2–3°C warmer than present-day values. However, this warming left little imprint on commonly used temperature proxies often used to derive the climate forcing for simulations of the past evolution of the Greenland ice sheet. In this study, we investigate the evolution of the Greenland ice sheet through the Holocene when forced by different proxy-derived temperature histories from ice core records, focusing on the effect of sustained higher surface temperatures during the early Holocene. We find that the ice sheet retreats to a minimum volume of ~0.15–1.2 m sea-level equivalent smaller than present in the early or mid-Holocene when forcing an ice-sheet model with temperature reconstructions that contain a climatic optimum, and that the ice sheet has continued to recover from this minimum up to present day. Reconstructions without a warm climatic optimum in the early Holocene result in smaller ice losses continuing throughout the last 10 kyr. For all the simulated ice-sheet histories, the ice sheet is approaching a steady state at the end of the 20th century., This work is supported by the Danish National Research Foundation under the Centre for Ice and Climate, University of Copenhagen and Villum Investigator Project IceFlow. Brice Noël and Michiel van den Broeke (IMAU, Utrecht University) are thanked for providing the RACMO2.3 Greenland SMB, precipitation and temperature data. B. Vinther is thanked for providing the Holocene accumulation reconstruction for the GRIP site. We are grateful for computing resources provided by the Danish Center for Climate Computing, a facility build with support of the Danish e-Infrastructure Corporation and the Niels Bohr Institute. Development of PISM is supported by NASA grants NNX13AM16G and NNX13AK27G. We thank the anonymous reviewers and Ralf Greve for their helpful suggestions which substantially improved the paper.

Water isotopes in ice cores are used as a climate proxy for local temperature and regional atmospheric circulation as well as evaporative conditions in moisture source regions. Traditional measurements of water isotopes have been achieved using magnetic sector isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). However, a number of recent studies have shown that laser absorption spectrometry (LAS) performs as well or better than IRMS. The new LAS technology has been combined with continuous-flow analysis (CFA) to improve data density and sample throughput in numerous prior ice coring projects. Here, we present a comparable semi-automated LAS-CFA system for measuring high-resolution water isotopes of ice cores. We outline new methods for partitioning both system precision and mixing length into liquid and vapor components – useful measures for defining and improving the overall performance of the system. Critically, these methods take into account the uncertainty of depth registration that is not present in IRMS nor fully accounted for in other CFA studies. These analyses are achieved using samples from a South Pole firn core, a Greenland ice core, and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice core. The measurement system utilizes a 16-position carousel contained in a freezer to consecutively deliver ∼ 1 m × 1.3 cm2 ice sticks to a temperature-controlled melt head, where the ice is converted to a continuous liquid stream and eventually vaporized using a concentric nebulizer for isotopic analysis. An integrated delivery system for water isotope standards is used for calibration to the Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW) scale, and depth registration is achieved using a precise overhead laser distance device with an uncertainty of ±0.2 mm. As an added check on the system, we perform inter-lab LAS comparisons using WAIS Divide ice samples, a corroboratory step not taken in prior CFA studies. The overall results are important for substantiating data obtained from LAS-CFA systems, including optimizing liquid and vapor mixing lengths, determining melt rates for ice cores with different accumulation and thinning histories, and removing system-wide mixing effects that are convolved with the natural diffusional signal that results primarily from water molecule diffusion in the firn column.

This study examines the stable water isotope signal (δ18O) of three ice cores drilled on the Renland peninsula (East Greenland coast). While ice core δ18O measurements qualitatively are a measure of the local temperature history, the δ18O variability actually reflects the integrated hydrological activity that the deposited ice experienced from the evaporation source to the condensation site. Thus, as Renland is located next to a fluctuating sea ice cover, the transfer function used to infer past temperatures from the δ18O variability is potentially influenced by variations in the local moisture conditions. The objective of this study is therefore to evaluate the δ18O variability of ice cores drilled on Renland and examine what amount that can be attributed to regional temperature variations. In the analysis, three ice cores are utilized to create stacked summer, winter and annually averaged δ18O signals (AD 1801–2014). The imprint of temperature on δ18O is first examined by correlating the δ18O stacks with instrumental temperature records from East Greenland (AD 1895–2014) and Iceland (AD 1830–2014) and with the regional climate model HIRHAM5 (AD 1980–2014). The results show that the δ18O variability correlates with regional temperatures on both a seasonal and an annual scale between 1910–2014 while δ18O is uncorrelated with Iceland temperatures between 1830–1909. Our analysis indicates that the unstable regional δ18O-temperature correlation does not result from changes in weather patterns through respectively strengthening and weakening of the North Atlantic Oscillation. Instead, the results imply that the varying δ18O-temperature relation is connected with the volume flux of sea ice exported through Fram Strait (and south along the coast of East Greenland). Notably, the δ18O variability only reflects the variations in regional temperature when the temperature anomaly is positive and the sea ice export anomaly is negative. It is hypothesized that this could be caused by a larger sea ice volume flux during cold years which suppresses the Iceland temperature signature in the Renland δ18O signal. However, more isotope-enabled modeling studies with emphasis on coastal ice caps are needed in order to quantify the mechanisms behind this observation. As the amount of Renland δ18O variability that reflects regional temperature varies with time, the results have implications for studies performing regression-based δ18O-temperature reconstructions based on ice cores drilled in the vicinity of a fluctuating sea ice cover.

Polar precipitation archived in ice caps contains information on past temperature conditions. Such information can be retrieved by measuring the water isotopic signals of δ 18 O and δ D in ice cores. These signals have been attenuated during densification due to molecular diffusion in the firn column, where the magnitude of the diffusion is isotopologue specific and temperature dependent. By utilizing the differential diffusion signal, dual isotope measurements of δ 18 O and δ D enable multiple temperature reconstruction techniques. This study assesses how well six different methods can be used to reconstruct past surface temperatures from the diffusion-based temperature proxies. Two of the methods are based on the single diffusion lengths of δ 18 O and δ D , three of the methods employ the differential diffusion signal, while the last uses the ratio between the single diffusion lengths. All techniques are tested on synthetic data in order to evaluate their accuracy and precision. We perform a benchmark test to thirteen high resolution Holocene data sets from Greenland and Antarctica, which represent a broad range of mean annual surface temperatures and accumulation rates. Based on the benchmark test, we comment on the accuracy and precision of the methods. Both the benchmark test and the synthetic data test demonstrate that the most precise reconstructions are obtained when using the single isotope diffusion lengths, with precisions of approximately 1.0 ° C . In the benchmark test, the single isotope diffusion lengths are also found to reconstruct consistent temperatures with a root-mean-square-deviation of 0.7 ° C . The techniques employing the differential diffusion signals are more uncertain, where the most precise method has a precision of 1.9 ° C . The diffusion length ratio method is the least precise with a precision of 13.7 ° C . The absolute temperature estimates from this method are also shown to be highly sensitive to the choice of fractionation factor parameterization.

Whereas ice cores from high-accumulation sites in coastal Antarctica clearly demonstrate annual layering, it is debated whether a seasonal signal is also preserved in ice cores from lower-accumulation sites further inland and particularly on the East Antarctic Plateau. In this study, we examine 5 m of early Holocene ice from the Dome Fuji (DF) ice core at a high temporal resolution by continuous flow analysis. The ice was continuously analysed for concentrations of dust, sodium, ammonium, liquid conductivity, and water isotopic composition. Furthermore, a dielectric profiling was performed on the solid ice. In most of the analysed ice, the multi-parameter impurity data set appears to resolve the seasonal variability although the identification of annual layers is not always unambiguous. The study thus provides information on the snow accumulation process in central East Antarctica. A layer counting based on the same principles as those previously applied to the NGRIP (North Greenland Ice core Project) and the Antarctic EPICA (European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica) Dronning Maud Land (EDML) ice cores leads to a mean annual layer thickness for the DF ice of 3.0 ± 0.3 cm that compares well to existing estimates. The measured DF section is linked to the EDML ice core through a characteristic pattern of three significant acidity peaks that are present in both cores. The corresponding section of the EDML ice core has recently been dated by annual layer counting and the number of years identified independently in the two cores agree within error estimates. We therefore conclude that, to first order, the annual signal is preserved in this section of the DF core. This case study demonstrates the feasibility of determining annually deposited strata on the central East Antarctic Plateau. It also opens the possibility of resolving annual layers in the Eemian section of Antarctic ice cores where the accumulation is estimated to have been greater than in the Holocene.

High-precision analysis of the 17O / 16O isotope ratio in water and water vapor is of interest in hydrological, paleoclimate, and atmospheric science applications. Of specific interest is the parameter 17O excess (Δ17O), a measure of the deviation from a~linear relationship between 17O / 16O and 18O / 16O ratios. Conventional analyses of Δ17O of water are obtained by fluorination of H2O to O2 that is analyzed by dual-inlet isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). We describe a new laser spectroscopy instrument for high-precision Δ17O measurements. The new instrument uses cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) with laser-current-tuned cavity resonance to achieve reduced measurement drift compared with previous-generation instruments. Liquid water and water-vapor samples can be analyzed with a better than 8 per meg precision for Δ17O using integration times of less than 30 min. Calibration with respect to accepted water standards demonstrates that both the precision and the accuracy of Δ17O are competitive with conventional IRMS methods. The new instrument also achieves simultaneous analysis of δ18O, Δ17O and δD with precision of < 0.03‰, < 0.02 and < 0.2‰, respectively, based on repeated calibrated measurements.

Water isotopes in ice cores are used as a climate proxy for local temperature and regional atmospheric circulation as well as evaporative conditions in moisture source regions. Traditional measurements of water isotopes have been achieved using magnetic sector isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). However, a number of recent studies have shown that laser absorption spectrometers (LAS) perform as well or better than IRMS. The new LAS technology has been combined with continuous flow analysis (CFA) to improve data density and sample throughput in numerous prior ice coring projects. Here, we present a comparable semi-automated LAS-CFA system for measuring high-resolution water isotopes of ice cores. We outline new methods for partitioning both system uncertainty and system mixing length into liquid and vapor components – useful measures for defining and improving the overall performance of the system. Critically, our methods take into account the uncertainty of depth registration that is not present in IRMS nor fully accounted for in other CFA studies. We also explain a method for introducing consecutive sections of isotopically distinct ice at the melt head to define the system-wide mixing length. These analyses are achieved using samples from a South Pole firn core, a Greenland ice core, and the WAIS Divide ice core. The measurement system utilizes a 16-position carousel contained in a freezer to consecutively deliver ~ 1 m × 1.3 cm2 ice sticks to a temperature controlled melt head, where the ice is converted to a continuous liquid stream, and eventually vaporized using a concentric nebulizer for isotopic analysis. An integrated delivery system for water isotope standards is used for calibration to the VSMOW-SLAP scale and depth registration is achieved using a precise overhead laser distance device with an uncertainty of ±0.2 mm. As an added check on our system, we perform inter-lab LAS comparisons using WAIS Divide ice samples, a corroboratory step not taken in prior CFA studies. The overall results are important for substantiating data obtained from LAS-CFA systems, including optimizing liquid and vapor mixing lengths, determining melt rates for ice cores with different accumulation and thinning histories, and removing system-wide mixing effects that are convolved with the natural diffusional signal that results primarily from water molecule diffusion in the firn column.

This work presents a new, field-deployable technique for continuous, high-resolution measurements of methane mixing ratios from ice cores. The technique is based on a continuous flow analysis system, where ice core samples cut along the long axis of an ice core are melted continuously. The past atmospheric air contained in the ice is separated from the melt water stream via a system for continuous gas extraction. The extracted gas is dehumidified and then analyzed by a Wavelength Scanned-Cavity Ring Down Spectrometer for methane mixing ratios. We assess the performance of the new measurement technique in terms of precision (±0.8 ppbv, 1 σ), accuracy (±8 ppbv), temporal (ca. 100 s) and spatial resolution (ca. 6 cm). Using a firn air transport model, we compare the resolution of the measurement technique to the resolution of the atmospheric methane signal as preserved in ice cores in Greenland. We conclude that our measurement technique can resolve all climatically relevant variations as preserved in the ice down to an ice depth of at least 1980 m (66 000 yr before present) in the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling ice core. Furthermore, we describe the modifications which are necessary to make a commercially available spectrometer suitable for continuous methane mixing ratio measurements from ice cores.

第6回極域科学シンポジウム[OM] 極域気水圏11月16日（月） 国立極地研究所１階交流アトリウム

The diffusion of stable water isotopes in snow was measured in two controlled laboratory experiments. Two batches of snow of different isotopic composition were stacked alternately with varying layer thicknesses. The stack was stored in a freezer room at constant temperature for several months, and sampled at regular intervals to analyse the diffusion. Measured isotope profiles were fitted to a theoretical model with diffusion length as the fit parameter. In the first experiment, we observed a difference in diffusion rates between layers of different thicknesses, which is likely caused by layers of snow not being in proper contact with each other. In the second experiment we found very good agreement between measurements and model results. The measured diffusivity is compared with theory, in which we mainly focus on the temperature dependence of the ice–vapour fractionation factors. This temperature dependence is slightly different for the different isotopes of water, which leads to a difference in diffusion rates. We illustrate how our set-up can be used to measure the ratio between ice–vapour fractionation factors of oxygen-18 and deuterium, which determine the relation between the difference in diffusion and the firn temperature.

Here we present an experimental setup for water stable isotope (δ18O and δD) continuous-flow measurements and provide metrics defining the performance of the setup during a major ice core measurement campaign (Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution; RICE). We also use the metrics to compare alternate systems. Our setup is the first continuous-flow laser spectroscopy system that is using off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy (OA-ICOS; analyzer manufactured by Los Gatos Research, LGR) in combination with an evaporation unit to continuously analyze water samples from an ice core. A Water Vapor Isotope Standard Source (WVISS) calibration unit, manufactured by LGR, was modified to (1) enable measurements on several water standards, (2) increase the temporal resolution by reducing the response time and (3) reduce the influence from memory effects. While this setup was designed for the continuous-flow analysis (CFA) of ice cores, it can also continuously analyze other liquid or vapor sources. The custom setups provide a shorter response time (~ 54 and 18 s for 2013 and 2014 setup, respectively) compared to the original WVISS unit (~ 62 s), which is an improvement in measurement resolution. Another improvement compared to the original WVISS is that the custom setups have a reduced memory effect. Stability tests comparing the custom and WVISS setups were performed and Allan deviations (σAllan) were calculated to determine precision at different averaging times. For the custom 2013 setup the precision after integration times of 103 s is 0.060 and 0.070 ‰ for δ18O and δD, respectively. The corresponding σAllan values for the custom 2014 setup are 0.030, 0.060 and 0.043 ‰ for δ18O, δD and δ17O, respectively. For the WVISS setup the precision is 0.035, 0.070 and 0.042 ‰ after 103 s for δ18O, δD and δ17O, respectively. Both the custom setups and WVISS setup are influenced by instrumental drift with δ18O being more drift sensitive than δD. The σAllan values for δ18O are 0.30 and 0.18 ‰ for the custom 2013 and WVISS setup, respectively, after averaging times of 104 s (2.78 h). Using response time tests and stability tests, we show that the custom setups are more responsive (shorter response time), whereas the University of Copenhagen (UC) setup is more stable. More broadly, comparisons of different setups address the challenge of integrating vaporizer/spectrometer isotope measurement systems into a CFA campaign with many other analytical instruments.

International audience; Combined records of snow accumulation rate, δ 18 O and deuterium excess were produced from several shallow ice cores and snow pits at NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling), covering the period from 1724 to 2007. They are used to investigate recent climate variability and characterise the isotope–temperature relationship. We find that NEEM records are only weakly affected by inter-annual changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation. Decadal δ 18 O and accumulation variability is related to North Atlantic sea surface temperature and is enhanced at the beginning of the 19th century. No long-term trend is observed in the accumulation record. By contrast, NEEM δ 18 O shows multidecadal increasing trends in the late 19th century and since the 1980s. The strongest annual positive δ 18 O values are recorded at NEEM in 1928 and 2010, while maximum accumulation occurs in 1933. The last decade is the most enriched in δ 18 O (warmest), while the 11-year periods with the strongest depletion (coldest) are depicted at NEEM in 1815–1825 and 1836–1846, which are also the driest 11-year periods. The NEEM accumulation and δ 18 O records are strongly correlated with outputs from atmospheric models, nudged to atmospheric reanalyses. Best performance is observed for ERA reanalyses. Gridded temperature reconstructions, instrumental data and model outputs at NEEM are used to estimate the multidecadal accumulation–temperature and δ 18 O– temperature relationships for the strong warming period in 1979–2007. The accumulation sensitivity to temperature is estimated at 11 ± 2 % • C −1 and the δ 18 O–temperature slope at 1.1 ± 0.2 ‰ • C −1 , about twice as large as previously used to estimate last interglacial temperature change from the bottom part of the NEEM deep ice core. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 1482 V. Masson-Delmotte et al.: Recent changes in northwest Greenland climate Figure 1. Map of Greenland showing the position of ice core records (red) and meteorological stations (green) used to establish a SW Greenland instrumental temperature record. The grey/white shading indicates elevation (source: NOAA/GLOBE, http://www. ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/globe.html).

International audience; Numerous ice core records are now available that cover the Last Glacial cycle both in Greenland and in Antarctica. Recent developments in coherent ice core chronologies now enable us to depict with a precision of a few centuries the relationship between climate records in Greenland and Antarctica over the millennial scale variability of the Last Glacial period. Stacks of Greenland and Antarctic water isotopic records nicely illustrate a seesaw pattern with the abrupt warming in Greenland being concomitant with the beginning of the cooling in Antarctica at the Antarctic Isotopic Maximum (AIM). In addition, from the precise estimate of chronological error bars and additional high resolution measurements performed on the EDC and TALDICE ice cores, we show that the seesaw pattern does not explain the regional variability in Antarctic records with clear two step structures occurring during the warming phase of AIM 8 and 12. Our Antarctic high resolution data also suggest possible teleconnections between changes in low latitude atmospheric circulation and Antarctic without any Greenland temperature fingerprint.

Due to their outstanding resolution and well-constrained chronologies, Greenland ice-core records provide a master record of past climatic changes throughout the Last Interglacial–Glacial cycle in the North Atlantic region. As part of the INTIMATE (INTegration of Ice-core, MArine and TErrestrial records) project, protocols have been proposed to ensure consistent and robust correlation between different records of past climate. A key element of these protocols has been the formal definition and ordinal numbering of the sequence of Greenland Stadials (GS) and Greenland Interstadials (GI) within the most recent glacial period. The GS and GI periods are the Greenland expressions of the characteristic Dansgaard–Oeschger events that represent cold and warm phases of the North Atlantic region, respectively. We present here a more detailed and extended GS/GI template for the whole of the Last Glacial period. It is based on a synchronization of the NGRIP, GRIP, and GISP2 ice-core records that allows the parallel analysis of all three records on a common time scale. The boundaries of the GS and GI periods are defined based on a combination of stable-oxygen isotope ratios of the ice (δ18O, reflecting mainly local temperature) and calcium ion concentrations (reflecting mainly atmospheric dust loading) measured in the ice. The data not only resolve the well-known sequence of Dansgaard–Oeschger events that were first defined and numbered in the ice-core records more than two decades ago, but also better resolve a number of short-lived climatic oscillations, some defined here for the first time. Using this revised scheme, we propose a consistent approach for discriminating and naming all the significant abrupt climatic events of the Last Glacial period that are represented in the Greenland ice records. The final product constitutes an extended and better resolved Greenland stratotype sequence, against which other proxy records can be compared and correlated. It also provides a more secure basis for investigating the dynamics and fundamental causes of these climatic perturbations.

The last glacial period exhibited abrupt Dansgaard-Oeschger climatic oscillations, evidence of which is preserved in a variety of Northern Hemisphere palaeoclimate archives. Ice cores show that Antarctica cooled during the warm phases of the Greenland Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle and vice versa, suggesting an interhemispheric redistribution of heat through a mechanism called the bipolar seesaw. Variations in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) strength are thought to have been important, but much uncertainty remains regarding the dynamics and trigger of these abrupt events. Key information is contained in the relative phasing of hemispheric climate variations, yet the large, poorly constrained difference between gas age and ice age and the relatively low resolution of methane records from Antarctic ice cores have so far precluded methane-based synchronization at the required sub-centennial precision. Here we use a recently drilled high-accumulation Antarctic ice core to show that, on average, abrupt Greenland warming leads the corresponding Antarctic cooling onset by 218 ± 92 years (2σ) for Dansgaard-Oeschger events, including the Bølling event; Greenland cooling leads the corresponding onset of Antarctic warming by 208 ± 96 years. Our results demonstrate a north-to-south directionality of the abrupt climatic signal, which is propagated to the Southern Hemisphere high latitudes by oceanic rather than atmospheric processes. The similar interpolar phasing of warming and cooling transitions suggests that the transfer time of the climatic signal is independent of the AMOC background state. Our findings confirm a central role for ocean circulation in the bipolar seesaw and provide clear criteria for assessing hypotheses and model simulations of Dansgaard-Oeschger dynamics.

Old and older, cold and colder Greenland surface air temperatures changed dramatically during the last deglaciation. The exact amount is unknown, which makes it difficult to understand what caused those changes. Buizert et al. report temperature reconstructions for the period from 19,000 to 10,000 years before the present from three different locations in Greenland and interpret them with a climate model (see the Perspective by Sime). They provide the broad geographic pattern of temperature variability and infer the mechanisms of the changes and their seasonality, which differ in important ways from the traditional view. Science, this issue p. 1177 ; see also p. 1116

A new technique for high resolution simultaneous isotopic analysis of $\delta^{18}\mathrm{O}$ and $\delta\mathrm{D}$ in liquid water is presented. A continuous stream flash evaporator has been designed that is able to vaporise a stream of liquid water in a continuous mode and deliver a stable and finely controlled water vapour sample to a commercially available Infra Red Cavity Ring Down Spectrometer. Injection of sub $\mu l$ amounts of the liquid water is achieved by pumping liquid water sample through a fused silica capillary and instantaneously vaporising it with a 100% efficiency in a home made oven at a temperature of $170 ^{o}$C. The system's simplicity, low power consumption and low dead volume together with the possibility for automated unattended operation, provides a solution for the calibration of laser instruments performing isotopic analysis of water vapour. Our work is mainly driven by the possibility to perform high resolution on line water isotopic analysis on Continuous Flow Analysis systems typically used to analyze the chemical composition of ice cores drilled in polar regions. In the following we describe the system's precision and stability, sensitivity to varying levels of sample size and we assess the observed memory effects. A test run with standard waters of different isotopic composition is presented, demonstrating the ability to calibrate the spectrometer's measurements on a VSMOW scale with a relatively simple and fast procedure.

The abrupt warming that initiated the Bølling-Allerød interstadial was the penultimate warming in a series of climate variations known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events. Despite the clear expression of this transition in numerous palaeoclimate records, the relative timing of climate shifts in different regions of the world and their causes are subject to debate. Here we explore the phasing of global climate change at the onset of the Bølling-Allerød using air preserved in bubbles in the North Greenland Eemian ice core. Specifically, we measured methane concentrations, which act as a proxy for low-latitude climate, and the 15N/ 14N ratio of N2, which reflects Greenland surface temperature, over the same interval of time. We use an atmospheric box model and a firn air model to account for potential uncertainties in the data, and find that changes in Greenland temperature and atmospheric methane emissions at the Bølling onset occurred essentially synchronously, with temperature leading by 4.5+21-24 years. We cannot exclude the possibility that tropical climate could lag changing methane concentrations by up to several decades, if the initial methane rise came from boreal sources alone. However, because even boreal methane-producing regions lie far from Greenland, we conclude that the mechanism that drove abrupt change at this time must be capable of rapidly transmitting climate changes across the globe. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

A new technique for on-line high resolution isotopic analysis of liquid water, tailored for ice core studies is presented. We built an interface between a Wavelength Scanned Cavity Ring Down Spectrometer (WS-CRDS) purchased from Picarro Inc. and a Continuous Flow Analysis (CFA) system. The system offers the possibility to perform simultaneuous water isotopic analysis of δ18O and δD on a continuous stream of liquid water as generated from a continuously melted ice rod. Injection of sub μl amounts of liquid water is achieved by pumping sample through a fused silica capillary and instantaneously vaporizing it with 100% efficiency in a~home made oven at a temperature of 170 °C. A calibration procedure allows for proper reporting of the data on the VSMOW–SLAP scale. We apply the necessary corrections based on the assessed performance of the system regarding instrumental drifts and dependance on the water concentration in the optical cavity. The melt rates are monitored in order to assign a depth scale to the measured isotopic profiles. Application of spectral methods yields the combined uncertainty of the system at below 0.1‰ and 0.5‰ for δ18O and δD, respectively. This performance is comparable to that achieved with mass spectrometry. Dispersion of the sample in the transfer lines limits the temporal resolution of the technique. In this work we investigate and assess these dispersion effects. By using an optimal filtering method we show how the measured profiles can be corrected for the smoothing effects resulting from the sample dispersion. Considering the significant advantages the technique offers, i.e. simultaneuous measurement of δ18O and δD, potentially in combination with chemical components that are traditionally measured on CFA systems, notable reduction on analysis time and power consumption, we consider it as an alternative to traditional isotope ratio mass spectrometry with the possibility to be deployed for field ice core studies. We present data acquired in the field during the 2010 season as part of the NEEM deep ice core drilling project in North Greenland.

A high resolution (0.05 m) water isotopic record ( δ O 18 ) is available from the NorthGRIP ice core. In this study we look into the water isotope diffusion history as estimated by the spectral characteristics of the δ O 18 time series covering the last 16,000 years. The diffusion of water vapor in the porous medium of the firn pack attenuates the initial isotopic signal, predominantly having an impact on the high frequency components of the power spectrum. Higher temperatures induce higher rates of smoothing and thus the signal can be used as a firn paleothermometer. We use a water isotope diffusion model coupled to a steady-state densification model in order to infer the temperature signal from the site, assuming the accumulation and strain rate history as estimated using the GICC05 layer counted chronology and a Dansgaard–Johnsen ice flow model. The temperature reconstruction accurately captures the timing and magnitude of the Bolling–Allerod and Younger Dryas transitions. A Holocene climatic optimum is seen between 7 and 9 ky b2k with an apparent cooling trend thereafter. Our temperature estimate for the Holocene climatic optimum, points to a necessary adjustment of the ice thinning function indicating that the ice flow model overestimates past accumulation rates by about 10% at 8 ky b2k. This result, is supported by recent gas isotopic fractionation studies proposing a similar reduction for glacial conditions. Finally, the record presents a climatic variability over the Holocene spanning millennial and centennial scales with a profound cooling occurring at approximately 4000 years b2k. The new reconstruction technique is able to provide past temperature estimates by overcoming the issues apparent in the use of the classical δ O 18 slope method. It can at the same time resolve temperature signals at low and high frequencies.

The Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) is the sole interior Greenlandic ice stream. Fast flow initiates near the summit dome, and the ice stream terminates approximately 1000 km downstream in three large outlet glaciers that calve into the Greenland Sea. To better understand this important system, in the summer of 2012 we drilled a 67 m firn core and conducted ground-based radio-echo sounding (RES) and active-source seismic surveys at a site approximately 150 km downstream from the onset of streaming flow (NEGIS firn core, 75°37.61' N, 35°56.49' W). The site is representative of the upper part of the ice stream, while also being in a crevasse-free area for safe surface operations. Annual cycles were observed for insoluble dust, sodium and ammonium concentrations and for electrolytic conductivity, allowing a seasonally resolved chronology covering the past 400 yr. Annual layer thicknesses averaged 0.11 m ice equivalent (i.e.) for the period 1607–2011, although accumulation varied between 0.08 and 0.14 m i.e., likely due to flow-related changes in surface topography. Tracing of RES layers from the NGRIP (North Greenland Ice Core Project) ice core site shows that the ice at NEGIS preserves a climatic record of at least the past 51 kyr. We demonstrate that deep ice core drilling in this location can provide a reliable Holocene and late-glacial climate record, as well as helping to constrain the past dynamics and ice–lithosphere interactions of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

High precision analysis of the 17O/16O isotope ratio in water and water vapor is of interest in hydrological, paleoclimate, and atmospheric science applications. Of specific interest is the parameter 17Oexcess, a measure of the deviation from a linear relationship between 17O/16O and 18O/16O ratios. Conventional analyses of 17Oexcess are obtained by fluorination of H2O to O2 that is analyzed by dual-inlet isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). We describe a new laser spectroscopy instrument for high-precision 17Oexcess measurements. The new instrument uses cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) with laser-current tuning to achieve reduced measurement drift compared with previous-generation instruments. Liquid water and water vapor samples can be analyzed with better than 8 per meg precision for 17Oexcess using integration times of less than 30 min. Calibration with respect to accepted water standards demonstrates that both the precision and the accuracy are competitive with conventional IRMS methods. The new instrument also achieves simultaneous measurements of δ18O, 17Oand δD with precision < 0.03‰, < 0.02‰ and < 0.2‰, respectively.

We present here surface water vapor isotopic measurements conducted from June to August 2010 at the NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Drilling Project) camp, NW Greenland (77.45 degrees N, 51.05 degrees W, 2484 m a.s.l.). Measurements were conducted at 9 different heights from 0.1m to 13.5m above the snow surface using two different types of cavity-enhanced near-infrared absorption spectroscopy analyzers. For each instrument specific protocols were developed for calibration and drift corrections. The inter-comparison of corrected results from different instruments reveals excellent reproducibility, stability, and precision with a standard deviations of similar to 0.23 parts per thousand for delta O-18 and similar to 1.4 parts per thousand for delta D. Diurnal and intraseasonal variations show strong relationships between changes in local surface humidity and water vapor isotopic composition, and with local and synoptic weather conditions. This variability probably results from the interplay between local moisture fluxes, linked with firn-air exchanges, boundary layer dynamics, and large-scale moisture advection. Particularly remarkable are several episodes characterized by high (> 40 parts per thousand) surface water vapor deuterium excess. Air mass back-trajectory calculations from atmospheric analyses and water tagging in the LMDZiso (Laboratory of Meteorology Dynamics Zoom-isotopic) atmospheric model reveal that these events are associated with predominant Arctic air mass origin. The analysis suggests that high deuterium excess levels are a result of strong kinetic fractionation during evaporation at the sea-ice margin.