WAIS Divide Ice Core Project
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Ice cores provide valuable information on past atmospheric composition, chemistry, and climate. Atmospheric chemistry is controlled by its "oxidation capacity", defined by OH radical concentrations. OH concentrations determine the lifetime of many atmospheric species, including climatically important species such as methane. The oxygen isotopes of sulfate and nitrate provide a quantitative constraint on the formation pathways of these aerosol species, and can provide a constraint for model simulations of paleo oxidant chemistry. |
 Photo:
Meredith Hastings |
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The first phase of the WAIS Divide project will provide the first continuous record of multiple isotope ratios of nitrate and sulfate covering the last ~2,300 years from West Antarctica. The WAIS Divide ice core will be the highest resolution long ice core obtained from Antarctica, possibly covering the past 100,000 years. |
The figure to the right shows our Δ17O(SO42-), Δ17O(NO3-) and d15N(NO3-) measurements from the WAIS Divide ice core over the past ~2,300 years [Sofen et al., manuscript in prep.]. Interpretation of this data set is in progress - stay tuned! |
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| People: | |
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Eric Steig (lead P.I.), Becky Alexander (co-P.I.), Andrew Schauer, Shelley Kunasek,
and Eric Sofen, University of Washington Mark H. Thiemens (co-P.I.), University of California, San Diego | |
| Funding: | |
| NSF-ANT 0538049 | |
| Publications: | |
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Kunasek, S.A., B. Alexander, E.J. Steig, E.D. Sofen, T.L.
Jackson, M.H. Thiemens, J.R. McConnel, D.J. Gleason, H.M. Amos, Sulfate
sources and oxidation chemistry over the past ~230 years from sulfur and
oxygen isotopes of sulfate in a West Antarctic ice core,
J. Geophys. Res., 115, D18313, doi:10.1029/2010JD013846
(2010)
(.pdf). Kunasek, S.A., Alexander, B., E.J. Steig, M.G. Hastings, D.J. Gleason and J.C. Jarvis, Measurements and modeling of D17O of nitrate in snowpits from Summit, Greenland, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D24302 (2008). (.pdf) | |
