Abstract. In this paper we present a method to detect airflow through ice caves and to quantify the corresponding airflow speeds by the use of temperature loggers. The time series of temperature observations at different loggers are crosscorrelated. The time shift of best correlation corresponds to the travel time of the air and is used to derive the airflow speed between the loggers. We apply the method to test data observed inside Schellenberger Eishöhle (ice cave). The successful determination of airflow speeds depends on the existence of distinct temperature variations during the time span of interest. Moreover the airflow speed is assumed to be constant during the period used for the correlation analysis. Both requirements limit the applicability of the correlation analysis to determine instantaneous airflow speeds. Nevertheless the method is very helpful to characterize the general patterns of air movement and their slow temporal variations. The correlation analysis assumes a linear dependency between the correlated data. The good correlation we found for our test data confirms this assumption. We therefore in a second step estimate temperature biases and scale factors for the observed temperature variations by a least-squares adjustment. The observed phenomena, a warming and an attenuation of temperature variations, depending on the distance the air traveled inside the cave, are explained by a mixing of the inflowing air with the air inside the cave. Furthermore we test the significance of the determined parameters by a standard F test and study the sensitivity of the procedure to common manipulations of the original observations like smoothing. In the end we will give an outlook on possible applications and further development of this method.
In this paper we present a method to detect airflow through ice caves and to quantify the corresponding airflow speeds by the use of temperature loggers. The time series of temperature observations at different loggers are crosscorrelated. The time shift of best correlation corresponds to the travel time of the air and is used to derive the airflow speed between the loggers. We apply the method to test data observed inside Schellenberger Eishöhle (ice cave). The successful determination of airflow speeds depends on the existence of distinct temperature variations during the time span of interest. Moreover the airflow speed is assumed to be constant during the period used for the correlation analysis. Both requirements limit the applicability of the correlation analysis to determine instantaneous airflow speeds. Nevertheless the method is very helpful to characterize the general patterns of air movement and their slow temporal variations. The correlation analysis assumes a linear dependency between the correlated data. The good correlation we found for our test data confirms this assumption. We therefore in a second step estimate temperature biases and scale factors for the observed temperature variations by a least-squares adjustment. The observed phenomena, a warming and an attenuation of temperature variations, depending on the distance the air traveled inside the cave, are explained by a mixing of the inflowing air with the air inside the cave. Furthermore we test the significance of the determined parameters by a standard F test and study the sensitivity of the procedure to common manipulations of the original observations like smoothing. In the end we will give an outlook on possible applications and further development of this method.
Natural and anthropogenic ice caves are spread out on the North American continent, especially in the United States. Many of these climate archives are already forgotten, no longer contain ice due to climatic changes, or are expected to lose their ice soon. However, sources from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries suggest the former density of ice caves in this nation. A synopsis of the American ice cave research from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to the present is the focus of this article. A priori, basic terms and problems of ice cave research are addressed and elucidated. Subsequently, climatic conditions that facilitate or counteract the buildup of cave ice over the course of a year are presented. On the basis of an ice cave classification, different ice cave types are outlined and analyzed in their distribution in the United States. The accompanying map illustrating the geographic locations of caves in the mainland United States represents the first version of an American ice cave distribution.
The main goal of this paper is to summarize the history and the progress of ice cave research in the northern hemisphere as an introduction to the following papers about modern research in the U.S. We focus on the earliest descriptions of ice caves starting from the twelfth century, a cave with ice in India, as well as the beginning of modern ice cave research in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Moreover, we give a short overview of the different theories about ice caves over the course of time. The article is an introduction to the much younger ice cave research in the U.S., which will be the topic of a second paper in this journal. ice Cave research over the Course of timeIce cave research plays only a minor role in the research of ice and snow. Less visible and much smaller than the vast ice masses above ground, the more concealed subsurface ice has been of little interest to many researchers. However, beneath the surface are numerous ice formations with a great variety of forms ranging from ice monoliths several meters thick, to ice lakes, to delicate ice crystals millimeters in size. These icy features store a vast record of climate history.Over the centuries, clergymen, amateurs, natural scientists, and locals have visited the subsurface world of ice to see this phenomenon themselves and to find an explanation for its existence. Over time, many theories about the development of ice caves have evolved, but as of today, the fundamental research has not been completed. Later in this paper, we will give a basic overview of the best-known ice cave theories.As research often focuses on cost-benefit considerations, basic research without a clearly defined impact increasingly loses prominence. This questions the benefit of ice cave research in general. But just as the exploration of the most distant regions of the universe or the abyssal depths of the sea, ice cave research has the potential to create new knowledge. For example, one can learn about the regional and local climate history outside the mountainous regions that are covered by glaciers on the surface.In a series of three papers in this journal, the historical, as well as the current research on ice caves, will be presented to review lost or forgotten knowledge and to attempt to revive and support ice cave research, which is stagnant in some countries. After an overview of the first records of underground ice in Europe and Asia, the second article covers the records and research in the United States. The third article is about our own research in gulch, talus, and slope ice in New England.It is well known from the analysis of ice cores and pollen that the ice in some caves is several thousand years old, has outlasted several climatic temperature maxima, and is not a remnant of the Little Ice Age as was supposed in former times (Silvestru, 1999). Historic documents, for example, describe the complete extinction of ice from the Chauxlès-Passavant (France), which was followed by a new ice accumulation (Fugger, 1893).When were ice caves first ...
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