Abstract. Black carbon (BC) is a light-absorbing particle that warms the atmosphere–Earth system. The climate effects of BC are amplified in the Arctic, where its deposition on light surfaces decreases the albedo and causes earlier melt of snow and ice. Despite its suggested significant role in Arctic climate warming, there is little information on BC concentrations and deposition in the past. Here we present results on BC (here operationally defined as elemental carbon (EC)) concentrations and deposition on a Svalbard glacier between 1700 and 2004. The inner part of a 125 m deep ice core from Holtedahlfonna glacier (79°8' N, 13°16' E, 1150 m a.s.l.) was melted, filtered through a quartz fibre filter and analysed for EC using a thermal–optical method. The EC values started to increase after 1850 and peaked around 1910, similar to ice core records from Greenland. Strikingly, the EC values again increase rapidly between 1970 and 2004 after a temporary low point around 1970, reaching unprecedented values in the 1990s. This rise is not seen in Greenland ice cores, and it seems to contradict atmospheric BC measurements indicating generally decreasing atmospheric BC concentrations since 1989 in the Arctic. For example, changes in scavenging efficiencies, post-depositional processes and differences in the vertical distribution of BC in the atmosphere are discussed for the differences between the Svalbard and Greenland ice core records, as well as the ice core and atmospheric measurements in Svalbard. In addition, the divergent BC trends between Greenland and Svalbard ice cores may be caused by differences in the analytical methods used, including the operational definitions of quantified particles, and detection efficiencies of different-sized BC particles. Regardless of the cause of the increasing EC values between 1970 and 2004, the results have significant implications for the past radiative energy balance at the coring site.

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An ice core extracted from Holtedahlfonna ice cap, western Spitsbergen, record spanning the period 1700–2005, was analyzed for major ions. The leading empirical orthogonal function (EOF) component is correlated with an index of summer melt (log([Na+]/[Mg2+]) from 1850 and shows that almost 50% of the variance can be attributed to seasonal melting since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The Holtedahlfonna δ18O value is less negative than in the more easterly Lomonosovfonna ice core, suggesting that moist air masses originate from a closer source, most likely the Greenland Sea. During the Little Ice Age the lower methanesulfonic acid (MSA) concentration and MSA non-sea-salt sulfate fraction are consistent with the Greenland Sea as the main source for biogenic ions in the ice cores. Both the melt index and the MSA fraction suggest that the early decades of the 18th century may have exhibited the coldest summers of the last 300 years in Svalbard. Ammonium concentrations rise from 1880, which may result from the warming of the Greenland Sea or from zonal differences in atmospheric pollution transport over Svalbard. During winter, neutralized aerosols are trapped within the tropospheric inversion layer, which is usually weaker over open seas than over sea ice, placing Holtedahlfonna within the inversion more frequently than Lomonosovfonna.

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[1] Ice cores from outside the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are difficult to date because of seasonal melting and multiple sources (terrestrial, marine, biogenic and anthropogenic) of sulfates deposited onto the ice. Here we present a method of volcanic sulfate extraction that relies on fitting sulfate profiles to other ion species measured along the cores in moving windows in log space. We verify the method with a well dated section of the Belukha ice core from central Eurasia. There are excellent matches to volcanoes in the preindustrial, and clear extraction of volcanic peaks in the post-1940 period when a simple method based on calcium as a proxy for terrestrial sulfate fails due to anthropogenic sulfate deposition. We then attempt to use the same statistical scheme to locate volcanic sulfate horizons within three ice cores from Svalbard and a core from Mount Everest. Volcanic sulfate is <5% of the sulfate budget in every core, and differences in eruption signals extracted reflect the large differences in environment between western, northern and central regions of Svalbard. The Lomonosovfonna and Vestfonna cores span about the last 1000 years, with good extraction of volcanic signals, while Holtedahlfonna which extends to about AD1700 appears to lack a clear record. The Mount Everest core allows clean volcanic signal extraction and the core extends back to about AD700, slightly older than a previous flow model has suggested. The method may thus be used to extract historical volcanic records from a more diverse geographical range than hitherto.