Antarctica has allowed the extension of the ice record of atmospheric composition and climate to the past four glacial-interglacial cycles. The succession of changes through each climate cycle and termination was similar, and atmospheric and climate properties oscillated between stable bounds. Interglacial periods differed in temporal evolution and duration. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane correlate well with Antarctic air-temperature throughout the record. Present-day atmospheric burdens of these two important greenhouse gases seem to have been unprecedented during the past 420,000 years.

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International audienceA high-resolution deuterium profile is now available along the entire European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica Dome C ice core, extending this climate record back to marine isotope stage 20.2, 800,000 years ago. Experiments performed with an atmospheric general circulation model including water isotopes support its temperature interpretation. We assessed the general correspondence between Dansgaard-Oeschger events and their smoothed Antarctic counterparts for this Dome C record, which reveals the presence of such features with similar amplitudes during previous glacial periods. We suggest that the interplay between obliquity and precession accounts for the variable intensity of interglacial periods in ice core records

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A theoretical model is derived to account for the deuterium-oxygen 18 relationship measured in meteoric waters. A steady state regime is assumed for the evaporation of water at the ocean surface and the subsequent formation of precipitation. The calculations show that the deuterium and oxygen 18 content in precipitation can be taken as linearly related. From the slope and the intercept (known as the deuterium excess) of the bD-b•80 linear relationship for precipitation we compute the mean values on a global scale of the evaporating ocean surface temperature and the relative humidity of the air masses overlying the oceans. The deuterium excess is primarly dependent on the mean relative humidity of the air masses formed above the ocean surface. Paleoclimatic data may be obtained by this isotopic method from the analysis of old water and ice samples. A moisture deficit of the air over the ocean, equal to only 10%, in comparison to 20% for modern conditions, is deduced from the deuterium-oxygen 18 distribution measured in groundwater samples older than 20,000 years. the value of T, = 25.4øC (-1-2.2 ø) that we have derived.We have no direct way to discuss the value of h. The isotopic method does not allow us to draw conclusions about the (Received December 19, 1978; aerodynamic regime at the ocean surface because the kinetic revised April 5, 1979; fractionation factors depend only very weakly on the wind

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The classical Rayleigh model assuming isotopic equilibrium fails to explain the deuterium and oxygen 18 contents of polar snow. This model leads to too high temperature‐isotope gradients (both for δD and δ18O), to too low δD ‐ δ18O slopes, and consequently to an excessively large range of deuterium excess values (d = δD ‐ 8δ18O). We present a new model that takes into account the existence of an isotopic kinetic effect at snow formation as a result of the fact that vapor deposition occurs in an environment supersaturated over ice. This kinetic effect is thoroughly discussed from a microphysical point of view and tested against experimental data and field observations. This new formulation reconciles predicted and observed values both for the temperature‐isotope and δD ‐ δD18O relationships for reasonable values of supersaturation over ice.