Reconstruction of European Air Pollution from Alpine Ice Cores

Schwikowski, M.

doi:10.1007/1-4020-2146-1_6

Cited by 34 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…However, this core is markedly shorter than the CG or FH cores, reaching only back to ∼1900 (28,29). If one analyzed the CG and FH only from 1900 forward, those records would similarly suggest that an increase only began after World War II (25)(26)(27), yet the full temporal record shows a plateau across the first half of the 20th century that lies well above the pre-1860s concentrations.…”

Section: Records Of Black Carbon In Icementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Strong vertical gradients of pollution in alpine valleys are well documented (29,34,(36)(37)(38). Metals associated with sources in the Chamonix and Maurienne valleys (Al, Fe, Ti) sampled in fresh snow show vertical gradients of a factor > 10 from valley floor to mountain crest (36).…”

Section: Records Of Black Carbon In Icementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Observations using an instrumented aircraft show aerosol concentration gradients in excess of 30-1 between the valley floor and the surrounding peaks were observed in flight (37). Sulfate aerosols have vertical gradients in the Alps of two orders-of-magnitude in winter and about one order-of-magnitude in summer (29).…”

Section: Records Of Black Carbon In Icementioning

confidence: 99%

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End of the Little Ice Age in the Alps forced by industrial black carbon

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Flanner

Kaser

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

169

134

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Glaciers in the European Alps began to retreat abruptly from their mid-19th century maximum, marking what appeared to be the end of the Little Ice Age. Alpine temperature and precipitation records suggest that glaciers should instead have continued to grow until circa 1910. Radiative forcing by increasing deposition of industrial black carbon to snow may represent the driver of the abrupt glacier retreats in the Alps that began in the mid-19th century. Ice cores indicate that black carbon concentrations increased abruptly in the mid-19th century and largely continued to increase into the 20th century, consistent with known increases in black carbon emissions from the industrialization of Western Europe. Inferred annual surface radiative forcings increased stepwise to 13-17 W·m −2 between 1850 and 1880, and to 9- etween the end of the 13th and the middle of the 19th centuries, glaciers in the European Alps were considerably larger than at present (1). Beginning around 1865, however, glaciers across the Alps retreated rapidly to lengths generally shorter than in the known range of the previous 500 y (1), continuing to present day with interruptions by only minor advances (Fig. 1). This relatively abrupt retreat from the mid-19th century maximum is often considered by glaciologists to be the end of the Little Ice Age (LIA) (1-3).Glaciologists have conjectured that increasing temperatures (4) and decreasing precipitation (2) caused the rapid observed retreat of glaciers throughout the Alps in the second half of the 19th century. However, such scenarios are inconsistent with temperature records and climate proxies for the Alps (5, 6). During the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century, when glaciers were retreating rapidly, temperatures in the Alpine region were apparently cooler than in the late 18th to early 19th centuries (Fig. 2) and precipitation was largely unchanged (5-7). Glaciers subject to these climate forcings alone would have had positive mass balance and advanced (8), rather than retreated, as observed.The density of temperature and precipitation observations in the Alps before 1800 was less than one-third that after 1860, by which time the density reached near its current level (5). Nevertheless, with our current knowledge of the Alpine climate, climatologists consider the climatic end of the LIA to have come markedly later than the glaciological end, resulting in a paradox (2).Simulations of glacier-length variations using glacier flow and mass balance models forced with instrumental and proxy temperature and precipitation fail to match the timing and magnitude of the observed late 19th century retreat (8)(9)(10)(11)(12). Matches between simulations and observations have only been achieved when additional glacier mass loss is imposed after 1865, or when precipitation signals are generated that would fit the glacier retreat rather than using actual precipitation records (8,10,12,13). Therefore, explaining the glacier retreat with climatic variables requires climate forcings that are inco...

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Section: Records Of Black Carbon In Icementioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Records Of Black Carbon In Icementioning

confidence: 99%

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End of the Little Ice Age in the Alps forced by industrial black carbon

Painter

Flanner

Kaser

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

169

134

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“…The general cold summer half years would basically support this setting as limiting snow preservation to the warm mid-summer period where isotope values are generally high. In view of a climate anomaly, it is worth mentioning that the P2 period coincides with the absolute maximum of aerosol related pollution in Western Europe, clearly documented in various Alpine glacio-chemical ice core records (Preunkert et al, 2001;Schwikowski, 2004;Wagenbach et al, 2012). Assuming the resulting European scale solar dimming to be the main driver for the decline of instrumental temperature (Wild et al, 2005), it is conceivable that the precipitation isotope signal would not necessarily react on this negative forcing in the same way, as the atmospheric temperature.…”

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confidence: 92%

To what extent do water isotope records from low accumulation Alpine ice cores reproduce instrumental temperature series?

Bohleber

Wagenbach

Schöner

et al. 2013

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

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A B S T R A C T Among Alpine ice core drilling sites, the Colle Gnifetti glacier saddle situated in the Monte Rosa summit range is the only one whose net snow accumulation rate is low enough to offer climate records back to some 1000 yr. It is demonstrated that the strong snow erosion at this site particularly hampers the interpretation of stable water isotope records d 18O, dD in terms of atmospheric temperature changes. We evaluate the d 18O records from four Colle Gnifetti cores for their common variability to extract a composite isotope record that may be compared with the instrumental temperature evidence. Time series analyses over the last 120 yr reveal that the common d18 O signal is mainly reflected in the low frequency variability, starting at the decadal scale.Comparing the correspondingly smoothed composite record to the high-elevation temperature time series (specifically adjusted to the seasonality of the net snow accumulation) reveals the following findings: On the decadal scale, the isotope variability correlates with the temperature record at around R 00.65 but is interrupted by three, ca. 10-yr long mismatch periods. The multidecadal isotope signal closely reflects the strong overall 20th century temperature increase, thereby showing an up to three-fold higher isotope temperature sensitivity than commonly assumed. Over the entire instrumental period back to 1760, five more such mismatch periods are embedded in the generally coherent pattern of the d 18 O and instrumental temperature records (including the strong overestimate of the temperature around 1850 by the isotope temperature proxy). For the early instrumental period (1890Á1760) characterized by a comparably weak longterm temperature trend, the isotope signal generally suggests warmer conditions of about 0.48C compared to instrumental data.

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“…ammonium, mineral-dust-related trace elements, black carbon) and the presence of melt layers may vary with the seasons. To reduce uncertainty in layer counting, the timescale is additionally anchored with reference horizons like the radioactivity peak resulting from nuclear weapon tests in the 1960s or tephra and aerosol layers caused by volcanic eruptions (Thompson et al, 1998(Thompson et al, , 2013Preunkert et al, 2000;Schwikowski, 2004;Eichler et al, 2009;Moore et al, 2012). An independent method is nuclear dating with the naturally occurring radioisotope 210 Pb.…”

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confidence: 99%

Radiocarbon dating of glacier ice: overview, optimisation, validation and potential

et al. 2016

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Abstract. High-altitude glaciers and ice caps from midlatitudes and tropical regions contain valuable signals of past climatic and environmental conditions as well as human activities, but for a meaningful interpretation this information needs to be placed in a precise chronological context. For dating the upper part of ice cores from such sites, several relatively precise methods exist, but they fail in the older and deeper parts, where plastic deformation of the ice results in strong annual layer thinning and a non-linear age-depth relationship. If sufficient organic matter such as plant, wood or insect fragments were found, radiocarbon ( 14 C) analysis would have thus been the only option for a direct and absolute dating of deeper ice core sections. However such fragments are rarely found and, even then, they would not be very likely to occur at the desired depth and resolution. About 10 years ago, a new, complementary dating tool was therefore introduced by our group. It is based on extracting the µg-amounts of the water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC) fraction of carbonaceous aerosols embedded in the ice matrix for subsequent 14 C dating. Since then this new approach has been improved considerably by reducing the measurement time and improving the overall precision. Samples with ∼ 10 µg WIOC mass can now be dated with reasonable uncertainty of around 10-20 % (variable depending on sample age). This requires about 300 to 800 g of ice for WIOC concentrations typically found in midlatitude and low-latitude glacier ice. Dating polar ice with satisfactory age precision is still not possible since WIOC concentrations are around

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Reconstruction of European Air Pollution from Alpine Ice Cores

Cited by 34 publications

References 33 publications

End of the Little Ice Age in the Alps forced by industrial black carbon

End of the Little Ice Age in the Alps forced by industrial black carbon

To what extent do water isotope records from low accumulation Alpine ice cores reproduce instrumental temperature series?

Radiocarbon dating of glacier ice: overview, optimisation, validation and potential

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