Sea ice and pollution-modulated changes in Greenland ice core methanesulfonate and bromine

Maselli, Olivia J.; Chellman, Nathan; Grieman, Mackenzie M.; Layman, Lawrence; McConnell, J. R.; Pasteris, D.; Rhodes, Rachael H.; Saltzman, E. S.; Sigl, Michael

doi:10.5194/cp-13-39-2017

Cited by 38 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 83 publications

(134 reference statements)

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“…The seasonality of proxies and especially bromine signals has been investigated in fig. s4 and clearly show a maximum of bromine activity in Spring and Summertime, in agreement with previous findings (Spolaor et al, 2016a, Maselli et al, 2017. Thus, we will focus hereafter on back-trajectories for this part of the year.…”

Section: Origin Of Air Massessupporting

confidence: 89%

“…More importantly, It has been also observed, that the sea ice coverage nearby the coast of East Greenland dramatically decreased at the beginning of the 1830s based on observation on tree rings and ice cores-δ 18 O from the Arctic (Macias Fauria et al, 2010). It is therefore possible that the different trends reflect solely a regional effect characterizing both B17 and B26 records which were dominated in the early 19 th century by air masses originating in the Greenland Sea (Maselli et al, 2017). In the case of B26 a similar trend is observed, but the pattern is somehow less regular, and we can observe some high values for blowing snow as well as for frost flower in the most recent years (1850-1993 AD).…”

Section: Variability Of Sea Ice Extentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Similarly, sea-salt-sodium records from ice cores have been positively correlated with 65 Antarctic sea ice areas, such as the Ross Sea, over the last century (Severi et al, 2017); however, in the Arctic region, the greater dust supply and the different sources of Sodium, made the interpretation of its records more complicated . Recent ice-core studies have focused on the halogens iodine (I) and particularly bromine (Br) to reconstruct the extent of sea ice in several specific sectors of the Arctic region from decadal (Spolaor et al, 2016a) to centennial (Maselli et al, 2017), to glacial-interglacial time-scales (Spolaor et al, 2016b) . Here we present an attempt to provide further ice-core 70 based reconstruction of the relative sea-ice extent in the Arctic sector surrounding Greenland for the period 1502-1993 AD based on the profiles of Bromine and other ionic species from two different ice/firn cores of the North Greenland Traverse ice core array (B26 and B17, see fig.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Imprint of Arctic sea ice cover in North-Greenland ice cores

Lunga

Hörhold

Twarloh

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Sea ice is a key component of the climate system, since it modifies the surface albedo, the radiation balance, as well as the 10 exchange of heat, moisture and gases between the ocean and the overlying atmosphere. Hence, the reconstruction of sea ice cover before the instrumental era and the industrial times is crucial to understand the evolution of Arctic climate in the last millennium and better predict its future evolution. However, identifying relevant paleo proxies in climate archives related to sea ice cover is not straightforward. Ice cores from polar regions offer great potential to provide high-resolution records of Arctic sea ice variability from chemical impurities such as Bromine species, which were recently proposed as indicators of 15 sea ice extent, although their variability might be modulated by regional influences. We here use Bromine and Bromine enrichment of two ice cores form North Greenland (B17 & B26) and investigate its potential as proxy to reconstruct sea ice extent over the period 1363-1993 AD. Across the instrumental period, a good correlation is observed with the Baffin Bay and the Greenland Sea for B26 and B17 respectively, with both record showing minima corresponding to known Artic warming events such as the 1420 AD (for B17) and 1920-1940 (Early century warming, B17 & B26), together with a strong 20 decline starting in the late 19 th century. We simultaneously derived a chemical classification of sea ice-related contributors of ionic species (i.e. blowing snow, frost flowers, open water) utilizing the depletion of SO4 2compare to Ca 2+ , K + and Mg 2+ characterizing sea ice brines and blowing snow as well the excess of Brand Cl -, characterizing frost flowers, to elucidate the evolution of the different sources. In both B17 and B26 records we observe a strong contribution of blowing snow in the earliest part of the datasets, gradually declining in recent years in favour of open water sources. 25

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Section: Origin Of Air Massessupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Variability Of Sea Ice Extentmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Imprint of Arctic sea ice cover in North-Greenland ice cores

Lunga

Hörhold

Twarloh

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…To examine how Arctic sea ice reacted to rapid climate changes that have occurred in the past, we can consult paleoclimate archives that extend beyond the 35-year satellite record. Several different marine chemical species present in polar ice cores have been proposed as tracers of Holocene sea ice conditions, including sea salt sodium (Na; Severi et al, 2017), methane sulfonic acid (Criscitiello et al, 2013;Rhodes et al, 2009), and bromine (Maselli et al, 2017;Spolaor et al, 2016). Here we focus on sea salt Na.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea Ice Versus Storms: What Controls Sea Salt in Arctic Ice Cores?

Rhodes

Yang

Wolff

2018

Geophysical Research Letters

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The sea ice surface is thought to be a major source of sea salt aerosol, suggesting that sodium records of polar ice cores may trace past sea ice extent. Here we test this possibility for the Arctic, using a chemical transport model to simulate aerosol emission, transport, and deposition in the satellite era. Our simulations suggest that sodium records from inland Greenland ice cores are strongly influenced by the impact of meteorology on aerosol transport and deposition. In contrast, sodium in coastal Arctic cores is predominantly sourced from the sea ice surface and the strength of these aerosol emissions controls the ice core sodium variability. Such ice cores may therefore record decadal to centennial scale Holocene sea ice changes. However, any relationship between ice core sodium and sea ice change may depend on how sea ice seasonality impacts sea salt emissions. Field‐based observations are urgently required to constrain this.

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“…At 19 of the 20 sites considered (Table 1), the ice temperature as estimated from the annual mean SAT exceeds the eutectic temperature of the binary system CH 3 SO 3 Na · nH 2 O-H 2 O, suggesting MSA migration could occur according to the RWW model at these sites. The only site where ice temperature is estimated to be less than −29.3 • C is the Summit2010 record from Greenland (Maselli et al, 2017), where MSA migration is also observed but not predicted to occur based on this model. We offer a few explanations for this sole discrepancy.…”

Section: Assessment Of Ms − Diffusivitymentioning

confidence: 95%

Methanesulfonic acid (MSA) migration in polar ice: data synthesis and theory

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Methanesulfonic acid (MSA; CH 3 SO 3 H) in polar ice is a unique proxy of marine primary productivity, synoptic atmospheric transport, and regional sea-ice behavior. However, MSA can be mobile within the firn and ice matrix, a post-depositional process that is well known but poorly understood and documented, leading to uncertainties in the integrity of the MSA paleoclimatic signal. Here, we use a compilation of 22 ice core MSA records from Greenland and Antarctica and a model of soluble impurity transport in order to comprehensively investigate the vertical migration of MSA from summer layers, where MSA is originally deposited, to adjacent winter layers in polar ice.We find that the shallowest depth of MSA migration in our compilation varies over a wide range (∼ 2 to 400 m) and is positively correlated with snow accumulation rate and negatively correlated with ice concentration of Na + (typically the most abundant marine cation). Although the considered soluble impurity transport model provides a useful mechanistic framework for studying MSA migration, it remains limited by inadequate constraints on key physicochemical parameters -most notably, the diffusion coefficient of MSA in cold ice (D MS ). We derive a simplified version of the model, which includes D MS as the sole parameter, in order to illuminate aspects of the migration process. Using this model, we show that the progressive phase alignment of MSA and Na + concentration peaks observed along a high-resolution West Antarctic core is most consistent with 10 −12 m 2 s −1 < D MS < 10 −11 m 2 s −1 , which is 1 order of magnitude greater than the D MS values previously estimated from laboratory studies. More generally, our data synthesis and model results suggest that (i) MSA migration may be fairly ubiquitous, particularly at coastal and (or) highaccumulation regions across Greenland and Antarctica; and (ii) can significantly change annual and multiyear MSA concentration averages. Thus, in most cases, caution should be exercised when interpreting polar ice core MSA records, although records that have undergone severe migration could still be useful for inferring decadal and lower-frequency climate variability.

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Sea ice and pollution-modulated changes in Greenland ice core methanesulfonate and bromine

Cited by 38 publications

References 83 publications

Imprint of Arctic sea ice cover in North-Greenland ice cores

Imprint of Arctic sea ice cover in North-Greenland ice cores

Sea Ice Versus Storms: What Controls Sea Salt in Arctic Ice Cores?

Methanesulfonic acid (MSA) migration in polar ice: data synthesis and theory

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