TY - GEN A1 - Laepple, Thomas A1 - Münch, Thomas A1 - Casado, Mathieu A1 - Hoerhold, Maria A1 - Landais, Amaelle A1 - Kipfstuhl, Sepp T1 - On the similarity and apparent cycles of isotopic variations in East Antarctic snow pits T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Stable isotope ratios delta O-18 and delta D in polar ice provide a wealth of information about past climate evolution. Snow-pit studies allow us to relate observed weather and climate conditions to the measured isotope variations in the snow. They therefore offer the possibility to test our understanding of how isotope signals are formed and stored in firn and ice. As delta O-18 and delta D in the snowfall are strongly correlated to air temperature, isotopes in the near-surface snow are thought to record the seasonal cycle at a given site. Accordingly, the number of seasonal cycles observed over a given depth should depend on the accumulation rate of snow. However, snow-pit studies from different accumulation conditions in East Antarctica reported similar isotopic variability and comparable apparent cycles in the delta O-18 and delta D profiles with typical wavelengths of similar to 20 cm. These observations are unexpected as the accumulation rates strongly differ between the sites, ranging from 20 to 80mmw.e.yr(-1) (similar to 6-21 cm of snow per year). Various mechanisms have been proposed to explain the isotopic variations individually at each site; however, none of these are consistent with the similarity of the different profiles independent of the local accumulation conditions. Here, we systematically analyse the properties and origins of delta O-18 and delta D variations in high-resolution firn profiles from eight East Antarctic sites. First, we confirm the suggested cycle length (mean distance between peaks) of similar to 20 cm by counting the isotopic maxima. Spectral analysis further shows a strong similarity between the sites but indicates no dominant periodic features. Furthermore, the appar-ent cycle length increases with depth for most East Antarctic sites, which is inconsistent with burial and compression of a regular seasonal cycle. We show that these results can be explained by isotopic diffusion acting on a noise-dominated isotope signal. The firn diffusion length is rather stable across the Antarctic Plateau and thus leads to similar power spectral densities of the isotopic variations. This in turn implies a similar distance between isotopic maxima in the firn profiles. Our results explain a large set of observations discussed in the literature, providing a simple explanation for the interpretation of apparent cycles in shallow isotope records, without invoking complex mechanisms. Finally, the results underline previous suggestions that isotope signals in single ice cores from low-accumulation regions have a small signal-to-noise ratio and thus likely do not allow the reconstruction of interannual to decadal climate variations. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 932 KW - Dronning-Maud-Land KW - ice-core KW - climate variability KW - surface snow KW - stable-isotopes KW - water-isotopes KW - oxygen-isotope KW - south-pole KW - athmospheric circulation KW - mathematical-analysis Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-446052 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 932 SP - 169 EP - 187 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Casado, Mathieu A1 - Landais, Amaelle A1 - Picard, Ghislain A1 - Münch, Thomas A1 - Laepple, Thomas A1 - Stenni, Barbara A1 - Dreossi, Giuliano A1 - Ekaykin, Alexey A1 - Arnaud, Laurent A1 - Genthon, Christophe A1 - Touzeau, Alexandra A1 - Masson-Delmotte, Valerie A1 - Jouzel, Jean T1 - Archival processes of the water stable isotope signal in East Antarctic ice cores T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The oldest ice core records are obtained from the East Antarctic Plateau. Water isotopes are key proxies to reconstructing past climatic conditions over the ice sheet and at the evaporation source. The accuracy of climate reconstructions depends on knowledge of all processes affecting water vapour, precipitation and snow isotopic compositions. Fractionation processes are well understood and can be integrated in trajectory-based Rayleigh distillation and isotope-enabled climate models. However, a quantitative understanding of processes potentially altering snow isotopic composition after deposition is still missing. In low-accumulation sites, such as those found in East Antarctica, these poorly constrained processes are likely to play a significant role and limit the interpretability of an ice core's isotopic composition. By combining observations of isotopic composition in vapour, precipitation, surface snow and buried snow from Dome C, a deep ice core site on the East Antarctic Plateau, we found indications of a seasonal impact of metamorphism on the surface snow isotopic signal when compared to the initial precipitation. Particularly in summer, exchanges of water molecules between vapour and snow are driven by the diurnal sublimation-condensation cycles. Overall, we observe in between precipitation events modification of the surface snow isotopic composition. Using high-resolution water isotopic composition profiles from snow pits at five Antarctic sites with different accumulation rates, we identified common patterns which cannot be attributed to the seasonal variability of precipitation. These differences in the precipitation, surface snow and buried snow isotopic composition provide evidence of post-deposition processes affecting ice core records in low-accumulation areas. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 716 KW - dronning maud-land KW - shallow firn cores KW - near-surface snow KW - Dome C KW - Kohnen station KW - South Pole KW - climate varibility KW - Vostok station KW - deuterium content KW - GCM analysis Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427054 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 716 ER -