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Main Authors: Laepple, Thomas, Hörhold, Maria, Münch, Thomas, Freitag, Johannes, Wegner, Anna, Kipfstuhl, Sepp
Format: Dataset Open Access
Language:en
Published: PANGAEA 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.865344
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author Laepple, Thomas
Hörhold, Maria
Münch, Thomas
Freitag, Johannes
Wegner, Anna
Kipfstuhl, Sepp
author_facet Laepple, Thomas
Hörhold, Maria
Münch, Thomas
Freitag, Johannes
Wegner, Anna
Kipfstuhl, Sepp
collection Datos científicos de ciencias marinas y ambientales
contents The density of firn is an important property for monitoring and modeling the ice sheet as well as to model the pore close-off and thus to interpret ice core-based greenhouse gas records. One feature, which is still in debate, is the potential existence of an annual cycle of firn density in low-accumulation regions. Several studies describe or assume seasonally successive density layers, horizontally evenly distributed, as seen in radar data. On the other hand, high-resolution density measurements on firn cores in Antarctica and Greenland showed no clear seasonal cycle in the top few meters. A major caveat of most existing snow-pit and firn-core based studies is that they represent one vertical profile from a laterally heterogeneous density field. To overcome this, we created an extensive dataset of horizontal and vertical density data at Kohnen Station, Dronning Maud Land on the East Antarctic Plateau. We drilled and analyzed three 90 m long firn cores as well as 160 one meter long vertical profiles from two elongated snow trenches to obtain a two dimensional view of the density variations. The analysis of the 45 m wide and 1 m deep density fields reveals a seasonal cycle in density. However, the seasonality is overprinted by strong stratigraphic noise, making it invisible when analyzing single firn cores. Our density dataset extends the view from the local ice-core perspective to a hundred meter scale and thus supports linking spatially integrating methods such as radar and seismic studies to ice and firn cores.
format Dataset Open Access
id pangaea_https___doi_org_10_1594_PANGAEA_865344
institution PANGAEA
language en
publishDate 2016
publisher PANGAEA
record_format pangaea
spellingShingle DEP-derived density from two snow trenches from Kohnen Station, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica from the 2012/13 field season
Laepple, Thomas
Hörhold, Maria
Münch, Thomas
Freitag, Johannes
Wegner, Anna
Kipfstuhl, Sepp

The density of firn is an important property for monitoring and modeling the ice sheet as well as to model the pore close-off and thus to interpret ice core-based greenhouse gas records. One feature, which is still in debate, is the potential existence of an annual cycle of firn density in low-accumulation regions. Several studies describe or assume seasonally successive density layers, horizontally evenly distributed, as seen in radar data. On the other hand, high-resolution density measurements on firn cores in Antarctica and Greenland showed no clear seasonal cycle in the top few meters. A major caveat of most existing snow-pit and firn-core based studies is that they represent one vertical profile from a laterally heterogeneous density field. To overcome this, we created an extensive dataset of horizontal and vertical density data at Kohnen Station, Dronning Maud Land on the East Antarctic Plateau. We drilled and analyzed three 90 m long firn cores as well as 160 one meter long vertical profiles from two elongated snow trenches to obtain a two dimensional view of the density variations. The analysis of the 45 m wide and 1 m deep density fields reveals a seasonal cycle in density. However, the seasonality is overprinted by strong stratigraphic noise, making it invisible when analyzing single firn cores. Our density dataset extends the view from the local ice-core perspective to a hundred meter scale and thus supports linking spatially integrating methods such as radar and seismic studies to ice and firn cores.
title DEP-derived density from two snow trenches from Kohnen Station, Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica from the 2012/13 field season
topic
url https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.865344