Premium
Interpreting temperature information from ice cores along the Antarctic Peninsula: ERA40 analysis
Author(s) -
Sime Louise C.,
Marshall Gareth J.,
Mulvaney Robert,
Thomas Elizabeth R.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2009gl038982
Subject(s) - peninsula , magnitude (astronomy) , climatology , ice core , geology , climate change , δ18o , oceanography , stable isotope ratio , geography , physics , archaeology , astronomy , quantum mechanics
Analysis of ERA40 temperature and accumulation data suggests that annual mean isotopic fluctuations due to temperature change will be geographically very variable across the Peninsula: isotopic variations of 0.4‰ at James Ross Island; 0.9‰ at Dyer; and 1.3‰ at Gomez are all likely to indicate an identical magnitude of temperature change. The reduction in the magnitude of the isotopic signal in the north and east is due to climatically dependent synoptic covariance between temperature and accumulation; whilst in the west and south seasonal covariance amplifies the isotopic temperature signal. Additionally we show that the relationship between accumulation and temperature is rather weak in the north‐east regions but is stronger in the central and southerly regions. Therefore isotopes may record 11% to 30% of the variance in annual mean temperatures in the north east; 75% in central regions; and 70% in the south. This study enables physically based reconstructions of Peninsula climate based on multi‐core analysis.