The Greenland ice sheet through the last glacial-interglacial cycle

The evolution of the Greenland ice sheet during the last 150,000 years, in response to a climate history derived from a Greenland ice-margin oxygen-18 record, is simulated by means of a three-dimensional, time-dependent ice-sheet model. The calculations indicate that the ice sheet displayed considerable thinning and ice-margin retreat during the last interglacial (the Eemian) and during a warm interstadial c. 100,000 yr B.P., resulting in a splitting up of the ice sheet into a central-northern and a southern part. However, the ice sheet in Central Greenland survived the warm stages with almost unchanged surface elevations as compared with the present.     

Nitrate in the Greenland ice sheet in the years following the 1908 tunguska event

The Tunguska event on 30 June 1908 has been subjected to much speculation within different fields of research. Publication of the results of the 1961 expedition to the Tunguska area (Florensky, 1963) supports that a cometary impact caused the event. Based on this interpretation, calculations of the impactor energy release and explosion height have been reported by Ben-Menahem (1975), and velocity, mass, and density of the impactor by Petrov and Stulov (1975). Park (1978) and Turco et al., 1981, Turco et al., 1982, used these numbers to calculate a production of ca. 30 × 10⁶ tons of NO during atmospheric transit. This paper presents a high-resolution study of nitrate concentration in the Greenland ice sheet in ca. 10 years covering the Tunguska event. No signs of excess nitrate are found in three ice cores from two different sites in Greenland in the years following the Tunguska event. By comparing these results with results for other aerosols generally found in the ice, the lack of excess NO₃^? following the Tunguska event can be interpreted as indicating that the impactor nitrate production calculated by Park (1978) and Turco et al., 1981, Turco et al., 1982 are 1–2 orders of magnitude too high. To explain this it is suggested, from other lines of reasoning, that the impactor density determined by Petrov and Stulov (1975) probably is too low.     

Effect of altered Arctic sea ice and Greenland ice sheet cover on the climate of the GENESIS general circulation model

Previous studies have examined the effect of reduced Arctic sea ice cover on the circulation of climate models. Generally, the response is restricted to high northern latitudes. Here we examine a variant on those simulations, specifying both reduced Arctic sea ice cover and no Greenland ice sheet. The GENESIS general circulation model is used in these experiments. As in earlier studies, we find the effect limited primarily to the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, being greater in winter than in summer. New results reported herein involve: (1) in winter reduced Arctic ice cover has a significantly greater effect than reduced Greenland ice cover; (2) reduced ice cover had little effect on location of the winter freezing line over North America and Eurasia; (3) removal of ice caused a 30–50% increase in precipitation in high northern latitudes; however there were no significant effects elsewhere. This result does not support the hypothesis that past changes in Arctic ice cover were responsible for significant changes in area of tropical rainforests; (4) there is a peculiar surface pressure anomaly that extends into the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere. This anomaly may be a spurious artifact of the effect of the removed Greenland ice sheet on the spherical harmonic expansion terms in the model. These sensitivity experiments should serve as a useful frame of reference for future Pliocene simulations with a more complete set of altered boundary conditions.     

Thoughts on monitoring the effects of climate change on the surface elevation of the Greenland ice sheet

The effect of mass balance variations on changes in surface elevation of the Greenland ice sheet is examined in connection with the rise in sea level that will be caused by increased melting. Changes in surface elevation of several metres (of either sign) can occur in the ablation area of the ice sheet over a period of a few years as a result of random ablation forcing without being evidence of change in mean climate. Similar, but smaller, changes can occur in the accumulation area due to accumulation forcing. The ablation area of the ice sheet probably thickened from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s as a result of lower ablation in that period but thinned again in the late 1980s as a result of higher ablation then. There is no evidence of any present trend of increased melting. Future climate warming will involve an accelerated thinning of the ablation area that could be detected in 1–2 decades against the background of natural fluctuations in surface elevation.     

Control of the Antarctic ice sheet by ocean–ice interaction

The Antarctic ice cap is the largest ice sheet of modern times. It is of considerable importance to predict the sea level variability due to the associated changes in ice volume. We present the results of a simple grounded ice sheet model, developed from Oerlemans [Oerlemans, J., 2002. Global dynamics of the Antarctic Ice Sheet, Climate Dynamics 19, 85–93.], in which the net oceanic evaporation influences the ice cap volume in two ways, through changes in: (i) the accumulation rate, and (ii) the mean sea level. The net evaporation changes are driven by the sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly time series of Howard [Howard, W.R., 1997. A warm future in the past, Nature, 388, 418–419.] for the subantarctic Southern Ocean over the period 220 kyr to the present. The effect of the waxing and waning of the northern hemisphere ice sheets is integrated into the model using an independent model, in which ice melting depends on the SST anomaly and ice calving depends on the sea level anomaly. A series of analytical expressions are derived for the related properties of the coupled ocean–ice system applicable over time scales of 100 kyr, which show, in particular, that the Antarctic ice cap volume changes are due mainly to the effects of the northern hemisphere ice sheets on sea level (which influences ice calving), rather than directly to changes in SST, and hence the ice cap volume is greatest during interglacial periods. This conclusion, which is independent of the specification of the ice melting regime for the northern hemisphere ice sheets, strongly suggests that the changes in accumulation flux estimated from the Vostok proxy temperature data and used in other studies of the Antarctic mass balance have been overestimated. A simple expression is also presented for the lag of ice cap volume to SST, and it is found that the predictions for the mean sea level variability are similar to observations for a melting flux of the northern hemisphere ice sheets about twice their accumulation flux due to the net oceanic evaporation, except during major deglaciations when these two fluxes appear to be of similar magnitude.     

Topographic control on the dynamics of the Svalbard-Barents Sea ice sheet

The land surface of what is now the Barents Sea region may have been eroded to a sub-aerial platform prior to the Quaternary, due to both tectonic uplift-induced and sea-level lowering-induced erosion processes. The Barents Sea was then further eroded into its present form by the subsequent action of ice sheets. Two bedrock configurations, representing the pre-Quaternary sub-aerial Barents Shelf topography and the largely submarine morphology of the present day, were used as input to a glaciological ice sheet model so that the dynamic evolution of the maximum-sized ice sheets, caused solely by a change in bedrock elevation, could be identified. The ice-sheet model was run under constant glacial environmental conditions, until mass balance stability was reached, over both bedrock configurations. The simple parabolic ice sheet surface, which formed on a flat sub-aerial bedrock platform, was found to be significantly different in dynamic character compared with an ice sheet developed on the present submarine bedrock topography. In this latter situation, the central ice dome is drained by ice streams in Bjørnøyrenna, Storfjordrenna and smaller outlet glaciers in the north of the ice sheet.     

Simulation of the Eurasian ice sheet dynamics during the last glaciation

The Eurasian Weichselian glaciation is studied with the SICOPOLIS ice-sheet model and UKMO PMIP climate anomaly forcings. A set of sensitivity tests are completed, including runs in cold-ice mode, different positive-degree-day (PDD) factors and modified climatic data-sets. The model set-up with present-day climatology modified by a glacial index brings forth an areally correct Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) extent in the western areas, but the ice-sheet volume is too small compared to reconstructions from rebound rates. Applying modified climate data results in similar extent as indicated by the Quaternary Environment of the Eurasian North (QUEEN) Late Weichselian ice-sheet reconstruction. The simulation results display freshwater fluxes from melting and calving in phase with Heinrich events H3 at 27, H2 at 22, and H1 at 14 ka ago. These peaks correspond to fast flow areas, with main activity at 27 and 22 ka ago in the Nordic Channel area and later in the Bear Island and Storfjorden region. The activity of these areas seems to be shifting from south to north from LGM to the Holocene. The freshwater pulse at 19–18.5 ka could correspond to Dansgaard–Oeschger oscillation, as well as ice volume flux peaks around 18–17 ka ago on the western margin of the ice sheet.     

No iridium anomaly after the 1908 Tunguska impact: Evidence from a Greenland ice core

Abstract— We have determined the abundances of Ir and other elements by neutron activation analysis on annual dust samples from an ice core from Site B in the Crête region in central Greenland covering the years 1905–1914. Iridium was detected in all samples, but we found no excess Ir above the background in the years following the Tunguska event. The lack of an Ir anomaly in the years after the Tunguska impact combined with the knowledge of the energy released during the impact and our present knowledge about stratospheric transport implies either a very low Ir content of the impactor or an exceptionally high geocentric velocity for the impactor.     

Bedform patterns, subglacial meltwater events, and Late Devensian ice sheet dynamics in north-central Ireland

Glacial bedform patterns and sediments deposited by the temperate and polythermal Late Devensian ice sheet in north-central Ireland record changes in the processes, location, and magnitude of subglacial meltwater throughout the last full glacial cycle (21–14 ¹⁴C kyear BP). Meltwater characteristics are related directly to basal ice thermal regime and ice dynamics, including ice velocity and shifts in the location of ice centres. Therefore, reconstructed meltwater characteristics may provide insight into wider controls on dynamic ice behaviour. A range of meltwater-related features are present across north-central Ireland. These include tunnel valleys, drumlin leeside sequences, eskers, and boulder lags. Other bedforms including Rogen moraines were modified by meltwater activity along ice streams. Meltwater was stored subglacially in two contrasting regions located beneath or near ice centres in north-central Ireland. (1) The Lough Erne Basin is developed in a lowland depression occupied partly by subglacial Rogen moraine ridges which were formed around the time of the last glacial maximum. Meltwater was stored between Rogen ridge crests and released by hydraulic jacking associated with drumlinisation (16.6 ¹⁴C kyear BP) and ice streaming (13.8 ¹⁴C kyear BP). (2) The Lough Neagh Basin occupies a similar lowland depression and was the location of an ice sheet centre throughout the last glacial cycle. No bedforms are present beneath or immediately surrounding Lough Neagh. A larger, more continuous meltwater lake existed in the Lough Neagh depression, probably sealed by a region of cold-based ice outside lake margins. Water escaped through regional-scale tunnel valleys, particularly the Poyntzpass channel which was active during the Carlingford ice readvance (Killard Stadial, correlated with Heinrich event 1 at 14.5 ¹⁴C kyear BP). Overall, reconstructed subglacial lake characteristics and drainage mechanisms are related closely to basal ice thermal regime and substrate relief (controlling lake geometry), and provide insight into controls on overall ice sheet dynamics.     

The greenhouse of Titan

Both non-gray radiative equilibrium and gray convective equilibrium calculations for Titan indicate that the discrepancy between the equilibrium temperature of an atmosphereless Titan and the observed infrared temperatures can be explained by a massive molecular hydrogen greenhouse effect. The convective calculations indicate a probable minimum optical depth of 14, corresponding to many tens of km-atm of H₂, and total pressures of ～0.1 bar. The tropopause is several hundred km above the Titanian surface and at a temperature of about 90°K. Methane condensation is likely at this level. Such an atmosphere is unstable against atmospheric blow-off unless typical mesosphere scale heights are < 25km, an unlikely situation. Blow-off can also be circumvented by exospheric temperatures near the freezing point of hydrogen. It is considered more plausible that the present atmosphere is in equilibrium between outgassing and blow-off of the one hand and accretion from protons trapped in a hypothetical Saturnian magnetic field on the other; or exhibits uncompensated blow-off of outgassing products. To maintain the present blow-off rate without compensation for all of geological time requires an outgassing equivalent to the volatilization of a few km of subsurface ices. Photo-dissociation of these volatilized ices produces the observed high abundance of H₂ as well as large quantities of complex organic chromophores which may explain the reddish coloration of the Titanian cloud deck. An extensive circum-Titanian hydrogen corona is postulated. Surface temperatures as high as 200°K are not excluded. Because of its high temperatures and pressures and the probable large abundance of organic compounds, Titan is a prime target for spacecraft exploration in the outer solar system.     

Glacial-interglacial mean sea level pressure change due to sea level, ice sheet and atmospheric mass changes

The change in the global mean atmospheric pressure between glacial and interglacial periods is evaluated at sea level. This change originates in a modification of topography and in a possible variation in the atmospheric mass. In this calculation the atmosphere is at hydrostatic equilibrium, and the parameters describing the glacial period are varied in a plausible range. The result, with constant atmospheric mass, is a mean sea level pressure decrease of 9–15 hPa linked with the deglaciation. The corresponding pressure change at the reference level corresponding to the present day sea level does not exceed one hPa. When considering only the change in the atmospheric mass, an increase which does not exceed 2 hPa is found, linked with the deglaciation.     

The structure of a prominence sheet

A one-dimensional analysis of Kippenhahn-Schlüter type is applied to a sheet of prominence material inclined at an angle, to the horizontal. It is found that the magnetic pressure across the prominence no longer has a symmetric profile, but is stronger on the lower side of the sheet. This excess in magnetic pressure is necessary to balance the component of prominence weight in that direction. A matching function is derived and allows for variations along the length of the sheet, enabling the internal prominence solution to be linked onto a given background potential field. In this way a curved prominence sheet in a potential field may be resolved. A smooth profile for the magnetic field and a continuous variation of plasma pressure across the prominence region is then possible. An example is given in which the analysis is applied to a polar-crown prominence configuration of inverse polarity and the basic properties of the prominence are determined.     

Meteorite stranding surfaces and the Greenland icesheet

Abstract— Thirty years of recoveries in East Antarctica have led to significant understanding of the regional characteristics associated with meteorite stranding surfaces. In Antarctica these sites are characterized by patches of snow‐free blue ice at high altitude on the icesheet in regions where iceflow is highly restricted. Melting is extremely rare or absent and sublimation rates are high, even though meteorite stranding surfaces are predominantly found within regions where accumulation typically dominates. Localized environmental conditions that persist for thousands of years or longer appear to be the dominant factor rather than shorter‐term or seasonal cycles. In this paper we describe our discovery of regions in Northeast Greenland with blue ice areas that exhibit many of the requisite characteristics, suggesting that they are excellent prospects for future meteorite recovery efforts.     

Mineral compositions in Antarctic and Greenland micrometeorites

Abstract— The mineral compositions of 250 micrometeorites have been studied and olivines and low-calcium pyroxenes with crystals larger than 5 μm have been analyzed. While magnesium-rich grains dominate, the Fa content of olivine may reach 50% and the Fs content of pyroxene may reach 26%. The Ca and Mn of the olivine show no consistent trends with increasing Fe, but Cr shows a negative correlation. For low-Ca pyroxene, Al and Cr contents are generally higher than in pyroxenes of equilibrated chondrites but similar to those of highly unequilibrated chondrites. Calcium-bearing pyroxene, feldspar and chromite are rare in the micrometeorites which were selected because of their high Mg, Si, Fe and their low Ca and Al content. All these minerals are found as coarse-grained particles often with adhering iron-rich scoria or as clasts in fine-grained or scoriaceous micrometeorites. Apart from a few particles which could be the debris of ordinary chondrites, most micrometeorites probably come from a common source similar, but not identical to carbonaceous chondrites, as shown by their lower Ni and S content and their different oxygen isotopic composition assuming two measurements performed on olivine grains prove to be typical.     

The heterogeneous condensation of interstellar ice grains

Processes of heterogeneous condensation are investigated. We consider the situation that vapor and solid grains of which material is other than that of the vapor coexist and the saturation of the vapor increases with time. If the contact angle of the condensate to the solid is small (?90°), the condensate will be formed as mantles coating the solid grains but only a fraction of the solid grains will be coated by mantles. The ratio of core-mantle grains to bare solid grains in number will be smaller as the density of the vapor and the time scale of saturation increase are large. Actual calculations are made by adopting H₂O ice as the mantle material and magnesium silicate as the core material.     

The motion and radiation of electrons in a neutral sheet

The motion and radiation of an electron in the neighbourhood of a neutral sheet are discussed. Formulae for the synchrotron and cyclotron radiation of an electron in an inhomogeneous field are obtained. The results are compared with radiation in a homogeneous field. It is predicted that the momentum of charged particles flying from a neutral sheet may take discrete eigenvalues.     

The Main Belt Comets and ice in the Solar System

We review the evidence for buried ice in the asteroid belt; specifically the questions around the so-called Main Belt Comets (MBCs). We summarise the evidence for water throughout the Solar System, and describe the various methods for detecting it, including remote sensing from ultraviolet to radio wavelengths. We review progress in the first decade of study of MBCs, including observations, modelling of ice survival, and discussion on their origins. We then look at which methods will likely be most effective for further progress, including the key challenge of direct detection of (escaping) water in these bodies.     

The Uranian satellites: Water ice on Ariel and Umbriel

New near-infrared reflectance spectra are presented for Ariel and Umbriel. Water ice on the surface of Ariel and Umbriel is verified from spectral signatures in the 2-μm region. However, the weaker bands in Umbriel's spectrum indicate that its surface is significantly different from Ariel either in degree of contamination with dark material or in microstate. Umbriel may have a lower albedo than Ariel, Titania, and Oberon and, therefore, may have a diameter comparable to that of Titania.