Two-way traveltimes of internal layers and ice thickness between Dome C - Vostok - Dome A

Chinese scientists will start to drill a deep ice core at Kunlun station near Dome A in the near future. Recent work has predicted that Dome A is a location where ice older than 1 million years can be found. We model flow, temperature and the age of the ice by applying a three-dimensional, thermomechanically coupled full-Stokes model to a 70 × 70 km**2 domain around Kunlun station, using isotropic non-linear rheology and different prescribed anisotropic ice fabrics that vary the evolution from isotropic to single maximum at 1/3 or 2/3 depths. The variation in fabric is about as important as the uncertainties in geothermal heat flux in determining the vertical advection which in consequence controls both the basal temperature and the age profile. We find strongly variable basal ages across the domain since the ice varies greatly in thickness, and any basal melting effectively removes very old ice in the deepest parts of the subglacial valleys. Comparison with dated radar isochrones in the upper one third of the ice sheet cannot sufficiently constrain the age of the deeper ice, with uncertainties as large as 500 000 years in the basal age. We also assess basal age and thermal state sensitivities to geothermal heat flux and surface conditions. Despite expectations of modest changes in surface height over a glacial cycle at Dome A, even small variations in the evolution of surface conditions cause large variation in basal conditions, which is consistent with basal accretion features seen in radar surveys.

(Table 1) Snow and ice thickness and layering at observation points of the North Pole 34 drifting station

Variability of total alkalinity in sea ice of the high-latitudinal Arctic from November 2005 to May 2006 is considered. For the bulk of one- and two-year sea ice, alkalinity dependence on salinity is described as TA = k x Sal, where k is salinity/alkalinity ratio in under-ice water. The given relationship is valid within a wide range of salinity from 0.1 psu in desalinated fraction of two-year ice to 36 psu in snow on the young ice surface. Geochemically significant deviations from the relationship noted were observed exclusively in snow and the upper layer of one-year ice. In the upper layer of one-year ice, deficiency of alkalinity is observed ( delta TA ~= -0.07 mEq/kg, or -15%). In snow on the surface of the one-year ice, alkalinity excess is formed under desalination ( delta TA is as high as 1.3 mEq/kg, or 380%). Deviations registered are caused by possibility of carbonate precipitation in form of CaCO3 x 6H2O under seawater freezing. It is shown that ice formation and the following melting might cause losses of atmospheric CO2 of up to 3 x 10**12 gC/year.

(Table 1) Snow and sea ice thickness, solar heat input and solar heat used for melting at seven ice mass-balance buoys in the Arctic in 2008

There has been a marked decline in the summer extent of Arctic sea ice over the past few decades. Data from autonomous ice mass-balance buoys can enhance our understanding of this decline. These buoys monitor changes in snow deposition and ablation, ice growth, and ice surface and bottom melt. Results from the summer of 2008 showed considerable large-scale spatial variability in the amount of surface and bottom melt. Small amounts of melting were observed north of Greenland, while melting in the southern Beaufort Sea was quite large. Comparison of net solar heat input to the ice and heat required for surface ablation showed only modest correlation. However, there was a strong correlation between solar heat input to the ocean and bottom melting. As the ice concentration in the Beaufort Sea region decreased, there was an increase in solar heat to the ocean and an increase in bottom melting.