Abstract
Abstract. To better understand snow chemistry in different environments across the Antarctic ice sheet, we investigated snow ions on a traverse from the coast to Dome A. Results show that the non-sea-salt (nss) fractions of K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ are mainly from terrestrial particle mass and nssCl− is associated with HCl. Spatially, the non-sea-salt fractions of ions to the totals are higher in the interior areas than on the coast, and seasonally, the proportions are higher in summer than in winter. Negative nssSO42- on the coast indicates sea salts from the sea ice, and marine biogenic emissions dominate snow SO42- in interior areas throughout the year.
Highlights
Snow chemistry has been broadly investigated along traverses during the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE), e.g., Dumont d’Urville Station (DDU) to Dome C, coast-interior traverse in Adélie Land, Syowa Station to Dome F, Terra Nova Bay to Dome C, 1990 ITASE, and US ITASE in West Antarctica (Legrand and Delmas, 1985; Qin et al, 1992; Mulvaney and Wolff, 1994; Proposito et al, 2002; Suzuki et al, 2002; Dixon et al, 2013), and Bertler et al (2005) have comprehensively summarized the glaciochemical data across the ice sheet, most of which are for surface snow
It is noted that only elevated SO24− concentrations are present during this period, possibly suggesting that Pinatubo volcanic emissions contribute less to the ion budgets other than to SO24− at Dome A
It is shown that the nonsea-salt fractions of K+, Mg2+, and Ca2+ are mainly associated with terrestrial particle mass, while nssCl− is linked to the deposition of HCl
Summary
Snow chemistry has been broadly investigated along traverses during the International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition (ITASE), e.g., Dumont d’Urville Station (DDU) to Dome C, coast-interior traverse in Adélie Land, Syowa Station to Dome F, Terra Nova Bay to Dome C, 1990 ITASE, and US ITASE in West Antarctica (Legrand and Delmas, 1985; Qin et al, 1992; Mulvaney and Wolff, 1994; Proposito et al, 2002; Suzuki et al, 2002; Dixon et al, 2013), and Bertler et al (2005) have comprehensively summarized the glaciochemical data across the ice sheet, most of which are for surface snow. With varied sources and lifetimes, ions in snow often exhibit different seasonal variations; e.g., seasalt-related ions show high concentrations in winter, while elevated concentrations of SO24− and NO−3 are frequently observed in summer (Neubauer and Heumann, 1988; Gragnani et al, 1998; Traversi et al, 2004; Shi et al, 2015). Investigations of snow chemistry have been carried out along several overland traverses, the investigation of snow chemistry under different environmental conditions and over time is needed, given that the Antarctic ice sheet itself and precipitation and deposition patterns and trends are changing. The Chinese inland Antarctic traverse from the coastal Zhongshan Station to the ice sheet summit (Dome A) covers a range of environments (∼ 1250 km); e.g., a high snow accumulation rate is present on the coast and in some interior areas and a low accumulation rate is observed on the Dome A plateau.
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