Reevaluation of the reconstruction of summer temperatures from melt features in Belukha ice cores, Siberian Altai

Abstract

[1] In a previous study, past summer temperatures were reconstructed from melt features in the Belukha ice core, Siberian Altai. We evaluated the climatic representativeness of net accumulation and melt features by comparing two Belukha ice cores retrieved at neighboring sites by different institutions and dated by different methods. Melt features in both cores showed a significant correlation, but the trends of net accumulation were different between the cores. Melt features corresponded to the retreat rate of a glacier terminus in a neighboring mountain range. These findings demonstrate the spatial representativeness of melt features in the ice cores. We reevaluated an equation formulated for reconstructions of summer temperature, as used in a previous study, and found that it underestimates temperature. We propose an alternative equation to obtain more reliable summer temperatures from melt features and net accumulation records for the period from 1914 to 2003.