Sea Salt Sodium Record in a Shallow Ice Core from East Antarctica as a Potential Proxy of the Antarctic Sea Ice Extent in Southern Indian Ocean

Abstract

Antarctic sea ice has experienced an increasing trend in recent decades, especially in the Ross Sea and Indian Ocean sectors. Sea ice variability affects greatly the maritime airmass transport from high latitude to Antarctic continent. Here we present a new ice core record of sea salt sodium (ssNa+) concentration at annual-resolution in the Princess Elizabeth Land spanning from 1990 to 2016, showing that this marker could be used as a potential proxy for reconstructing the sea ice extent (SIE) in the Southern Indian Ocean (SIO) given their significant correlation (R = −0.6, P <0.01) over the past 27 years. The correlation and composite analyses results show that the ssNa+ at the 202 km inland from Zhongshan Station and the SIE changes in SIO are closely related to the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and Southern Annular Mode (SAM). The northward wind in central SIO occurs during positive IOD and the strengthened westerlies occurs during positive SAM, both of which favor increased sea ice in SIO and lead to the decreased ssNa+ concentration at the coastal site.