Title: Collaborative Research: Stable Isotopes of Ice in the WAIS Divide Deep Ice Core
Description:
Abstract:
This award supports analyses of stable isotopes of water, dD, d18O and deuterium excess in the proposed West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS) deep ice core. The project will analyze a continuous and high-resolution record of stable isotope ratios (of water) for the new core. Isotope measurements provided by project collaborators will be interpreted with models constrained by measurements of the temperature-depth profile at the site provided by a companion project.
This project (http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0537661) was terminated before analyses were completed, but work is continuing under the companion project award (http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0539232).
dD and d18O values provide estimates of temperature change at the ice core site and in vapor source regions. This project will reconstruct the magnitudes of major temperature changes in order to illuminate the sensitivity of Earth's climate to forcings. It will also examine the temporal pattern of temperature changes to illuminate the role of different climate dynamical processes.
