Several recent studies from both Greenland and Antarctica have reported significant changes in the water isotopic composition of near‐surface snow between precipitation events. These changes have been linked to isotopic exchange with atmospheric water vapor and sublimation‐induced fractionation, but the processes are poorly constrained by observations. Understanding and quantifying these processes are crucial to both the interpretation of ice core climate proxies and the formulation of isotope‐enabled general circulation models. Here, we present continuous measurements of the water isotopic composition in surface snow and atmospheric vapor together with near‐surface atmospheric turbulence and snow‐air latent and sensible heat fluxes, obtained at the East Greenland Ice‐Core Project drilling site in summer 2016. For two 4‐day‐long time periods, significant diurnal variations in atmospheric water isotopologues are observed. A model is developed to explore the impact of this variability on the surface snow isotopic composition. Our model suggests that the snow isotopic composition in the upper subcentimeter of the snow exhibits a diurnal variation with amplitudes in δ18O and δD of ~2.5‰ and ~13‰, respectively. As comparison, such changes correspond to 10–20% of the magnitude of seasonal changes in interior Greenland snow pack isotopes and of the change across a glacial‐interglacial transition. Importantly, our observation and model results suggest, that sublimation‐induced fractionation needs to be included in simulations of exchanges between the vapor and the snow surface on diurnal timescales during summer cloud‐free conditions in northeast Greenland.
Hydrogen (δD) and oxygen (δ18O) isotopic ratios are strongly correlated in precipitation over time and space, defining the meteoric water line, and the slope of this δD‐δ18O relationship reflects covariations of deuterium excess (d‐excess) with δD or δ18O. This δD‐δ18O line provides a tool for inferring hydrologic processes from the evaporation source to condensation site. Here, we present δD‐δ18O relationships on seasonal and annual timescales for daily precipitation, snow pits, and a 15‐m ice core (Owen) at Summit, Greenland. Seasonally, precipitation δD‐δ18O slopes are less than 8 (summer = 7.70; winter = 7.77), while the annual slope is greater than 8 (8.27). We suggest that intra‐season slopes result primarily from Rayleigh distillation, which, under prevailing conditions, produces slopes less than 8. The summer line has a greater intercept (higher d‐excess) than the winter line. This separation causes annual slopes to be greater than seasonal ones. We attribute high summer d‐excess primarily to contributions of vapor sublimated from the Greenland Ice Sheet and other terrestrial sources. High sublimated moisture proportions result in a large separation between seasonal δD‐δ18O lines, and thus high annual slopes. Inter‐seasonal weighting of precipitation amount also influences annual slopes because slopes are weighed by the number of storms each season. Using snow pit measurements, we demonstrate that precipitation isotopic signals translate to the snowpack. We generate indices to determine Sublimation Proportion Index and Precipitation Weighting Index, and find that annual Owen core δD‐δ18O line slopes are significantly related to these indices, demonstrating that these factors are recorded in ice cores.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10378780
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Volume:
- 127
- Issue:
- 21
- ISSN:
- 2169-897X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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