the abrupt termination of the younger dryas climate event previous studies on two deep greenland ice cores have shown that a long series of climate oscillations characterized the late weichselian glaciation in the north atlantic region1 and that the last glacial cold period the younger dryas ended abruptly 10 700 years ago2 here we further focus on this epoch defining event and present detailed heavy isotope and dust concentration profiles which suggest that in less than 20 years the climate in the north atlantic region turned into a milder and less stormy regime as a consequence of a rapid retreat of the sea ice cover a warming of 7 c in south greenland was completed in about 50 years

vostok ice core a continuous isotope temperature record over the last climatic cycle 160 000 years a continuous deuterium profile along the 160 000 year vostok ice core antarctica is interpreted in terms of atmospheric temperature changes this climatic record is the awaited terrestrial complement of the deep sea records supporting the existence of a relation between the pleistocene climate and orbital forcing

deuterium excess in an east antarctic ice core suggests higher relative humidity at the oceanic surface during the last glacial maximum a continuous deuterium excess profile d d 8 18o was obtained from the dome c ice core spanning 32 000 yr it exhibits significant variations over this period in particular d was 4 5 lower around 18 000 yr bp than over the past 7 500 yr interpreted as reflecting higher relative humidity estimated 90 over the oceanic areas providing moisture for antarctic precipitation

oxygen and hydrogen isotopic ratios of water in precipitation beyond paleothermometry paleoclimatologists face a dilemma no sedimentary proxy is a pure recorder of quantitative climate information yet climate modelers and policy makers increasingly seek quantitative comparisons between instrumentally documented possibly anthropogenic climate changes and those produced naturally in the past in the second edition of his influential book bradley 1999 p 6 discussed the calibration of proxy records to learn past climate changes calibration involves using modern climatic records and proxy materials to understand how and to what extent proxy materials are climate dependent it is assumed that the modern relationships observed have operated unchanged throughout the period of interest the principle of uniformitarianism in other words one relates the characteristics of sediment to climate at different places for one time or at a place for short times and then uses that relation plus characteristics of older sediments to estimate the climatic conditions that produced those sedimentary characteristics bradley 1999 then extensively discussed the difficulties in applying this methodology in a complex world with imperfect recorders nonetheless the goal of using calibrated proxies for quantitative as well as qualitative paleoclimatic reconstruction is clear a prominent recent use of calibrated paleoclimatic data is the assessment of whether the probably anthropogenic warming of the latter 20th century moved beyond the band of natural variability of the prevailing climate bradley 2000 combined recent instrumental records with several longer proxy based reconstructions of surface temperature including that of mann et al 1999 based on this composite data set bradley 2000 argued that temperatures in the late 20th century were unique in the context of the entire millennium the proxy records were primarily based on tree ring data but included isotopic and major element geochemistry of corals and occurrence of melt layers and isotopic ratios of water in ice cores however broecker 2001 questioned the basis for the reconstruction of

ice cover landscape setting and geological framework of lake vostok east antarctica abstract lake vostok located beneath more than 4 km of ice in the middle of east antarctica is a unique subglacial habitat and may contain microorganisms with distinct adaptations to such an extreme environment melting and freezing at the base of the ice sheet which slowly flows across the lake controls the flux of water biota and sediment particles through the lake the influx of thermal energy however is limited to contributions from below thus the geological origin of lake vostok is a critical boundary condition for the subglacial ecosystem we present the first comprehensive maps of ice surface ice thickness and subglacial topography around lake vostok the ice flow across the lake and the landscape setting are closely linked to the geological origin of lake vostok our data show that lake vostok is located along a major geological boundary magnetic and gravity data are distinct east and west of the lake as is the roughness of the subglacial topography the physiographic setting of the lake has important consequences for the ice flow and thus the melting and freezing pattern and the lake s circulation lake vostok is a tectonically controlled subglacial lake the tectonic processes provided the space for a unique habitat and recent minor tectonic activity could have the potential to introduce small but significant amounts of thermal energy into the lake

distribution of stable isotopes in surface snow along the route of the 1990 international trans antarctica expedition this paper presents the distri bution of average od and 6180 values for the top i m of surface snow for a large area of antarctica the samples were collected on the 1990 internatio nal trans antarctica expedition which crossed the continent from the northern tip of the antarctic penins ula to mirny station the empirical rel ationships between the isotopes temperature and elevation are computed the slopes of od with respect to the surface temperature for the segments west patriot hills v ostok and east ofvostok komso molskaya mirny are not signifi cantly different to that obse rved between dumont d urville and dome c lorius and merlivat 1977 which are often used to inte rpret deep ice core isotopic profiles there is however a noti ceable shift between the two regression lines

circulations and eddies over the south china sea derived from topex poseidon altimetry topex poseidon t p altimeter data were used to derive time varying circulation and eddies over the south china sea scs for 1993 1999 large variabilities of sea surface heights and dense distribution of eddies were found to occur along a band across the scs basin a cross over method is introduced to compute pointwise velocity components the t p derived circula tions and eddies are consistent with the drifter results from the world ocean circulation experi ment data center 1 because of monsoons the scs circulation is largely cyclonic in winter is largely anticyclonic in summer and is modulated interannually by el nifio southern oscillation 2 both cold and warm core eddies were found in the waters east of vietnam west of luzon and west of the luzon strait but their times of occurrence and the way they evolved vary interannually 3 the reversal of the alongshore currents east of vietnam was in complete accordance with wind stress the locations and kinematic properties of eddies over scs were estimated by the least squares method the averaged vorticities of the cold and warm core eddies are 1 684x 10 6 and 1 738x l0 6 tad s respectively and the shearing and stretching deformations are one thousandth of the vorticities the angular velocity of eddy decreases with increasing radius coherence analy sis suggests that the interannual and seasonal variations of circulation are largely due to wind stress and the semi annual variation is largely due to wind stress curl the angular velocities of eddies over the central scs basin are coherent with the magnitudes and signs of wind stress curl the seasonal steric anomaly was also computed and its spatial pattern and scale are quite different from those of circulation and eddy

seasonal and spatial variations of 17oexcess and dexcess in antarctic precipitation insights from an intermediate complexity isotope model an intermediate complexity isotope model icm is used to investigate the sensitivity of water isotope ratios in precipitation including 17oexcess to climate variations in the southern hemisphere the icm is forced with boundary conditions from seasonal ncep doe ii reanalysis data perturbations to the surface temperature and humidity fields are used to investigate the isotopic sensitivity the response of 17oexcess to a uniform temperature change is insignificant over the ocean while there is a large magnitude response over the ice sheet particularly in east antarctica a decrease of ocean surface relative humidity produces increased 17oexcess and dexcess with a coherent response over both the ocean and antarctica for interior east antarctica the model simulates a seasonal cycle in 17oexcess that is positively correlated with 18o and of large magnitude 50 per meg consistent with the observations from vostok the seasonal cycle in 17oexcess for interior west antarctica is predicted to be considerably smaller in magnitude 12 per meg and is negatively correlated with 18o consistent with new data from a firn core near the west antarctic ice sheet divide site over the ocean the icm predicts much smaller seasonal cycles in 17oexcess oceanic source changes i e humidity are insufficient to explain the amplitude of the simulated seasonal cycle over the antarctic continent spatial differences in the seasonal response of 17oexcess to local temperature reflect the balance of equilibrium and kinetic fractionation during snow formation

a global oxygen isotope model semi empirical zonally averaged a simple model which is zonally averaged for the transport of atmospheric water vapour is presented which uses as input the zonally averaged evaporation field and the mean meridional travel distance of tropospheric water vapour as functions of latitude the model demonstrates that for polar regions each of the 10 latitude strips poleward of 25 is of equal importance as a moisture source the model is used to predict zonal averages of 6 1s 0 for the present day and 18 ka bp both annual average values and seasonal amplitudes are presented and compared to observations sea ice cover is an important factor in determining both annual averages and seasonal amplitudes today and at 18 ka bp an earlier model jouzel and others 1983 linking 6eso the deuterium excess and sea salt content in an antarctic ice core to the relative humidity of the source region is based on a single source atmospheric water vapour cycle type model and is re ev aluated using the present model

new insights into southern hemisphere temperature changes from vostok ice cores using deuterium excess correction abstract the combination of both vostok ice core deuterium and deuterium excess histories over the last four climate cycles back to 420 ka bp offers a unique opportunity for reconstructions of vapor source region and local temperature variations tsource and tsite respectively relative to their modern values our study is based on an inversion of ice isotopic composition using a rayleigh based isotopic model which estimates the dependence of vostok precipitation isotopic composition on different climate controls moisture source temperature local deposition temperature and ocean isotopic composition both reconstructed local and source temperatures show no substantial effects from this correction in the sense that none of the rapid or large variations in raw deuterium and deuterium excess profiles can be entirely attributed to a second order climate control our discussion is focused on moisture source temperature and meridional temperature gradient history tsource tsite first using sea surface temperature time series we confirm that moisture source temperature signal recorded in vostok deuterium excess over the last 150 ka fully reflects the obliquity time varying relative contribution of low and high ocean latitudes to vostok precipitation second comparisons of source to site meridional temperature gradient with the vostok sodium record over 420 ka suggest that moisture transport and sea salt transport to the ice sheet are controlled by processes in different latitudes the sea salt being more of a high latitude signal

ice core evidence for secular variability and 200 year dipolar oscillations in atmospheric circulation over east antarctica during the holocene two holocene ice core records from east antarctica vostok and epica dome c were analysed for dust concentration and size distribution at a temporal resolution of 1 sample per 50 years a series of volcanic markers randomly distributed over the common part of the ice cores from 9 8 to 3 5 kyear bp ensures accurate relative dating 33 years dust size records from the two sites display oscillations structured in cycles with sub millennial and secular scale frequencies that are apparently asynchronous the power spectra of the composite sum of the two dust size records display spectral energy mostly for 150 to 500 year periodicities on the other hand the 200 year band is common to both records and the 200 year components of the two sites are out of phase 100 year lead or lag over 5 5 kyear a phenomenon also reflected by a significant 99 conf lev band in the power spectra of the composite difference of the two size records during long range transport mineral dust originating from the southern hemisphere continents is graded to a variable extent depending on the altitude and duration of atmospheric transport relatively coarse dust is associated with air mass penetration from the middle lower troposphere and conversely relatively fine dust with upper troposphere air masses or the influence of subsidence over the antarctic plateau a hypothesis already proposed for the changes that occurred during the last glacial maximum to holocene transition delmonte et al 2004b moreover we assume that the overall fluctuation of air mass advection over antarctica depends on the meridional pressure gradient with respect to low latitudes i e the antarctic oscillation aao we therefore suggest a regional variability in atmospheric circulation over east antarctica the 150 500 year power spectrum of the composite parameter represents the long term variability of the aao imprinted by secular internal oscillations probably related to the southern ocean climatic system on the other hand the dust composite parameter suggests a persistent atmospheric dipole over east antarctica delivering coarser finer dust particles alternatively to vostok and dome c regions with a bi centennial periodicity indeed a seesaw phenomenon in dust size distribution was already observed at three east antarctic sites during the last deglaciation delmonte et al 2004b and was interpreted as a progressive reduction of the eccentricity of the polar vortex with respect to the geographic south pole interestingly the parameter shows a pronounced 200 year oscillation mode throwing new light on the unresolved question of a possible relationship between climate and solar activity

attenuation and scattering of broadband p and s waves across north america differential attenuation deltat italic measurements of teleseismic p italic and s italic waves are made in the frequency range 0 05 5 0 hz across north america using broadband seismic data from the department of energy s regional seismic test network and lawrence livermore national laboratory s basin and range network data from four events have been analyzed by first assuming frequency independent q italic the observed regional variations for deltat italic are consistent with previous studies and show greater attenuation for stations in the basin and range relative to those in shield regions of north america

a 150 000 year climatic record from antarctic ice during much of the quaternary the earth s climate has undergone drastic changes most notably successive glacial and interglacial episodes the past 150 kyr includes such a climatic cycle the last interglacial the last glacial and the present holocene interglacial a new climatic time series for this period has been obtained using 18 o data from an antarctic ice core

oxygen isotope and total beta radioactivity measurements on 10 m ice cores from the antarctic peninsula as part of the glaciology of the antarctic peninsula gap programme the snow cover at 25 stations was sampled to 10 m depth for oxygen isotope and total radioactivity analysis the mean annual oxygen isotope ratio correlates satisfactorily with 10 m temperature despite the complex topography of the area and suggests on average that climatic trends in the region are fairly systematic the relationship with temperature is similar to that derived from a simple model in which an air mass initially of maritime subtropical characteristics is progressively cooled as it moves towards the region the detailed isotope profiles show that for future deep drilling the most easily interpretable climatic information will be found in the more continental areas on the cast coast and on the plateau in the south of the region the degree of continentality of particular sites is reflected in the amplitude of the annual wave in the upper portion of the isotope ratio profile as well as in the accumulation rate

a new greenland deep ice core the polar ice sheets are rich sources of information on past atmospheric conditions including paleoclimates a new deep ice core has been drilled in south greenland comparison of the oxygen isotopic profile with that from camp century and with a deep sea foraminifera record indicates that the new core reaches back to about 90 000 years before present in a continuous sequence the details in the wisconsin part of the ice core records seem to be climatically significant and the general trends reveal all of the relevant emiliani stages recorded in deep sea cores the redated camp century record suggests a dramatic termination of the eem sangamon interglacial

paleoclimatic tracers an investigation using an atmospheric general circulation model under ice age conditions 2 water isotopes the linear relationship observed between the water isotopic contents of precipitation and surface air temperatures leads to the use of the water isotopes h218o and hdo in paleoclimatology applied to the measurements of the isotopic content of paleowaters like groundwaters and deep ice cores this relationship is used to infer paleotemperatures however this interpretation of paleo isotopic contents is only valid if the isotope temperature relationship is not affected by climate change to address this problem we have developed a water isotope modeling inside an atmospheric general circulation model agcm and performed simulations of both the present day and last glacial maximum lgm climatic conditions agcms are indeed the only appropriate tools able to account the whole complexity of the atmospheric circulation for the present day climate preliminary results for january were presented by joussaume et al 1984 and are complemented by new simulations performed for both february and august climatic conditions with a higher resolution version of the model model results are well corroborated by observations they also exhibit some effects of the atmospheric circulation on the isotopic fields for the simulated lgm climate the model results compare well with paleoclimatic data of water isotopic contents except for a higher than observed spatial variability the overall patterns of the simulated 18o temperature relationship for the lgm climate are practically unchanged which tends to comfort the use of water isotopes in paleoclimatology however concerning the deuterium excess i e the relationship between oxygen 18 and deuterium the model results are not sufficiently valid to allow a discussion of the use of deuterium excess in paleoclimatology

stable isotope air temperature relationships in ice cores from dolleman island and the palmer land plateau antarctic peninsula whilst stable isotope analysis of ice cores yields the best quantitative evidence for past climate there remains considerable uncertainty about the detailed relationship between the isotopic composition and air temperature analysis of two ice cores from the antarctic peninsula a 47 2 m core from the palmer land plateau 74 oi s 70 38 w and a 32 m core from dolleman island 70035 2 s 60055 5 w has shown that an oxygen isotope temperature relationship exists at a resolution of inter annual variations during the period 1938 86 all the major regional temperature anomalies known from climatic records at several stations are visible in the isotope profiles including the overall temperature increase between 1960 and 1980 an isotope temperature gradient of 0 5 o 6 c is indicated for the climatic interpretation of isotopic fluctu

periglacial features in patriot hills ellsworth mountains antarctica abstract this work describes periglacial features identified at patriot hills at the southernmost part of ellsworth mountains antarctica during the 2008 2009 brazilian antarctic expedition and discusses their morphogenetic environment identified periglacial features were classified into a rock glacier like landform b slightly creeping debris mantled slopes c steep debris mantled slopes and d rock falls results obtained from sediment sample analysis suggest activity and passive movement of a rock glacier like landform albeit minimal wind seems to play an important role in patriot hills local geomorphology periglacial features such as slightly creeping debris mantled slope appear to have preferred slope orientation they are commonly found onto slopes where the katabatic wind flows down slopewash and groundwater movement processes may be limited or non existent since most snow disappears through sublimation