effects of sample mass and macrofossil type on radiocarbon dating of arctic and boreal lake sediments dating lake sediments by accelerator mass spectrometry ams 14 c analysis of terrestrial plant macrofossils overcomes one of the main problems associated with dating bulk sediment samples i e the presence of old organic matter even so many ams dates from arctic and boreal sites appear to misrepresent the age of the sediment to understand the nature of these apparent dating anomalies better we conducted a series of 14 c dating experiments using samples from alaskan and siberian lake sediment cores first to test whether our analytical procedures introduced a sample mass bias we obtained 14 c dates for different sized pieces of single woody macrofossils in these sample mass experiments statistically equivalent ages were found for samples as small as 0 05 mg c secondly to assess whether macrofossil type influenced dating results we conducted sample type experiments in which 14 c dates were obtained for different macrofossil types sieved from the same depth in the sediment we dated materials from multiple levels in sediment cores from upper capsule lake north slope northern alaska and grizzly lake copper river basin southern alaska and from single depths in other records from northern alaska in several of the experiments there were significant discrepancies between dates for different plant tissues and in most cases wood and charcoal were older than other macrofossil types usually by several hundred years this pattern suggests that 14 c dates for woody macrofossils may misrepresent the age of the sediment by centuries perhaps because of their longer terrestrial residence time and the potential in built age of long lived plants this study identifies why some 14 c dates appear to be inconsistent with the overall age depth trend of a lake sediment record and it may guide the selection of 14 c samples in future studies

tide model accuracy in the amundsen sea antarctica from radar interferometry observations of ice shelf motion 1 this study assesses the accuracy of tide model predictions in the amundsen sea sector of west antarctica tide model accuracy in this region is poorly constrained yet tide models contribute to simulations of ocean heat transfer and to the removal of tidal signals from satellite observations of ice shelves we use two satellite based interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar methods to measure the tidal motion of the dotson ice shelf at multiple epochs a single difference technique that measures tidal displacement and a double difference technique that measures changes in tidal displacement we use these observations to evaluate predictions from three tide models tpxo7 1 cats2008a opt and fes2004 all three models perform comparably well exhibiting root mean square deviations from the observations of 9 cm single difference technique and 10 cm double difference technique care should be taken in generalizing these error statistics because 1 the dotson ice shelf experiences relatively small semidiurnal tides and 2 our observations are not sensitive to all tidal constituents an error analysis of our insar based methods indicates measurement errors of 7 and 4 cm for the single and double difference techniques respectively a model based correction for the effect of fluctuations in atmospheric pressure yields an 6 improvement in the agreement between tide model predictions and observations this study suggests that tide model accuracy in the amundsen sea is comparable to other antarctic regions where tide models are better constrained these methods can be used to evaluate tide models in other remote antarctic waters

rapid disintegration of the wordie ice shelf in response to atmospheric warming the breaking up of ice shelves around the antarctic peninsula has been cited1 as a sign that a dangerous warming is beginning in antarctica here we present satellite images showing the disintegration of the wordie ice shelf which lies off the west coast of the antarctic peninsula fig 1 fracture either in the form of surface crevasses or rifts extending to the bottom of the ice shelf has been responsible for iceberg calving and weakening the central region of the ice shelf these fracture processes which led to retreat of the ice front were apparently enhanced by the presence of increased amounts of melt water resulting from a warming trend recorded in mean annual air temperatures in marguerite bay if this warming trend continues other nearby ice shelves on the antarctic peninsula may be at risk but substantial additional warming would be required before similar processes could initiate breakup of the ross and filchner ronne ice shelves which help stabilize the west antarctic ice sheet

larsen ice shelf has progressively thinned the retreat and collapse of antarctic peninsula ice shelves in tandem with a regional atmospheric warming has fueled speculation as to how these events may be related satellite radar altimeter measurements show that between 1992 and 2001 the larsen ice shelf lowered by up to 0 27 0 11 meters per year the lowering is explained by increased summer meltwater and the loss of basal ice through melting enhanced ocean driven melting may provide a simple link between regional climate warming and the successive disintegration of sections of the larsen ice shelf

residual ocean tide signals from satellite altimetry grace gravity fields and hydrodynamic modelling summary improvements of a global state of the art ocean tide model are identified and quantified by applying three independent approaches namely i empirical ocean tide analysis of multimission altimeter data ii evaluation of grace data and gravity field models and iii high resolution hydrodynamic modelling although these approaches have different capabilities to sense ocean tides they obtain results which are basically consistent one with each other the analysis of altimeter data clearly identifies significant residual amplitudes over shallow water for all major diurnal and semidiurnal constituents and the non linear tide m4 grace data and the time series of monthly gravity field models exhibit on a larger scale residual ocean tide signals over much the same areas the analysis of dynamic residuals of hydrodynamic modelling with data assimilation proves the validity of linear dynamics in the deep ocean and shows correlation of dynamic residuals with energy dissipation in these areas

a 14 000yr paleoenvironmental record from windmill lake central alaska lateglacial and holocene vegetation in the alaska range abstract a 14 000 yr high resolution pollen and lake level record from windmill lake in central alaska provides new evidence for the late pleistocene and holocene paleoenvironments of this region at 14 000 14 c yr bp sparse herb tundra and low lake levels indicate a cold arid environment about 11 800 14 c yr bp the vegetation abruptly shifted to a shrub tundra and lake levels increased suggesting warmer and more mesic conditions ca 10 500 10 200 14 c yr bp herbaceous taxa increased at the expense of the shrubs suggesting a transient episode of climatic deterioration nearly contemporaneous with the younger dryas chronozone by 8000 14 c yr bp spruce was present in the watershed and alder grew locally by 6500 14 c yr bp the ams radiocarbon chronology indicates later expansions of betula picea and alnus than at most sites in central alaska which are conventionally dated

boreal ecosystem development in the northwestern alaska range since 11 000 yr b p abstract analyses of pollen plant macrofossils macroscopic charcoal mollusks magnetic susceptibility and geochemical content of a sediment core from farewell lake yield a 11 000 yr record of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem changes in the northwestern foothills of the alaska range between 11 000 and 8500 yr b p the regional landscape was dominated by abetulashrub tundra in whichpopulus salixcommunities were common abundant charcoal in sediments indicates that fires were common in the lake catchment during this period and high mineral accumulation rates allogenic elemental content and magnetic susceptibility suggest intense soil erosion in addition mollusks pollen and macrofossils of aquatic macrophytes and biogenic silica provide evidence that the lake was substantially shallower and more productive 11 000 8500 yr b p than later low lake level and high aquatic productivity might have been caused by warm and dry summers associated with early postglacial insolation maximum in northern high latitudes about 8000 yr b p picea glaucaarrived within the lake catchment forming a forest tundra association until ca 6000 yr b p alnusshrub thickets established in the region ca 6500 yr b p andbetula papyriferaarrived ca 6000 yr b p closedp glaucaforests developed ca 6000 yr b p picea marianabecame important subsequently and replacedp glaucaas the dominant tree species in the region ca 4000 yr b p an increase in authigenic fe mn ratios suggests that the development of waterlogged soils accompanied this vegetation change fires increased in importance at this time and might have accelerated soil erosion the establishment ofp marianaforests probably reflected complex responses of forest ecosystems to the onset of cooler and wetter climate conditions during the late holocene

implications for the dating of wisconsinan weichselian late glacial events of systematic radiocarbon age differences between terrestrial plant macrofossils from a site in sw ireland abstract ams radiocarbon dates were obtained from salix herbacea leaves carex seeds and bulk organic detritus from a lake sediment profile of wisconsinan weichselian lateglacial age in sw ireland there is a systematic age difference between the dated series from the two types of macrofossils with ages obtained from salix herbacea leaves being 900 to 1500 14 c years younger than those obtained from carex seeds the latter tend to be more in accord with dates from the total organic detritus in the lake sediment although the bulk organic fraction invariably registered the older ages intact survival of the fragile salix leaves indicates that they are unlikely to have been physically transferred within the sediment matrix and or otherwise reworked from the surrounding catchment hence these macrofossils are the more likely to be contemporaneous with the time of deposition however there is no significant correlation between measured 14 c age and depth in the salix values which scatter over a range of 700 14 c years in contrast the age depth relationship for carex shows a significant reversal possibly reflecting the redeposition of these macrofossils and therefore giving radiocarbon ages that are anomalously old the data have important implications for the dating of lake sediment sequences by ams radiocarbon measurement of terrestrial plant macrofossils

ice shelf elevation changes due to atmospheric pressure variations the inverse barometer effect ibe is the isostatic response of ocean surface height to changes in atmospheric pressure p air at a rate of about 1 cm hpa 1 the ibe is a significant contributor to variability of ice shelf surface elevation ice as we demonstrate with simultaneous global positioning system measurements of ice and local measurements of p air from the amery brunt and ross ice shelves antarctica we find that an ibe correction is justified for frequencies covering the weather band 0 03 0 5 cpd cycles per day the ibe correction reduces the standard deviation of the weather band signal of ice from 9 cm to 3 cm with this correction the largest remaining high frequency error signal in ice is the inaccuracy of the present generation of antarctic tide models estimated to be of order 10 cm for most of antarctica

rapid environmental changes in southern europe during the last glacial period oxygen isotope records from greenland ice cores1 2 indicate numerous rapid climate fluctuations during the last glacial period north atlantic marine sediment cores show comparable variability in sea surface temperature and the deposition of ice rafted debris3 4 5 in contrast very few continental records of this time period provide the temporal resolution and environmental sensitivity necessary to reveal the extent and effects of these environmental fluctuations on the continents here we present high resolution geochemical physical and pollen data from lake sediments in italy and from a mediterranean sediment core linked by a common tephrochronology our lacustrine sequence extends to the past 102 000 years many of its features correlate well with the greenland ice core records demonstrating that the closely coupled ocean atmosphere system of the northern hemisphere during the last glacial4 extended its influence at least as far as the central mediterranean region numerous vegetation changes were rapid frequently occurring in less than 200 years showing that the terrestrial biosphere participated fully in last glacial climate variability earlier than 65 000 years ago our record shows more climate fluctuations than are apparent in the greenland ice cores together the multi proxy data from the continental and marine records reveal differences in the seasonal character of climate during successive interstadials and provide a step towards determining the underlying mechanisms of the centennial millennial scale variability

tides on the ross ice shelf observed with icesat 1 the ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat provides the first opportunity for measurement of surface elevation hi over the portions of the antarctic ice shelves that are south of the european remote sensing ers satellite maximum latitude 81 5 s the dominant source of short period variability in hi is ocean tides we use crossover elevation difference hi data from the ross ice shelf ris to demonstrate icesat s ability to detect the tidal signal and to compare the accuracy of several tide models the root mean square rms value of all ris measurements of hi is 0 74 m after removing the tide using the most accurate model the rms of the residual signal in regions of optimal model performance is 0 16 0 03 m this value corresponds to an uncertainty in hi of 0 11 0 02 m we postulate that the primary sources of the residual signal are tide model errors and the inverse barometer effect

tidally induced variations in vertical and horizontal motion on rutford ice stream west antarctica inferred from remotely sensed observations to better understand the influence of stress changes over floating ice shelves on grounded ice streams we develop a bayesian method for inferring time dependent 3 d surface velocity fields from synthetic aperture radar sar and optical remote sensing data our specific goal is to observe ocean tide induced variability in vertical ice shelf position and horizontal ice stream flow thus we consider the special case where observed surface displacement at a given location can be defined by a 3 d secular velocity vector a family of 3 d sinusoidal functions and a correction to the digital elevation model used to process the sar data using nearly 9 months of sar data collected from multiple satellite viewing geometries with the cosmo skymed 4 satellite constellation we infer the spatiotemporal response of rutford ice stream west antarctica to ocean tidal forcing consistent with expected tidal uplift inferred vertical motion over the ice shelf is dominated by semidiurnal and diurnal tidal constituents horizontal ice flow variability on the other hand occurs primarily at the fortnightly spring neap tidal period m sf we propose that periodic grounding of the ice shelf is the primary mechanism for translating vertical tidal motion into horizontal flow variability causing ice flow to accelerate first and most strongly over the ice shelf flow variations then propagate through the grounded ice stream at a mean rate of 29 km d and decay quasi linearly with distance over 85 km upstream of the grounding zone

modeling antarctic tides in response to ice shelf thinning and retreat tides play an important role in ice sheet dynamics by modulating ice stream velocity fracturing and moving ice shelves and mixing water beneath them any changes in ice shelf extent or thickness will alter the tidal dynamics through modification of water column thickness and coastal topography but these will in turn feed back onto the overall ice shelf stability here we show that removal or reduction in extent and or thickness of the ross and ronne filchner ice shelves would have a significant impact on the tides around antarctica the ronne filchner appears particularly vulnerable with an increase in m2 amplitude of over 0 5 m beneath much of the ice shelf potentially leading to tidally induced feedbacks on ice shelf sheet dynamics these results highlight the importance of understanding tidal feedbacks on ice shelves streams due to their influence on ice sheet dynamics

interdecadal climate variability in the subpolar north atlantic the statistical relationships between various components of the subpolar north atlantic air sea ice climate system are reexamined in order to investigate potential processes involved in interdecadal climate variability it is found that sea surface temperature anomalies concentrated in the labrador sea region have a strong impact upon atmospheric sea level pressure anomalies over greenland which in turn influence the transport of freshwater and ice anomalies out of the arctic ocean via fram strait these freshwater and ice anomalies are advected around the subpolar gyre into the labrador sea affecting convection and the formation of labrador sea water this has an impact upon the transport of north atlantic current water into the subpolar gyre and thus also upon sea surface temperatures in the region an interdecadal negative feedback loop is therefore proposed as an internal source of climate variability within the subpolar north atlantic through the lags associated with the correlations between different climatic components observed horizontal advection time scales and the use of boolean delay equation models the time scale for one cycle of this feedback loop is determined to have a period of about 21 years

comparative radiocarbon dating of terrestrial plant macrofossils and aquatic moss from the ice free corridor of western canada in order to assess the reliability of aquatic moss for radiocarbon dating sup 14 c analyses were performed on a stratigraphic series of terrestrial plant macrofossils and samples of drepanocladus crassicostatus from a small hard water lake ph 8 2 in the ice free corridor of alberta all sup 14 c dating was done by using accelerator mass spectrometry mazama ash provided an independent chronological control the aquatic bryophyte samples consistently produced sup 14 c ages significantly older than the terrestrial macrofossils the relation between the radiocarbon dates from the macrofossils and the moss was not linear and age differences ranged from approximately 1400 to 6400 yr the sup 14 c content of d crassicostatus growing in the lake at present was less than 85 modern despite the apparent inability to take up sup 14 c deficient carbon by the direct incorporation of bicarbonate the bryophytes clearly do not provide reliable material sup 14 c dating the sup 14 c deficiency of aquatic mosses may be explained by the generation of sup 14 c deficient co sub 2 through isotopic exchange the formation of co sub 2 from bicarbonate by chemical processes and metabolic co sub 2 production these results demonstrate the potential unreliability of sup 14 c dates from aquatic mosses and raise serious concernsmore about the deglaciation dates from the ice free corridor that were obtained from aquatic drepanocladus less

assimilation of grace tide solutions into a numerical hydrodynamic inverse model 1 we assimilate localized mass anomalies inferred from grace ranging measurements into a hydrodynamic model to improve tidal solutions around antarctica for the m2 s2 and o1 constituents the variational approach used accounts for the spatial averaging of tidal elevations implicit in the mass anomaly parametrization used for the grace tidal analysis as well as spatial correlation of errors in the resulting estimates the inverse solution shows better agreement with independent station tide measurements around antarctica and it reduces cross over residuals for icesat laser altimeter data over the filchner ronne and ross ice shelves demonstrating that grace data can provide useful constraints for improving hydrodynamic tidal models at high latitudes

a new tide model for the antarctic ice shelves and seas we describe a new tide model for the seas surrounding antarctica including the ocean cavities under the floating ice shelves the model uses data assimilation to improve its fit to available data typical peak to peak tide ranges on ice shelves are 1 2 m but can exceed 3 m for the filchner ronne and larsen ice shelves in the weddell sea spring tidal ranges are about twice these values model performance is judged relative to the 5 10 cm accuracy that is needed to fully utilize ice shelf height data that will be collected with the geoscience laser altimeter system scheduled to be launched on the ice cloud and land elevation satellite in late 2002 the model does not yet achieve this level of accuracy except very near the few high quality tidal records that have been assimilated into the model some improvement in predictive skill is expected from increased sophistication of model physics but we also require better definition of ice shelf grounding lines and more accurate water column thickness data in shelf seas and under the ice shelves long duration tide measurements bottom pressure gauge or gps in critical data sparse areas particularly near and on the filchner ronne and ross ice shelves and pine island bay are required to improve the performance of the data assimilation model

accelerator mass spectrometer ages for late glacial events at ballybetagh ireland abstract although the character of late glacial vegetation development in ireland is well known the dating is weak for a number of reasons we report six accelerator mass spectrometer ams 14 c dates of hand picked organic material from ballybetagh several of the dates are based on terrestrial plant remains thus eliminating the commonly encountered problem associated with irish sites of errors due to the hard water effect the two most significant indicate that 1 the rumex salix zone which represents the initial establishment of vegetation following deglaciation began about 12 600 yr b p and 2 the classic younger dryas began at 10 600 yr b p somewhat younger than the traditionally accepted age of 11 000 yr b p

stratified interglacial lacustrine sediments from baffin island arctic canada chronology and paleoenvironmental implications abstract thirteen of 18 piston cores recovered from robinson lake in the mid arctic vegetation zone of baffin island arctic canada penetrated stratified lacustrine sediment beneath a thin over consolidated diamict till and postglacial lacustrine sediment the sub till lacustrine units are up to 120 cm thick of which the upper several decimeters frequently contain thick layered mats of aquatic moss pollen and diatoms are common throughout both lacustrine units a series of 23 ams 14c dates defines the chronology of the postglacial sequence which records a succession from a pioneer grass and oxyria dominated tundra between 10 4 and 8 ka bp to a sedge dominated tundra after 8 ka bp limiting 14c dates place the sub till lacustrine sediments more than 40 ka bp 10 luminescence dates centered on 85 ka indicate they were deposited late in oxygen isotope stage ois 5 the dominance of shrub and tree pollen especially shrub birch and alder in sub till lacustrine samples indicates low arctic tundra farther north than at any time during the holocene pollen concentrations are comparable to or higher than in the holocene units cooling late in the interglacial is indicated by declining birch and alder pollen percentages in the upper part of the section diatom floras in both the sub till and postglacial lacustrine sequences indicate similar development of lake water chemistry but input of silica and weathering products was greater in the older lake cycle suggesting more vigorous catchment processes macrofossils in the sub till units are characteristic of lakes ice free in summer based on pollen assemblages indicating local and regional vegetation diagnostic of summer temperatures higher than the holocene we interpret the sub till lacustrine units to be of interglacial character by analogy with holocene plant succession in central and eastern canada all of keewatin and labrador ungava must have been ice free throughout this interval suggesting essentially complete deglaciation of the laurentide ice sheet at the time

anomalous radiocarbon ages from a holocene detrital organic lens in alaska and their implications for radiocarbon dating and paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the arctic abstract eleven radiocarbon age determinations clearly show that a lens of holocene fluvial organic debris on the alaskan arctic coastal plain contains mostly pre holocene organic material radio carbon ages of identified plant macrofossils indicate the material was deposited about 9000 to 9500 yr b p radiocarbon analyses of bulk samples from this deposit however range from 13 300 to 30 300 yr b p most of the old organic matter seems to be in the smaller size fractions in the deposit particularly in the fraction between 0 25 and 0 5 mm but all size fractions are contaminated particular caution must be exercised in submitting bulk samples for radiocarbon dating from areas where conditions favor redeposition of isotopically dead carbon

icesat antarctic elevation data preliminary precision and accuracy assessment 1 since first light on february 20th 2003 nasa s ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat has derived surface elevations from 86 n to 86 s latitude these unique altimetry data have been acquired in a series of observation periods in repeated track patterns using all three geoscience laser altimeter system glas lasers here we focus on antarctic ice sheet elevation data that were obtained in 2003 2004 we present preliminary precision and accuracy assessments of selected elevation data and discuss factors impacting elevation change detection we show that for low slope and clear sky conditions the precision of gla12 laser 2a release 21 data is 2 1 cm and the relative accuracy of icesat elevations is 14 cm based on crossover differences

ice shelf tidal motion derived from ers altimetry 1 ocean tides beneath floating ice shelves can affect heat and water circulations within the subshelf cavity which may influence patterns of basal melting accurate tidal predictions are essential to eliminate vertical tide motions when mapping the flow speeds and thickness changes of floating ice global ocean tide solutions are typically accurate to 2 3 cm in amplitude however their coarse resolution limits their utility in coastal regions moreover the absence of satellite and extensive gauge station data in the polar regions has resulted in significant differences between recent tide model solutions around the antarctic continent we use 9 years of high resolution european remote sensing ers satellite radar altimeter range measurements and a modified form of the orthotide method to generate tidal solutions for a series of ice shelves around the antarctic peninsula we compare our tidal solution at george vi ice shelf on the western coast of the antarctic peninsula to direct measurements from british antarctic survey tide gauge records and contrast the results with solutions from the fes99 and kantha2 0 global and the cats01 02 antarctic ocean tide models the average root mean square vector difference between the tide gauge and tide model predictions of amplitude and phase was 10 9 17 1 4 2 and 15 4 cm for the ers ice shelf kantha2 0 cats01 02 and fes99 models respectively tidal predictions derived from the ers ice shelf model are closer to the tide gauge recordings than those of the global models and the inclusion of ers altimeter data may lead to improved global model performance

tides on filchner ronne ice shelf from ers radar altimetry 1 we use harmonic analysis of 8 years of ers satellite radar altimeter ra data at orbital crossovers to retrieve complex amplitude amplitude and phase coefficients for several major tidal harmonics over the filchner ronne ice shelf fris antarctica we describe a method for estimating the accuracy of this method which ranges from 2 to 8 cm per harmonic a comparison between m2 complex amplitude from a recent ocean model and from our ers ra analyses identifies two regions of the fris where the ra data are inconsistent with the model in both regions the differences can be attributed to incorrect specification of the grounding line location in the model our study demonstrates the value of ers ra data in antarctic ice shelf tide modeling and the potential for future altimeter satellites with high polar orbits to contribute to the definition of global tide height variations

fine resolution pollen record of late glacial climate reversal from new zealand the temporal relationship between rapid climate shifts in the northern and southern hemispheres at the end of the last glacial is crucial to understanding how the global climate system functions during periods of major transition a detailed southern hemisphere mid latitude pollen record from a climatically sensitive and well dated upland site in new zealand unlike previous interpretations shows clear evidence of late glacial climate changes similar in structure to those in the northern hemisphere including a cooling interval from ca 11 600 to 10 700 14 c yr b p because the cooling interval occurred ca 600 14 c yr before the younger dryas chron our record thus also suggests that some global climatic events during the last deglaciation may have registered earlier in the southern hemisphere

surface elevation changes at the front of the ross ice shelf implications for basal melting 1 rapid melting beneath the ross ice shelf ris occurs near the ice front likely in response to a secondary buoyant plume with tidal mixing and is sensitive to seasonal water temperatures in front of the ice shelf the front of the ris is examined using glas icesat laser altimetry data spatial and temporal changes in surface elevations are attributed to enhanced basal melting of the ice shelf near the ice front melt rates b increase exponentially as the front is approached from approximately zero at 40 km from the front to an average of 2 8 1 0 m a 1 within the front kilometer melt estimates within the front 60 km are best fit by the relationship b 2 0 exp x 11900 m a 1 where x denotes distance from the front frontal melt totals approximately 16 km3 a 1 in the front 40 km which accounts for between 10 and 40 of current published estimates of total melt beneath the ris spatial averaging along the front reveals a different pattern of melt in regions that have recently calved as compared to regions that have not calved frontal melt is modeled as a one dimensional buoyant plume with tidal currents included these model results imply that modest increases in sea surface temperatures will lead to considerable increases in melting beneath the ice shelf front

improving antarctic tide models by assimilation of icesat laser altimetry over ice shelves 1 assimilation of laser altimeter data from the ice cloud and land elevation satellite icesat significantly improves the accuracy of ocean tide models for the ross ice shelf ris for the most energetic tidal harmonic k1 assimilation reduces the root mean square error rmse between the model and a set of 16 independent tide records on and near the ris from 6 0 to 2 8 cm and the combined rmse for the six most energetic tidal harmonics from 7 7 to 5 4 cm when only the six most recent and highest quality tide records are considered the combined rmse is 4 8 cm this value is close to the uncertainty expected from tidal analyses of the short 1 2 month validation records indicating that assessing further improvements in tide model accuracy will require development of a higher quality validation data set

tide deflection of campbell glacier tongue antarctica analyzed by double differential sar interferometry and finite element method abstract a glacier tongue the terminus of a glacier projecting out from the coastline and floating over the ocean experiences vertical deflection due to the fluctuation of ocean tide accurate analysis of the tidal deflection of a glacier tongue is necessary to understand the elastic properties and dynamics of glacial ice we extracted the tidal deflection of campbell glacier tongue cgt one of the fast flowing glacier tongues in east antarctica by using 120 double differential interferometric sar ddinsar images from the 16 cosmo skymed one day tandem interferometric sar image pairs obtained during 2010 and 2011 a map of tide deflection ratio map defined as the ratio of the tidal deflection over tide height was generated by pixel based linear regression between the ddinsar derived tidal deflection and the tidal variation predicted by various tide models such as tpxo7 1 fes2004 cats2008a and ross inv after the inverse barometer effect correction we also generated the maps of r 2 root mean square error rmse and intercept of the linear regression model we confirmed that the horizontal flow of the campbell glacier is steady over the whole data acquisition period due to the fact that values were close to zero over the grounded part of the glacier ross inv provided the most reliable map with the highest r 2 0 97 and the smallest rmse 0 3 cm beyond the hinge zone than other tide models the spatial variation of the tidal response of the whole cgt was clearly defined from the map the grounding line retreated by 0 3 1 5 km in comparison with that in 1996 defined by rignot et al 2011a the ice thickness of cgt was estimated to be 397 71 m from icesat surface elevation data the young s modulus of cgt was found to be 0 5 1 3 gpa 0 8 gpa at an ice thickness of 397 m by simulating the in the hinge zone using a 2 dimensional finite element method

radiocarbon geochemistry of modern and ancient arctic lake systems baffin island canada the accuracy of arctic lake chronologies has been assessed by measuring the14c activities of modern carbon sources and applying these isotopic mass balances to dating fossil lake materials small 1 km2 shallow 25 m arctic lakes with watersheds 12 km2have soil and peat stratigraphic sections with14c activities ranging from 98 to 51 modern the14c activity of particulate organic carbon dissolved organic carbon and dissolved inorganic carbon from lake and stream waters ranges from 121 to 95 modern the sediment water interface of the studied lakes shows consistent14c ages of 100014c yr although the14c activity of living aquatic vegetation is 115 modern radiocarbon measurements of components of the lacustrine carbon pool imply that the 100014c yr age of the sediment water interface results from deposition of14c depleted organic matter derived from the watershed

late quaternary paleoenvironments and modern pollen data from wrangel island northern chukotka abstract new lacustrine records from central and southern wrangel island are analyzed for their pollen content in an attempt to clarify possible linkages between paleoenvironmental shifts and the dwarfing and or extinction of the island s mammoth population a younger dryas aged peat is also examined to provide better understanding of the regional climatic history samples of surficial lake sediments from wrangel island and chukotka aid in interpreting the lacustrine records the modern spectra differentiate the herb dominated tundra of wrangel island from the shrub tundras of the mainland and are unique when compared to other arctic assemblages analysis of the fossil data indicates that a herb dominated tundra has been present on southern and central wrangel island since at least 11 ka bp comparison to modern palynological data implies little change in vegetation during the holocene the lacustrine interpretations contrast to those based on paleobotanical study of peats and alluvium which suggest modern vegetation was not present until ca 4 3 ka bp pre holocene assemblages have high percentages of cyperaceae pollen perhaps indicating more moderate conditions summer climate is inferred to be warmer and moister than present during the latest pleistocene and early holocene the pattern of postglacial warming on wrangel island is more like that from eastern beringia than from other areas of western beringia modern synoptic anomaly maps indicate that such a climatic pattern is reasonable and related to the presence of negative anomalies over western beringia and a region of weaker positive 500 mb pressure centered over the beaufort sea

a preliminary tidal analysis of icesat laser altimetry southern ross ice shelf 1 satellite laser altimetry could soon play a key role in mapping poorly known ocean tides underneath antarctic ice shelves the amount of icesat data now collected over the southernmost part of the ross ice shelf is sufficient to warrant direct tidal analysis tides are estimated here from ten operational icesat periods totaling 363 days a response analysis helps overcome unfavorable tidal sampling especially an s2 correlation with the annual cycle comparisons of tidal estimates against independent station data show rms constituent differences around 3 cm still somewhat large but an encouraging result for such a challenging region

accuracy assessment of ocean tide models around antarctica 1 accurate ocean tide models for the circum antarctic seas are required to remove unwanted signals from floating ice elevation and space borne time variable gravity measurements e g grace we present accuracy assessments for several global csr4 fes2004 fes99 got00 2 nao 99b tpxo6 2 and antarctic cada00 10 and cats02 01 ocean tide models using coastal and pelagic tide gauges gravimetric data and gps records of ice shelf surface elevation the accuracies of csr4 and nao 99b are poor in the ice shelf regions the optimum model for the entire circum antarctic seas is tpxo6 2 with a root mean square deviation of 5 7 cm 40 lower than the next best model fes2004 the main exception is the filchner ronne ice shelf where cada00 10 and cats02 01 most accurately represent observations from two sites near the rutford ice stream grounding line

ocean tides in the weddell sea new observations on the filchner ronne and larsen c ice shelves and model validation 1 ocean tides under the large weddell sea ice shelves are among the least well observed on earth here we present new spatially extensive observations of the vertical tidal motion of the filchner ronne and larsen c ice shelves using global positioning system gps data spanning a few weeks to years we pay particular attention to the major tidal constituents m2 s2 o1 k1 as well as important grace aliasing periods k2 and s1 we compare the estimated constituents with recent global and regional tide models and find that no single model is the most accurate across all constituents or ice shelves the root sum square errors are 7 8 cm cats2008a and tpxo7 2 and 11 12 cm got4 7 and fes2004 with the energetic m2 rmse 4 8 cm and s2 4 5 cm generally dominating these statistics the fes2004 k1 is particularly inaccurate near the larsen c ice shelf with errors approaching 20 cm meaning that grace release 4 estimates of mass change in the northern antarctic peninsula will be biased we find tidal energy at 3 4 5 6 and weakly at 7 cycles per day at all of our sites the largest amplitudes within these bands are at m4 mo3 and sp3 and approach 30 mm although significant spatial variations exist we show that they generally do not appear to originate in areas of reduced water column in ice shelf grounding zones comparing model estimates with our m4 ms4 and mn4 values shows that models do not accurately represent these terms

radiocarbon dating of pollen by accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating of bulk sediments has been the standard method for establishing chronologies in the studies of lake sediment cores which have contributed significantly to our knowledge of late quaternary paleo environments these bulk sediment dates are presumed to be direct ageindicators for the speciments e g pollen or macrofossils which are actually being studied however several recent studies have reinforced long standing apprehensions concerning this presumption in this study we demonstrate for the first time the radiocarbon dating of pollen concentrate samples by accelerator mass spectrometry the dates obtained by this method should provide more reliable radiocarbon chronologies for paleo environmental studies than have been obtainable by bulk sediment dating