IPY: Adding Continuous Black Carbon Analysis to the Norwegian-US Traverse Ice Core Measurements

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This award supports a project to add high-resolution continuous black carbon measurements to the IPY Norwegian-US traverse glaciochemical analyses. At present, very little is known regarding black carbon particles over Antarctica or its presence in Antarctic snow and ice. Recently a new analytical method for measuring black carbon in water, that is nearly a million times more sensitive than existing methods, has been developed. An ice core from West Antarctica was analyzed at very high temporal resolution and a number of discoveries were made. The project will investigate the spatial and temporal history of black carbon deposition to Antarctica and its relationship to black carbon aerosol and climate in the Southern Hemisphere. The intellectual merit of this work is that Black Carbon (BC) aerosols result solely from combustion and play a critical but poorly quantified role in global climate forcing and the carbon cycle. When incorporated into snow and ice, BC increases absorption of solar radiation making seasonal snow packs, mountain glaciers, polar ice sheets, and sea ice much more vulnerable to climate warming. However, little is known regarding the history of BC in the atmosphere or its presence in meteoric and terrestrial waters. These particles are also a unique atmospheric tracer, which at remote locations such as the polar ice caps, can be used to investigate atmospheric circulation. Because of the recent invention of an ultra-sensitive black carbon analytical method, the BC record preserved in the Antarctic ice sheet can now be determined with high temporal resolution. In terms of broader impacts, the project represents a paradigm shift in our ability to reconstruct the history of fire from ice core records and to understand its impact on atmospheric chemistry and climate over millennial time scales. This has been a goal of many scientists over the past several decades. Data from the project will be made rapidly available to the larger scientific community. This type of data is especially needed to drive global circulation model simulations of black carbon aerosols, which have been found to be an important component of global warming and which may be perturbing the hydrologic cycle. The project will also employ undergraduate students and is committed to attracting under-represented groups to the physical sciences. The project?s outreach component will be conducted as part of the Norwegian-US traverse?s outreach program and will reach a wide audience.