Reactive Gas Chemistry in the Dome C Snowpack and its Influence on Surface Layer Chemistry and Ice Core Records

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This US-French collaboration seeks to further our understanding of the photochemical processes taking place in snow and firn, and the influences they may have on surface exchange between snowpack and the polar atmosphere. Such processes potentially impact the atmospheric composition of trace gases over the Antarctic continent. Vertically and temporally resolved records of ozone, nitrogen oxides (NOx), CO as well as selected hydrocarbons in the lower 10m of the atmosphere at Dome C will be sought over the course of this ~1+ season. Shading perturbation experiments will also be undertaken to investigate photochemical transformations of photochemical oxidants in interstitial snowpack air. Similar measurements that have been made at Summit (Greenland) will provide a basis for comparison, and a further refinement of a physical and chemical snowpack model depicting our understanding of snowpack-atmosphere chemical cycling in polar ice sheets. By providing the core of a CU graduate student research project, this effort fosters international research connections.