Climate Dynamics

, Volume 21, Issue 2, pp 153–166 | Cite as

Recent southern Indian Ocean climate variability inferred from a Law Dome ice core: new insights for the interpretation of coastal Antarctic isotopic records

  • V. Masson-Delmotte
  • M. Delmotte
  • V. Morgan
  • D. Etheridge
  • T. van Ommen
  • S. Tartarin
  • G. Hoffmann
Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Stable isotopes in water have been measured along a very high accumulation ice core from Law Dome on the east Antarctic coast. These enable a detailed comparison of the isotopic records over sixty years (1934–1992) with local (Antarctic station data) and remote meteorological observations (atmospheric reanalyses and sea-surface temperature estimates) on a seasonal to inter-annual time scale. Using both observations and isotopic atmospheric general circulation model (GCM) results, we quantify the relationships between stable isotopes (δ18O, δD and deuterium excess; d = δD –8 × δ18O) with site and source temperature at seasonal and decadal time scales, showing the large imprint of source conditions on Law Dome isotopes. These calibrations provide new insights for the quantitative interpretation of temporal isotopic fluctuations from coastal Antarctic ice cores. An abrupt change in the local meridional atmospheric circulation is clearly identified from Law Dome deuterium excess during the 1970s and analysed using GCM simulations.

Keywords

Moisture Source Decadal Time Scale Southern Indian Ocean Interannual Time Scale Seasonal Time Scale 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgements.

We are grateful to J.-M. Barnola, A. Manouvrier, P. Bradley, and other persons involved in ice coring, field operations and ice core processing. We thank N. Young who took charge of the transfer of the samples from Australia to France. We acknowledge Olivier Cattani, Sonia Falourd, Michel Stiévenard and Claude Alba for the quality of the isotopic measurements. We also thank Martin Werner and Ian Simmonds for the availability of their model and analyses results, Paul Pettré for discussions about Dumont d'Urville meteorology and for the compilation of local sea-ice extent records. The manuscript has been improved by comments from Jean Jouzel, Françoise Vimeux and Hou Shugui. We deeply thank Ian Simmonds and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. The stable isotope work at LSCE is funded by CEA, CNRS (PNEDC) and by the European Community. This is LSCE contribution 0820.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2003

Authors and Affiliations

  • V. Masson-Delmotte
    • 1
  • M. Delmotte
    • 1
    • 4
  • V. Morgan
    • 2
  • D. Etheridge
    • 3
  • T. van Ommen
    • 2
  • S. Tartarin
    • 1
  • G. Hoffmann
    • 1
  1. 1.Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, IPSL, UMR CEA-CNRS 1572, L'Orme des Merisiers, Bât. 709, 91 191 Gif-sur-Yvette cédex, France
  2. 2.Antarctic CRC and Australian Antarctic Division, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
  3. 3.CSIRO, Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia
  4. 4.Now at Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP-CNRS, UMR 7579), Laboratoire de Géochimie et Cosmochimie, 4, Place Jussieu, Tour 14, 3ème étage, 75252 Paris Cédex 05, France

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