Recent changes in north-west Greenland climate documented by NEEM shallow ice core data and simulations, and implications for past-temperature reconstructions

Valérie Masson-Delmotte (1, 2) , H. C. Steen-Larsen (1) , P Ortega (1) , D Swingedouw (3) , T Popp (4) , B.M. Vinther (4) , H Oerter (5) , A. E. Sveinbjörnsdottir (6) , H Gudlaugsdottir (7) , J.E Box (7) , S Falourd (1, 2) , X Fettweis (8) , H Gallée (9) , E. Garnier (10) , V Gkinis (4) , J Jouzel (1, 2) , A. Landais (1, 2) , B Minster (1, 2) , N Paradis (11) , A Orsi (1, 2) , C Risi (12) , M Werner (13) , J.W.C. White (14)

1 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
2 GLACCIOS - Glaces et Continents, Climats et Isotopes Stables
3 EPOC - Environnements et Paléoenvironnements OCéaniques
4 Centre for Ice and Climate [Copenhagen]
5 Abteilung Klinische Sozialmedizin, Berufs- und Umweltdermatologie
6 Institute of Science, University of Reykjavik, Dunhaga 3, Reykjavik 107, Iceland
7 GEUS - Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland
8 Département de Géographie
9 LGGE - Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement
10 ULR - La Rochelle Université
11 ICMCB - Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux
12 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
13 AWI - Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine
14 INSTAAR - Institute of Arctic Alpine Research [University of Colorado Boulder]

Combined records of snow accumulation rate, δ 18 O and deuterium excess were produced from several shallow ice cores and snow pits at NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling), covering the period from 1724 to 2007. They are used to investigate recent climate variability and characterise the isotope–temperature relationship. We find that NEEM records are only weakly affected by inter-annual changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation. Decadal δ 18 O and accumulation variability is related to North Atlantic sea surface temperature and is enhanced at the beginning of the 19th century. No long-term trend is observed in the accumulation record. By contrast, NEEM δ 18 O shows multidecadal increasing trends in the late 19th century and since the 1980s. The strongest annual positive δ 18 O values are recorded at NEEM in 1928 and 2010, while maximum accumulation occurs in 1933. The last decade is the most enriched in δ 18 O (warmest), while the 11-year periods with the strongest depletion (coldest) are depicted at NEEM in 1815–1825 and 1836–1846, which are also the driest 11-year periods. The NEEM accumulation and δ 18 O records are strongly correlated with outputs from atmospheric models, nudged to atmospheric reanalyses. Best performance is observed for ERA reanalyses. Gridded temperature reconstructions, instrumental data and model outputs at NEEM are used to estimate the multidecadal accumulation–temperature and δ 18 O– temperature relationships for the strong warming period in 1979–2007. The accumulation sensitivity to temperature is estimated at 11 ± 2 % • C −1 and the δ 18 O–temperature slope at 1.1 ± 0.2 ‰ • C −1 , about twice as large as previously used to estimate last interglacial temperature change from the bottom part of the NEEM deep ice core. Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 1482 V. Masson-Delmotte et al.: Recent changes in northwest Greenland climate Figure 1. Map of Greenland showing the position of ice core records (red) and meteorological stations (green) used to establish a SW Greenland instrumental temperature record. The grey/white shading indicates elevation (source: NOAA/GLOBE, http://www. ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/topo/globe.html).

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

Valérie Masson-Delmotte, H. C. Steen-Larsen, P Ortega, D Swingedouw, T Popp, et al.. Recent changes in north-west Greenland climate documented by NEEM shallow ice core data and simulations, and implications for past-temperature reconstructions. The Cryosphere, 2015, 9, pp.1481-1504. ⟨10.5194/tc-9-1481-2015⟩. ⟨insu-01275292⟩