Ocean and Polar Research

Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology (한국해양과학기술원)
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A Study of Stable Isotopic Variations of Antarctic Snow by Albedo Differences

알베도 변화에 의한 남극 눈 안정동위원소의 변동에 관한 연구

  • 이정훈 (이화여자대학교 과학교육과) ;
  • 한영철 (한국해양과학기술원 부설 극지연구소) ;
  • 함지영 (이화여자대학교 과학교육과) ;
  • 나운성 (한국해양과학기술원 부설 극지연구소)
  • Received : 2015.02.27
  • Accepted : 2015.05.28
  • Published : 2015.06.30
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Abstract

Snow albedo can be decreased if there are any impurities on the snow surface other than the snow itself. Due to the decrease of snow albedo, melting rates of surface snow can increase, which is very crucial in climate change and hydrogeology in many parts of the world. Anthropogenic black carbons caused by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuel affect snow and tephra particles generated by geologic volcanic activities reduce snow albedo. In this study, we investigated isotopic compositions for snow covered by tephra particles and compared with this with clean snow. Isotopic compositions of snow with tephra statistically show more enriched than those of clean snow (p<0.02). This can be explained by the fact that snow becomes enriched in $^{18}O$ or D relative to meltwater as melting rates are increased. In addition, the slopes of the linear regression between oxygen and hydrogen for snow with tephra and clean snow are 6.7 and 8, respectively, and the latter is similar to that of the global meteoric water line of 8. Therefore, we can conclude that snow impurities control the isotopic compositions of snow, which is very crucial in the study of climate change and hydrogeology. To quantitatively explain these observations, melting experiments and numerical approaches are required.

Keywords

References

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  2. A Study on Isotopic Fractionation between Ice and Meltwater by a Melting Experiment vol.37, pp.4, 2015, https://doi.org/10.4217/OPR.2015.37.4.327