AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Measurements of Organic Species within a Greenland Ice Core from 269-2013 AD
CHRISTOPHER LIM, Eleanor Browne, Edward Fortner, Paola Massoli, Monica Arienzo, Nathan Chellman, Daniel Pasteris, Audrey Yau, Timothy Onasch, Leah Williams, John Jayne, Douglas Worsnop, Joseph McConnell, Jesse Kroll, MIT
Abstract Number: 512 Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate
Abstract Chemical analyses of trace species present in ice cores are routinely used to investigate the impact of natural variation and anthropogenic influence on past environment and climate. Much of this previous work has focused on characterizing the inorganic species in the cores, including sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and black carbon, while the organic species have received relatively less attention. This is due in part to the chemical complexity and low abundance of the organic species, which makes identification and quantification difficult. In this work, we use high-resolution mass spectrometry to characterize the bulk chemical composition of organic species present in ice cores at sub-annual resolution. This is achieved by coupling an Aerodyne Soot Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (SP-AMS) to an ultrasonic nebulizer downstream of a continuous ice-melter system. Using the SP-AMS, we measure the black carbon, inorganic, and organic species present in an ice core from Northern Greenland that spans from 269 AD to 2013 AD. We discuss how the bulk organic composition changes over this time period, and use tracer ions and co-variance with inorganic species to identify how the organic matter is influenced by biomass burning, marine emissions, and anthropogenic emissions. Additionally, we compare selected time periods to results from a different Greenland ice core, and discuss how the similarities and differences inform our knowledge of atmospheric composition and transport.