Inert Gases in Firn Air and Shallow Ice at the WAIS Divide Site

The three primary science objectives were: 1) to establish the nature of firn air movement and trapping at the site to aid interpretations of gas data from the deep core; 2) to reconstruct surface temperature over the past 1000 years at the site using nitrogen, argon, and krypton isotopes in trapped air from the 300-m core drilled in 2005; and 3) to provide gravitational corrections for other isotopic species being measured on the firn and ice core gases.

In addition, a temperature profile in the 300-m deep borehole was measured, which places additional constraints on the past temperature history that are complementary to the gas thermometry.