Decadal timescale links between Antarctic Peninsula ice-core oxygen- 18, deuterium and temperature

Abstract

The Antarctic Peninsula region has experienced a long-term warming trend over the twentieth century, with the 1971-90 mean at Faraday being 1.9°C warmer than the mean over 1903-41 based on expedition reports. For the period prior to 1900, there is conflicting evidence from different data sources. Here we study the links between atmospheric temperature over the Antarctic Peninsula, circulation parameters and isotopic data over the period of instrumental records. We show the correlations between temperature and δ18O and δD are generally of the order r = 0.5 or less on timescales of one to five years. Conflicts between evidence from accumulation rate and isotopic data appear to reflect the influence of source-region effects on the isotope records. -from Authors