Articles | Volume 12, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-325-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-325-2018
Research article
 | 
26 Jan 2018
Research article |  | 26 Jan 2018

Surface formation, preservation, and history of low-porosity crusts at the WAIS Divide site, West Antarctica

John M. Fegyveresi, Richard B. Alley, Atsuhiro Muto, Anaïs J. Orsi, and Matthew K. Spencer

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Cited articles

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Alley, R. B., Saltzman, E. S., Cuffey, K. M., and Fitzpatrick, J. J.: Summertime formation of depth hoar in central Greenland, Geophys. Res. Lett., 17, 2393–2396, https://doi.org/10.1029/GL017i013p02393, 1990.
Alley, R. B., Shuman, C. A., Meese, D. A., Gow, A. J., Taylor, K. C., Cuffey, K. M., Fitzpatrick, J. J., Grootes, P. M., Zielinski, G. A., Ram, M., and Spinelli, G.: Visual-stratigraphic dating of the GISP2 ice core: basis, reproducibility, and application, J. Geophys. Res.-Oceans, 102, 26367–26381, https://doi.org/10.1029/96JC03837, 1997.
Anderson, P. S.: A method for rescaling humidity sensors at temperatures well below freezing, J. Atmos. Ocean. Technol., 11, 1388–1391, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0426(1994)011<1388:AMFRHS>2.0.CO;2, 1994.
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Short summary
Observations at the WAIS Divide site in West Antarctica show that near-surface snow is strongly altered by weather-related processes, such as strong winds and temperature fluctuations, producing features that are recognizable within the WDC06A ice core. Specifically, over 10 000 prominent crusts were observed in the upper 560 m of the core. We show that these crusts develop more often in summers, during relatively low-wind, low-humidity, clear-sky periods with intense daytime sunshine.