Articles | Volume 19, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4913-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-4913-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
23 Oct 2025
Research article |
| 23 Oct 2025
| 23 Oct 2025
The impact of measurement precision on the resolvable resolution of ice core water isotope reconstructions
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany
Thomas Münch
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany
Vasileios Gkinis
Niels Bohr Institute, Physics of Ice, Climate, and Earth, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Thomas Laepple
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany
MARUM – Centre for Marine Environmental Sciences and Faculty of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
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Short summary
Diffusion in combination with measurement noise erase high-frequency water isotope variability in ice cores, linking measurement precision to recoverable resolution. We derive expressions for this relationship, finding a resolution improvement of 1.5 times for a 10-fold measurement noise reduction. Based on the current age-depth model, our method predicts 10 000-year cycles will be recoverable in the 1.5 Myr old ice from the Oldest Ice Core δ18O record if a noise level of 0.01 ‰ is achieved.
Diffusion in combination with measurement noise erase high-frequency water isotope variability...
