Rapid changes in ice core gas records Part 2: Understanding the rapid rise in atmospheric CO2 at the onset of the Bølling/Allerød

During the last glacial/interglacial transition the Earth's climate underwent rapid changes around 14.6 kyr ago. Temperature proxies from ice cores revealed the onset of the Bølling/Allerød (B/A) warm period in the north and the start of the Antarctic Cold Reversal in the south. Furthermore, the B/A is accompanied by a rapid sea level rise of about 20 m during meltwater pulse (MWP) 1A, whose exact timing is matter of current debate. In situ measured CO₂ in the EPICA Dome C (EDC) ice core also revealed a remarkable jump of 10±1 ppmv in 230 yr at the same time. Allowing for the age distribution of CO₂ in firn we here show, that atmospheric CO₂ rose by 20–35 ppmv in less than 200 yr, which is a factor of 2–3.5 larger than the CO₂ signal recorded in situ in EDC. Based on the estimated airborne fraction of 0.17 of CO₂ we infer that 125 Pg of carbon need to be released to the atmosphere to produce such a peak. Most of the carbon might have been activated as consequence of continental shelf flooding during MWP-1A. This impact of rapid sea level rise on atmospheric CO₂ distinguishes the B/A from other Dansgaard/Oeschger events of the last 60 kyr, potentially defining the point of no return during the last deglaciation

Effect of Conductivity of the Inner Rod on the Collision Conditions During a Magnetic Pulse Welding Process

The Magnetic Pulse Welding (MPW) process involves a high speed collision between the flyer and inner rod. Conductivity of the inner rod may play a significant role in the collision speed and collision angle. The collision conditions were investigated with varying conductivity of the inner rod in this study. Coupled mechanical-electromagnetic 3D simulations were carried out using LS-DYNA package to investigate the effect of conductivity of the inner rod on the collision patterns during the MPW process. The simulation involves a welding process with a tube and a rod using a one turn coil with a separate field shaper. The electrical conductivity was varied to a wide range to investigate the influence on the collision condition. Moreover, in order to verify the independency of the collision condition with the mechanical properties of the inner rod, two cases including aluminum alloy AA2024-T351 and copper with appropriate Johnson-Cook parameters were used for the rod. In the entire simulations aluminum alloy was used as the tube material. It was identified that the impact velocity is almost consistent for each case and the impact angles vary between negative and positive values according to the angular measurement convention used in this study. Although, influence of the conductivity of the inner rod is not significant for the investigated current flow while it may sometime delay the incidence of collision at lower frequencies than the critical frequency (FCrit). Optimizing the collision conditions in the MPW process can help to identify the suitable materials for prescribed welding conditions

Heterogeneous deformation during electromagnetic ring expansion test

High speed forming methods become attractive in manufacturing and it significantl reduces the cost and energy requirements. Conventional manufacturing processes such as forging, forming, stamping and cutting of metals typically involve a strain rate of 10 2 – 10 4 s-1 which includes high energy rate fabrication (HERF) methods [1]. During advanced manufacturing methods such as high speed forming and high speed welding processes, certain local regions (e.g. interfaces) of materials could also experience significantly high strain rate (> 10 4 s-1). In order to understand the physical behaviours of materials and to design/control/optimise, such manufacturing processes that require an appropriate technique to capture the material’s viscoplastic property under the high strain rate deformation. Therein, the electromagnetic ring expansion test becomes a promising method to characterize the material behaviours under the high strain rate deformation. The ring expansion is caused by Lorentz force that is generated due to the magnetic induction on the ring. However, the realistic nature of the electromagnetic ring expansion test is quite complex because of the coupling physics between electromagnetic-thermal-mechanical components. Therefore, in this study we evaluate certain controlling parameters which govern the fundamental behaviour of the electromagnetic ring expansion test. Particularly the rotation and inhomogeneous deformation of the ring are noticeably observed and these phenomena require extra attention

Assessment of Gap and Charging Voltage Influence on Mechanical Behaviour of Joints Obtained by Magnetic Pulse Welding

This work investigates the study of the experimental weldability in magnetic pulse welding process of a one material assembly (aluminium AA6060T6) and a dissimilar metal couple (aluminium6060T6/copper). The weld quality is defined using a destructive process allowing measuring the weld dimension. A diagram charging voltage-air gap is used to establish the variance of weldability. With the criterion of width of the weld, this representation is able to determine the operational weldability window. The lower boundary is defined by the case of bad weld, i.e. an insufficient bonding, and the upper boundary by defective welds, i.e. a weld susceptible to crack. The weld is able to undergo a plastic deformation prior to failure. A large weld is more potentially ductile. A numerical modelling of a mechanical destructive push out test could be helpful to characterise the weld in a quantitative manner. Finally, the material dissymmetry as considered in this study notably reduces the weldability window because of intermetallic phase at the welded interface. For this case, the weld is found to have a rather brittle behaviour

Abrupt Ice Age Shifts in Southern Westerlies and Antarctic Climate Forced from the North

The Southern Hemisphere (SH) mid-latitude westerly winds play a central role in the global climate system via Southern Ocean upwelling, carbon exchange with the deep ocean, Agulhas Leakage, and Antarctic ice sheet stability. Meridional shifts in the SH westerlies have been hypothesized in response to abrupt North Atlantic Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) climatic events of the last ice age, in parallel with the well-documented shifts of the intertropical convergence zone. Shifting moisture pathways to West Antarctica are consistent with this view, but may represent a Pacific teleconnection pattern. The full SH atmospheric-circulation response to the DO cycle, as well as its impact on Antarctic temperature, have so far remained unclear. Here we use five volcanically-synchronized ice cores to show that the Antarctic temperature response to the DO cycle can be understood as the superposition of two modes: a spatially homogeneous oceanic “bipolar seesaw” mode that lags Northern Hemisphere (NH) climate by about 200 years, and a spatially heterogeneous atmospheric mode that is synchronous with NH abrupt events. Temperature anomalies of the atmospheric mode are similar to those associated with present-day Southern Annular Mode (SAM) variability, rather than the Pacific South America (PSA) pattern. Moreover, deuterium excess records suggest a zonally coherent migration of the SH westerlies over all ocean basins in phase with NH climate. Our work provides a simple conceptual framework for understanding the circum-Antarctic temperature response to abrupt NH climate change. We provide observational evidence for abrupt shifts in the SH westerlies, with ramifications for global ocean circulation and atmospheric CO₂. These coupled changes highlight the necessity of a global, rather than a purely North Atlantic, perspective on the DO cycle

Speciation analysis of iodine and bromine at picogram-per-gram levels in polar ice

Iodine and bromine species participate in key atmospheric reactions including the formation of cloud con- densation nuclei and ozone depletion. We present a novel method coupling a high-performance liquid chromatogra- phy with ion chromatography and inductively coupled plas- ma mass spectrometry, which allows the determination of iodine (I) and bromine (Br) species (IO3−, I−, Br−, BrO3−) at the picogram-per-gram levels presents in Antarctic ice. Chromatographic separation was achieved using an ION- PAC® AS16 Analytical Column with NaOH as eluent. Detection limits for I and Br species were 5 to 9 pg g−1 with an uncertainty of less than 2.5% for all considered species. Inorganic iodine and bromine species have been determined in Antarctic ice core samples, with concentrations close to the detection limits for iodine species, and approximately 150 pg g−1 for Br−. Although iodate (IO3−) is the most abundant iodine species in the atmosphere, only the much rarer iodide (I−) species was present in Antarctic Holocene ice. Bromine was found to be present in Antarctic ice as Br−

Abrupt rise in atmospheric CO2 at the onset of the Bølling/Allerød: in-situ ice core data versus true atmospheric signal

During the last glacial/interglacial transition the Earth's climate underwent abrupt changes around 14.6 kyr ago. Temperature proxies from ice cores revealed the onset of the Bølling/Allerød (B/A) warm period in the north and the start of the Antarctic Cold Reversal in the south. Furthermore, the B/A was accompanied by a rapid sea level rise of about 20 m during meltwater pulse (MWP) 1A, whose exact timing is a matter of current debate. In-situ measured CO2 in the EPICA Dome C (EDC) ice core also revealed a remarkable jump of 10±1 ppmv in 230 yr at the same time. Allowing for the modelled age distribution of CO2 in firn, we show that atmospheric CO2 could have jumped by 20–35 ppmv in less than 200 yr, which is a factor of 2–3.5 greater than the CO2 signal recorded in-situ in EDC. This rate of change in atmospheric CO2 corresponds to 29–50% of the anthropogenic signal during the last 50 yr and is connected with a radiative forcing of 0.59–0.75 W m−2. Using a model-based airborne fraction of 0.17 of atmospheric CO2, we infer that 125 Pg of carbon need to be released into the atmosphere to produce such a peak. Available δ13CO2 data are neutral, whether the source of the carbon is of marine or terrestrial origin. We hypothesise that most of the carbon might have been activated as a consequence of continental shelf flooding during MWP-1A. We furthermore plan to challange our hypothesis by comparing its typical 14C signature with so far unpublished high resolution 14C data from Tahiti corals (Durant et al., 2010, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 12, EGU2010-12689-1).This potential impact of rapid sea level rise on atmospheric CO2 might define the point of no return during the last deglaciation

A global picture of the first abrupt climatic event occurring during the last glacial inception

The orbital-scale transition from the last interglacial to glacial climate corresponds to the progressive organization of global millennial-scale climate variability. Here, we investigate the structure and the global fingerprint of the first warming event occurring during the last glacial inception, the Greenland InterStadial 25 (GIS 25). Using centennial to decadal-resolution measurements of d18O and dD in the ice together with d15N, d18O2 and CH4 in the trapped air, we show that GIS 25 does not coincide with large environmental changes at lower latitudes. Such an equivocal fingerprint questions whether GIS 25 is simply a smaller amplitude version of later rapid events or whether it reflects a more regional northern hemisphere origin for the initiation of the millennialscale climatic variability. After this ambiguous first rapid event, the onset of the global millennial-scale variability - characteristic of the last glacial period- occurs as a short (300 years) event ending GIS 25. Citation: Capron, E., A. Landais, J. Chappellaz, D. Buiron, H. Fischer, S. J. Johnsen, J. Jouzel, M. Leuenberger, V. Masson-Delmotte, and T. F. Stocker (2012), A global picture of the first abrupt climatic event occurring during the last glacial inception

Glacial–interglacial dynamics of Antarctic firn columns: comparison between simulations and ice core air-δ15N measurements

Correct estimation of the firn lock-in depth is essential for correctly linking gas and ice chronologies in ice core studies. Here, two approaches to constrain the firn depth evolution in Antarctica are presented over the last deglaciation: outputs of a firn densification model, and measurements of δ15N of N2 in air trapped in ice core, assuming that δ15N is only affected by gravitational fractionation in the firn column. Since the firn densification process is largely governed by surface temperature and accumulation rate, we have investigated four ice cores drilled in coastal (Berkner Island, BI, and James Ross Island, JRI) and semi-coastal (TALDICE and EPICA Dronning Maud Land, EDML) Antarctic regions. Combined with available ice core air-δ15N measurements from the EPICA Dome C (EDC) site, the studied regions encompass a large range of surface accumulation rates and temperature conditions. Our δ15N profiles reveal a heterogeneous response of the firn structure to glacial–interglacial climatic changes. While firn densification simulations correctly predict TALDICE δ15N variations, they systematically fail to capture the large millennial-scale δ15N variations measured at BI and the δ15N glacial levels measured at JRI and EDML – a mismatch previously reported for central East Antarctic ice cores. New constraints of the EDML gas–ice depth offset during the Laschamp event (~41 ka) and the last deglaciation do not favour the hypothesis of a large convective zone within the firn as the explanation of the glacial firn model–δ15N data mismatch for this site. While we could not conduct an in-depth study of the influence of impurities in snow for firnification from the existing datasets, our detailed comparison between the δ15N profiles and firn model simulations under different temperature and accumulation rate scenarios suggests that the role of accumulation rate may have been underestimated in the current description of firnification models