19th century glacier retreat in the Alps preceded the emergence of industrial black carbon deposition on high-alpine glaciers

noaa-icecore-26390 Colle Gnifetti 275 Year Ice Core Black Carbon and Chemical Data Sigl, M.; Abram, N.J.; Gabrieli, J.; Jenk, T.M.; Osmont, D.; Schwikowski, M. Colle Gnifetti 275 Year Ice Core Black Carbon and Chemical Data 2019-03-13 NCDC-Paleoclimatology ONLINE Files Pending https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/26390 Investigator M. Sigl Investigator N.J. Abram Investigator J. Gabrieli Investigator T.M. Jenk Investigator D. Osmont Investigator M. Schwikowski earth science paleoclimate ice core chemistry geoscientificInformation 1741 AD 2015 AD 209 cal yr BP -65 cal yr BP Complete 45.93056 45.93056 7.87583 7.87583 4455 4455 Continent Europe Southern Europe Italy Colle Gnifetti>LATITUDE 45.93056>LONGITUDE 7.87583 None Please cite original publication, online resource, dataset and publication DOIs (where available), and date accessed when using downloaded data. If there is no publication information, please cite investigator, title, online resource, and date accessed. The appearance of external links associated with a dataset does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of external Web sites or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities, the Department of Commerce/NOAA does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. These links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this Department of Commerce/NOAA Web site. English DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NCEI National Centers for Environmental Information, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data DATA Center Contact Bruce Bauer bruce.a.bauer@noaa.gov paleo@noaa.gov 303-497-6280 303-497-6513

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Boulder CO 80305-3328 USA online ASCII Michael Sigl, Nerilie J. Abram, Jacopo Gabrieli, Theo M. Jenk, Dimitri Osmont, and Margit Schwikowski 2018 19th century glacier retreat in the Alps preceded the emergence of industrial black carbon deposition on high-alpine glaciers The Cryosphere 12 3311-3331 10.5194/tc-12-3311-2018 https://www.the-cryosphere.net/12/3311/2018/tc-12-3311-2018-discussion.html

Light absorbing aerosols in the atmosphere and cryosphere play an important role in the climate system. Their presence in ambient air and snow changes the radiative properties of these systems, thus contributing to increased atmospheric warming and snowmelt. High spatio-temporal variability of aerosol concentrations and a shortage of longterm observations contribute to large uncertainties in properly assigning the climate effects of aerosols through time. Starting around AD1860, many glaciers in the European Alps began to retreat from their maximum mid-19th century terminus positions, thereby visualizing the end of the Little Ice Age in Europe. Radiative forcing by increasing deposition of industrial black carbon to snow has been suggested as the main driver of the abrupt glacier retreats in the Alps. The basis for this hypothesis was model simulations using elemental carbon concentrations at low temporal resolution from two ice cores in the Alps. Here we present sub-annually resolved concentration records of refractory black carbon (rBC; using soot photometry) as well as distinctive tracers for mineral dust, biomass burning and industrial pollution from the Colle Gnifetti ice core in the Alps from AD1741 to 2015. These records allow precise assessment of a potential relation between the timing of observed acceleration of glacier melt in the mid-19th century with an increase of rBC deposition on the glacier caused by the industrialization of Western Europe. Our study reveals that in AD1875, the time when rBC ice-core concentrations started to significantly increase, the majority of Alpine glaciers had already experienced more than 80% of their total 19th century length reduction, casting doubt on a leading role for soot in terminating of the Little Ice Age. Attribution of glacial retreat requires expansion of the spatial network and sampling density of high alpine ice cores to balance potential biasing effects arising from transport, deposition, and snow conservation in individual ice-core records. STUDY NOTES: Black carbon and chemistry measurements from ice cores collected on Colle Gnifetti in the Swiss-Italian Alps, for the past 275 years.

GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/trop/gnifetti/gnifetti2018samples01a.txt NOAA Template File; Colle Gnifetti Black Carbon and Chemical Data Discrete Samples GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/trop/gnifetti/gnifetti2018ann.txt NOAA Template File; Annualized Colle Gnifetti Black Carbon and Chemical Data GET DATA https://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/paleo/icecore/trop/gnifetti/gnifetti2018samples01b.txt NOAA Template File; Colle Gnifetti Discrete Samples with Below Detection Limit Sample Values Estimated USA/NOAA DIF Version 9.8.4 2019-03-19 2019-03-19