Reconstruction of the relative source strengths of CO over the past 5000 years using the isotopes of carbon monoxide trapped in ice core bubbles
In 2010 we published the first measurements of 13CO and C18O made from air trapped in ice (link here to Science paper). That study showed that the sources of carbon monoxide have significantly changed over the past 650 years prior to the industrial revoloution. We are continuing this work with the analysis of ice core samples from the South Pole Ice Core Project (SPICECORE), of which I am a PI. We hope to extend the record back to 5000 years before present. We are also analyzing those isotopologues in ice form the Vostock ice core and from Dome C, in collaboration with Xavier Fain at the Laboratory for Glaciology and Geophysics of the Environment (LGGE), National Science Research Center (CNRS), Grenoble, France.
Want to see a piece of two thousand year old Antarctic Ice melt? click below!