  |
    
The cryosphere (here the permanently ice covered areas of the Alpes, Greenland and Antarctica) play an important role in the long term climatic variability (e.g. sea level change). Since glaciers constitute a part of the atmospheric water cycle (forming a transient water reservoir) they also provide a relatively genuine archive of the air chemical and climatic situation of past eras on a decadal to 100,000 years time scale. Basic information for the interpretation of ice core records in terms of atmospheric changes are derived from long term atmospheric observations at the German Antarctic overwintering station (Neumayer), in Central Greenland and on a high elevation alpine glacier. These field measurements are supplemented by process oriented studies related to the air/firn-transfer of short lived atmospheric constituents and isotopic signals. Our activities concentrate
on the evaluation of glacier archives in the Alpes and in Central Greenland
mainly with respect to the anthropogenic impact on precipitation chemistry.
Similar ice core studies are performed in Antarctica aiming, however, to
register the natural variability of bio-geochemical cycles and the dynamic
behaviour of large ice masses. For obtaining paleo-temperature records
isotopic investigations are made at drill sites in all latitudes.
|
|---|
