Articles | Volume 22, issue 24
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15637-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15637-2022
Research article
 | 
14 Dec 2022
Research article |  | 14 Dec 2022

Photolytic modification of seasonal nitrate isotope cycles in East Antarctica

Pete D. Akers, Joël Savarino, Nicolas Caillon, Olivier Magand, and Emmanuel Le Meur

Related authors

An extraction method for nitrogen isotope measurement of ammonium in a low-concentration environment
Alexis Lamothe, Joel Savarino, Patrick Ginot, Lison Soussaintjean, Elsa Gautier, Pete D. Akers, Nicolas Caillon, and Joseph Erbland
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4015–4030, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4015-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4015-2023, 2023
Short summary
Baffin Bay sea ice extent and synoptic moisture transport drive water vapor isotope (δ18O, δ2H, and deuterium excess) variability in coastal northwest Greenland
Pete D. Akers, Ben G. Kopec, Kyle S. Mattingly, Eric S. Klein, Douglas Causey, and Jeffrey M. Welker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13929–13955, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13929-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13929-2020, 2020
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Isotopes | Research Activity: Field Measurements | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
A seasonal analysis of aerosol NO3 sources and NOx oxidation pathways in the Southern Ocean marine boundary layer
Jessica M. Burger, Emily Joyce, Meredith G. Hastings, Kurt A. M. Spence, and Katye E. Altieri
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5605–5622, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5605-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5605-2023, 2023
Short summary
Nitrate chemistry in the northeast US – Part 1: Nitrogen isotope seasonality tracks nitrate formation chemistry
Claire Bekker, Wendell W. Walters, Lee T. Murray, and Meredith G. Hastings
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4185–4201, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4185-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4185-2023, 2023
Short summary
Nitrate chemistry in the northeast US – Part 2: Oxygen isotopes reveal differences in particulate and gas-phase formation
Heejeong Kim, Wendell W. Walters, Claire Bekker, Lee T. Murray, and Meredith G. Hastings
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4203–4219, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4203-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4203-2023, 2023
Short summary
Atmospheric methane isotopes identify inventory knowledge gaps in the Surat Basin, Australia, coal seam gas and agricultural regions
Bryce F. J. Kelly, Xinyi Lu, Stephen J. Harris, Bruno G. Neininger, Jorg M. Hacker, Stefan Schwietzke, Rebecca E. Fisher, James L. France, Euan G. Nisbet, David Lowry, Carina van der Veen, Malika Menoud, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15527–15558, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15527-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15527-2022, 2022
Short summary
Methane (CH4) sources in Krakow, Poland: insights from isotope analysis
Malika Menoud, Carina van der Veen, Jaroslaw Necki, Jakub Bartyzel, Barbara Szénási, Mila Stanisavljević, Isabelle Pison, Philippe Bousquet, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13167–13185, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13167-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13167-2021, 2021
Short summary

Cited articles

Agosta, C., Favier, V., Genthon, C., Gallée, H., Krinner, G., Lenaerts, J. T. M., and van den Broeke, M. R.: A 40-year accumulation dataset for Adelie Land, Antarctica and its application for model validation, Clim. Dynam., 38, 75–86, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1103-4, 2012. 
Agosta, C., Amory, C., Kittel, C., Orsi, A., Favier, V., Gallée, H., van den Broeke, M. R., Lenaerts, J. T. M., van Wessem, J. M., van de Berg, W. J., and Fettweis, X.: Estimation of the Antarctic surface mass balance using the regional climate model MAR (1979–2015) and identification of dominant processes, The Cryosphere, 13, 281–296, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-281-2019, 2019. 
Akers, P. D.: pete-d-akers/chictaba-nitrate: CHICTABA transect, Antarctica, snow nitrate analysis (v1.1), Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7287413, 2022. 
Akers, P. D., Savarino, J., Caillon, N., Magand, O., and Le Meur, E.: Nitrate isotopic data from snow collected along the CHICTABA traverse, East Antarctica, 2013–2014, PANGAEA [data set], https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.948355, 2022a. 
Akers, P. D., Savarino, J., Caillon, N., Servettaz, A. P. M., Le Meur, E., Magand, O., Martins, J., Agosta, C., Crockford, P., Kobayashi, K., Hattori, S., Curran, M., van Ommen, T., Jong, L., and Roberts, J. L.: Sunlight-driven nitrate loss records Antarctic surface mass balance, Nat. Commun., 13, 4274, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31855-7, 2022b. 
Download
Short summary
Nitrate isotopes in Antarctic ice do not preserve the seasonal isotopic cycles of the atmosphere, which limits their use to study the past. We studied nitrate along an 850 km Antarctic transect to learn how these cycles are changed by sunlight-driven chemistry in the snow. Our findings suggest that the snow accumulation rate and other environmental signals can be extracted from nitrate with the right sampling and analytical approaches.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint