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Ultra-High Resolution Nitrate in Polar Ice as Indicator of Past Solar Activity

  • Conference paper
Solar Electromagnetic Radiation Study for Solar Cycle 22

Abstract

Ionization in the polar atmosphere causes the formation of nitrate compounds, which are frozen out and incorporated into the layers of the polar ice sheets. From a 122-m ice core collected in 1992 on the central Greenland ice sheet, it has been possible to examine a solar signal in a ultra-high resolution record of nitrate concentrations. The sequence extends over a period of 415 years at a temporal resolution of no less than one analysis per month (total number of samples 7776 resulting from ~1.5 cm sampling along the entire core). This type of measurement reveals major nitrate anomalies which are thought to result from the injection of individual solar proton events into the winter polar stratosphere. For this reason, the large nitrate anomalies provide the possibility to delineate a signal of solar activity well beyond the known geophysical records.

Paper presented at the SOLERS22 International Workshop, held at the National Solar Observatory, Sacramento Peak, Sunspot, New Mexico, U.S.A., June 17–21, 1996.

Decreased 14 January, 1996.

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Dreschhoff, G., Zeller, E.J. (1998). Ultra-High Resolution Nitrate in Polar Ice as Indicator of Past Solar Activity. In: Pap, J.M., Fröhlich, C., Ulrich, R.K. (eds) Solar Electromagnetic Radiation Study for Solar Cycle 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5000-2_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5000-2_32

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5000-2

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