Articles | Volume 13, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1685-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1685-2017
Research article
 | 
24 Nov 2017
Research article |  | 24 Nov 2017

Critical porosity of gas enclosure in polar firn independent of climate

Christoph Florian Schaller, Johannes Freitag, and Olaf Eisen

Data sets

Firn microstructure in the lock-in zone for three polar ice cores C. F. Schaller, J. Freitag, and O. Eisen https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.879577

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Short summary
In order to interpret the paleoclimatic record stored in the air enclosed in polar ice cores, it is crucial to understand the fundamental lock-in process. In our study, we present the first extensive data set of direct firn microstructure measurements and use it to show that the critical porosity of gas enclosure is independent of the climatic site conditions (such as temperature and accumulation rate). This leads to significant changes in dating and interpretation of ice-core gas records.