Search

Wolff et al. (2016) comment on Smart et al. (2014) and in doing so concentrate on issues other than the main point. They do not dispute our central assertion, the inadequate resolution of nearly all extant ice cores for detection of impulsive nitrate events (spikes) from any source, including past solar proton events (SPEs). We explain why comparing two short-length cores from other researchers and analyzed by different methods is insufficient for disputing subannual reproducibility, and call for a multiple, fine-resolution, replicate core study to resolve this issue. While acknowledging the creation of nitrate by SPEs and the existence of ice core nitrate spikes detected by others, they present several weak arguments, such as alleged scavenging of nitrate by some unnamed and unmeasured aerosol, and why no enhanced nitrate signal for documenting SPE statistics should be distinguishable in the ice. These are not derived from the main points in our Smart et al. (2014) paper. We address these briefly and show that ionization from the February 1956 SPE was sufficient to produce a winter, likely acidic, nitrate spike at Summit, Greenland. While noting some convergence of interpretation, we show why their claim that nitrate spikes cannot be used for deriving SPE statistics is unproven and why rejection of fine resolution core studies as unreliable is premature.

In order to support the very high time resolution required to observe short-term variations in nitrates and all other ions represented by electrical conductivity in polar ice, a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer was developed for measurement of deuterium concentration in ice samples, as an additional support for the timescale of ultra-high resolution. The portable instrument provided the possibility to measure deuterium concentration on exactly the same samples as used for measuring nitrate concentrations and liquid electrical conductivity, thus verifying that the original dating of the annual variations in nitrate was correct. We present basic information about how the high-resolution data were obtained and discuss their reliability and significance.

Solar energetic particles ionize the atmosphere, leading to production of nitrogen oxides. It has been suggested that some such events are visible as layers of nitrate in ice cores, yielding archives of energetic, high fluence solar proton events (SPEs). There has been controversy, due to slowness of transport for these species down from the upper stratosphere; past numerical simulations based on an analytic calculation have shown very little ionization below the mid stratosphere. These simulations suffer from deficiencies: they consider only soft SPEs and narrow energy ranges; spectral fits are poorly chosen; with few exceptions secondary particles in air showers are ignored. Using improved simulations that follow development of the proton-induced air shower, we find consistency with recent experiments showing substantial excess ionization down to 5 km. We compute nitrate available from the 23 February 1956 SPE, which had a high fluence, hard spectrum, and well-resolved associated nitrate peak in a Greenland ice core. For the first time, we find this event can account for ice core data with timely (~ 2 months) transport downward between 46 km and the surface, thus indicating an archive of high fluence, hard spectrum SPE covering the last several millennia. We discuss interpretations of this result, as well as the lack of a clearly-defined nitrate spike associated with the soft-spectrum 3-4 August 1972 SPE. We suggest that hard-spectrum SPEs, especially in the 6 months of polar winter, are detectable in ice cores, and that more work needs to be done to investigate this., Comment: JGR Atmospheres, in press

The presence of photon induced ionization from supernovae at detectable levels in the polar ice sheets has been an interesting issue for some time. Evidence for such a signal is reported in 1200-year time sequences from the Antarctic continent at South Pole and Vostok, respectively. The supernova candidate events all appear as nitrate concentration spikes apparently caused by ionization from high energy radiation interacting with the upper atmosphere of the Earth. Further support for this interpretation has been obtained from an ice core drilled in Greenland covering 430 years. These ultrahigh resolution measurements (averaging 18 data points/year) have revealed nitrate anomalies at the times of the Tycho and Kepler Supernovae. In addition, the possibility is being suggested that the supernova Cassiopeia A appears in the record, thus pinpointing its year of occurrence. Other, less understood phenomena such as γ-ray bursts also occasionally may produce anomalies in the nitrate record.

Ice cores are archives of climate change and possibly large solar proton events (SPEs). Wolff et al. (2012) used a single event, a nitrate peak in the GISP2-H core, which McCracken et al. (2001a) time associated with the poorly quantified 1859 Carrington event, to discredit SPE-produced, impulsive nitrate deposition in polar ice. This is not the ideal test case. We critique the Wolff et al. analysis and demonstrate that the data they used cannot detect impulsive nitrate events because of resolution limitations. We suggest re-examination of the top of the Greenland ice sheet at key intervals over the last two millennia with attention to fine resolution and replicate sampling of multiple species. This will allow further insight into polar depositional processes on a sub-seasonal scale, including atmospheric sources, transport mechanisms to the ice sheet, post-depositional interactions, and a potential SPE association., 22 pages, 7 figures in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics 119, 2014

For the past 51 years nitrate deposition in snow and firn layers at the South Pole exhibits a significant linear relationship with sunspot numbers and the ‘aa’ index of geomagnetic activity. Currently known atmospheric processes may explain these results. A high resolution nitrate record from deep ice cores could be valuable for both Sun and climate studies.