Digital Commons Network^™

Maine's Climate Future: An Initial Assessment, George L. Jacobson, Ivan J. Fernandez, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Catherine V. Schmitt

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Earth’s atmosphere is experiencing unprecedented changes that are modifying global climate. Discussions continue around the world, the nation, and in Maine on how to reduce and eventually eliminate emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), other greenhouse gases, and other pollutants to the atmosphere, land, and oceans. These efforts are vitally important and urgent. However, even if a coordinated response succeeds in eliminating excess greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the century, something that appears highly unlikely today, climate change will continue, because the elevated levels of CO2 can persist in the atmosphere for thousands of years to come.

In late …

El Niño Suppresses Antarctic Warming, Nancy A. N. Bertler, Peter J. Barrett, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Ryan L. Fogt, Karl J. Kreutz, James Shulmeister

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Here we present new isotope records derived from snow samples from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica and re-analysis data of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA-40) to explain the connection between the warming of the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean [Jacka and Budd, 1998; Jacobs et al., 2002] and the current cooling of the terrestrial Ross Sea region [Doran et al., 2002a]. Our analysis confirms previous findings that the warming is linked to the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) [Kwok and Comiso, 2002a, 2002b; Carleton, 2003; Ribera and Mann …

Evidence For Recent Climate Change From Ice Cores In The Central Himalaya, Qin Dahe, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Cameron P. Wake, Kang Shichang, Ren Jiawen, Hou Shugui, Yao Tandong, Yang Qinzhao, Jin Zhefan, Mi Desheng

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

Comparison of the terminus locations of Rongbuk Glacier, Mount Everest, measured in 1966 and 1997 shows that in the past 30 years the glacier has retreated 170-270 m, equivalent to a retreat speed of 5.5-8.7 m a⁻¹. During summer 1997, a 15 m firn core was recovered from Dasuopu glacier (28°23′N, 85°44′E; 7000 m a.s.l.) on the northwest margin of Xixabangma Feng, Xizang (Tibet). The seasonal variations of δ¹⁸O values in the core indicate that monsoon signals are clearly recorded in the glacier. δ¹⁸O values are controlled by the amount effect in the monsoon …

A Century Of Accumulation And Temperature Changes In Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, Elisabeth Isaksson, Wibjörn Karlén, Niels Gundestrup, Paul Andrew Mayewski, Sallie Whitlow, Mark Twickler

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

A mass balance program was initiated in the Vestfjella-Heimefrontfjella area of western Dronning Maud Land during the austral summer of 1988–1989. As a part of this program, spatial and temporal variations in snow accumulation and temperature/stable isotopes are measured using shallow firn cores. In this paper we present surface accumulation data and discuss the climatic implications of the stable isotope records from two shallow firn cores. One 30-m-deep core, obtained about 200 km from the coast at 700 m asl (73°36′S, 12°26′W), covers the period 1932–1991. The other core was drilled at about 500 km from the coast at 2900 …

Ice Cores And Global Change, Paul Andrew Mayewski

Earth Science Faculty Scholarship

For scientists interested in global change problems, ice core records provide a unique and invaluable medium for studying the past. These records yield both direct and proxy links to the paleoenvironment over periods potentially as long as hundreds of thousands of years with resolution down to seasonal scale for time-series on the order of hundreds to thousands of years. In addition, the fact that most ice core records are retrieved from locations rarely, if ever, occupied by observers, adds to the value of these data sets.

In response to the growing importance of such records, the National Science Foundation's Division …