the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
| 18 Oct 2023
Spatial and temporal stable water isotope data from the upper snowpack at the EastGRIP camp site, NE Greenland sampled in summer 2018
Sonja Wahl
Hans Christian Steen-Larsen
Maria Hörhold
Hanno Meyer
Vasileios Gkinis
Thomas Laepple
Abstract. Stable water isotopes stored in snow, firn and ice are used to reconstruct environmental parameters. The imprint of these parameters at the snow surface as well as their preservation in the upper snowpack is determined by a number of processes influencing the recording of the environmental signal.
Here, we present a dataset of approximately 3,800 snow samples analysed for their stable water isotope composition which were obtained during the summer season at the deep drilling site of the East Greenland Ice Core Project in northeast Greenland. Sampling was carried out every third day between 14 May and 3 August 2018 along a 39 m long transect. Three depth intervals in the top 10 cm were sampled on 30 positions with a higher resolution closer to the surface (0–1 cm and 1–4 cm depth vs. 4–10 cm). The sample analysis was carried out at two renowned stable water isotope laboratories and produced isotope data with an overall highest uncertainty of 0.09 ‰ for δ18O and 0.8 ‰ for δD.
This unique dataset shows strongest δ18O variability closest to the surface, damped and delayed variations in the lowest layer and a trend towards increasing homogeneity towards the end of the season, especially in the deepest layer. Additional information on the snow height and its temporal changes suggests a non-uniform spatial imprint of the seasonal climatic information in this area potentially following the stratigraphic noise of the surface.
The data can be used to study the relation between snow height (changes) as well as the imprint and preservation of the isotopic composition at a site with 10–14 cm w.eq. yr-1 accumulation. The high temporal resolution sampling allows additional analyses on (post-)depositional processes, such as vapour-snow exchange. The data can be accessed at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.956626 (Zuhr et al., 2023).
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Alexandra M. Zuhr et al.
Status: open (until 02 Jan 2024)
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RC1: 'Comment on essd-2023-136', Anonymous Referee #1, 27 Nov 2023
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The paper presents a dataset describing the stable water isotope composition of approximately 3800 snow samples. Samples were collected at the deep drilling site of the East Greenland Ice Core Project between 14 May and 3 August 2018 along a 39 m long transect.
The dataset looks very interesting and unique in terms of detailed description, as well as for the proposed impact.Three aspects related to the ESSD policy and requirements are major issues:
1) If this is a data description paper, ESSD states: "Although examples of data outcomes may prove necessary to demonstrate data quality, extensive interpretations of data – i.e. detailed analysis as an author might report in a research article – remain outside the scope of this data journal."
The paper matches the requested structure, but the section 2.5 introduces additional datasets complementary and outside to the presented dataset. It is ok to discuss them in the discussion section, mentioning them as references of published papers as authors have done for other datasets. Only the "high-resolution near-daily digital elevation models (DEMs) with a horizontal resolution of 1 cm and a sufficient accuracy for the purpose of this study", even published in Zuhr et al., 2021. The other data are not included in the presented dataset, available in PANGAEA.
2) ESSD data descriptions "should instead highlight and emphasize the quality, usability, and accessibility of the dataset, database, or other data product and should describe extensive carefully prepared metadata and file structures at the data repository."In this case I looked at data on the PANGAEA repository and the usability is limited by the position description. Authors refer to a position number, a sampling distance and a sampling depth. They refer to a meter or submeter precision but no coordinates are available, even in the manuscript shows a coarse latitude and longitude positioning (only degree and minute for one location). The sampling depth is presented in the dataset in three different ways: as sampled depth interval, as average sample depth, and as a sample depth derived from digital elevation models. The first two parameters are redundant, thus the average depth from the surface and the sampled thickness complete the required metadata. The third parameter, expressed as percentage should be better described even in the paper.
3) ESSD author obligations state "Fragmentation of research papers should be avoided. A scientist who has done extensive work on a system or group of related systems should organize publication so that each paper gives a complete account of a particular aspect of the general study. It is inappropriate for an author to submit manuscripts describing essentially the same research to more than one journal of primary publication.Fragmentation of research papers should be avoided. A scientist who has done extensive work on a system or group of related systems should organize publication so that each paper gives a complete account of a particular aspect of the general study."
Authors state that "high-resolution near-daily digital elevation models (DEMs) with a horizontal resolution of 1 cm and a sufficient accuracy for the purpose of this study (RMSE of 1.3 cm (Zuhr et al., 2021))." Are the same data included in the DEM derived parameter associated with the presented dataset? The interoperability between the two datasets should be the best practice.
Minor comments:
line 65 Whirl-Paks is a registered trademark, could it better to state the plastic bag in another way (high-purity sampling bag...?)
Figure 2 be consistent with Table 1: sampling modes "Normal" and "n" should be named in the same way
Table 1 declare the year in the caption.
Figure 3 The top panel with Latent Heat Flux should have the y axis without a colour since it refers both to daily and hourly values in the plot.
Check references Zuhr et al 2021 and 2023 are not differentiated even they are listed both in double.Citation: https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-136-RC1
Alexandra M. Zuhr et al.
Data sets
Stable water isotopes in snow from a regular sampling of the upper 10 cm at the EastGRIP deep drilling site during the 2018 summer season Alexandra Zuhr, Sonja Wahl, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen, Anne-Katrine Faber, Melanie Behrens, Tobias Zolles, Hanno Meyer, Vasileios Gkinis, Mikaela Weiner, Sina Sporr, and Thomas Laepple https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.956626
Alexandra M. Zuhr et al.
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