2019-20 Honours project - Identifying atmospheric processes favouring the formation of physical features in the Mount Brown South ice core

Ice cores from Mount Brown South (MBS), East Antarctica, were drilled to help understand the past atmospheric circulation variability in the southern Indian Ocean and southwest Pacific Ocean. There are visible bubble-free layers occurring frequently multiple times a year, and the origin of these features is still unknown. This project aims to determine whether the bubble-free layers in the MBS ice core can be related to atmospheric processes.
ERA-5 data, including surface (skin) temperature, 2 metre air temperature, wind at 10 metre height, the mean surface downward short-wave radiation flux and snowfall, is used to assess the target climate variables from 1979 to 2017 at the ice core sites.