Spatial Variability in Firn Properties from Borehole Optical Stratigraphy at the Inland WAIS Core Site

Award Abstract #0538639
Spatial Variability in Firn Properties from Borehole Optical Stratigraphy at the Inland WAIS Core Site

This award supports a project to study the patterns of accumulation variation and microstructural properties near the WAIS Divide ice core site in a 2.5 km array of 20 m boreholes. Borehole Optical Stratigraphy (BOS) is a novel optical measurement system that detects annual-scale layers in firn that result from changes in firn microstructure, giving annual-scale records of how accumulation varied spatially over the last 40-50 years. The records in the archive show variations in the measured brightness of the borehole wall at annual and sub-annual scales for fifteen boreholes just upstream of the WAIS divide drill site. This data covers depositional variability occurring between approximately 1976 and 2006, and the data were collected in late 2006.