Monthly records of non-sea-salt sulfur from the WDC ice core in Antarctica between 1530 and 1710 CE and inferred background and volcanic contributions

We report monthly non-sea-salt sulfur concentrations from the WDC ice core (Antarctica) analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) at the Desert Research Institute. Additional details about the ice-core site and analytical procedures are provided in the references below citing the original publications. From this monthly resolved record we infer a mean annual cycle of background sulfur concentrations using the median across the respective months in a volcanically quiescent time (1530-1580 CE) while omitting months influenced by smaller volcanic eruptions. We then subtract this mean background cycle from the total sulfur concentrations to derive volcanic sulfate depositions rates (kg km-2 month-1) at nominal monthly resolution. These records are used alongside ice-core crypto-tephra to characterize volcanic eruption sources and to disentangle individual volcanic sulfur depositions on the polar ice sheets arising from temporal clusters of volcanic eruptions such as in the 1590s, 1600s, 1640s, 1660s and 1690s CE.