Snow drift induces snow redistribution and may create hiatus in accumulation signals. Getting a climatic information from only one firn core may thus be inaccurate. During this first year of the ASUMA programme, we proposed to collect several firn cores at two distinct sites close to the coast. The main goal was to assess the signal to noise ratio in the first 20 m of firn. This was studied at 2 sites with very different accumulation amounts

Image 1 : Unexpected wilson storm petrel is visiting us during drilling operations (66°45’S, 139°35’E, le 17/1/2015). ((c) V. Favier)

Image 2 : Collecting firn cores at the coast (66°45’S, 139°35’E, le 17/1/2015). ((c) V. Favier)

First site is located at 16km from the coast, whereas the second one is located at 19km. Even if these points are very close from each other, the accumulation is clearly different between both sites.

7 firn cores of 20 m each were collected. They will be delivered at the labs in June for analysis.

Updated on 23 février 2016