Methane in NEEM-2011-S1 ice core from North Greenland, 1800 years continuous record: 5 year median, v2

Description and Notes Description: Methane concentration from the Greenland NEEM-2011-S1 Ice Core from 71 to 408m depth (~270-1961 CE). Methane concentrations analysed online by laser spectrometer (SARA, Spectroscopy by Amplified Resonant Absorption, developed at Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique, Grenoble, France) on gas extracted from an ice core processed using a continuous melter system (Desert Research Institute). Methane data have a 5 second integration time (raw data acquisition rate 0.6 Hz). Analytical precision, from Allan Variance test, is 0.9 ppb (2 sigma). Long-term reproducibility is 2.6% (2 sigma). Gaps in the record are due to problems during online analysis. Online analysis conducted August-September 2011. Note: Lat-Long provided is for main NEEM borehole. The NEEM-2011-S1 core was drilled 200 m distance away in 2011 to 410 m depth.

Methane concentrations are reported on NOAA2004 scale (instrument calibrated on dry synthetic air standards). A correction factor of 1.079 has been applied to all data to correct for methane dissolution in melted ice core sample prior to gas extraction. Correction factor calculated using empirical data (concentrations not aligned/tied to existing discrete methane measurements).

Additional methods description provided in: Stowasser, C., Buizert, C., Gkinis, V., Chappellaz, J., Schupbach, S., Bigler, M., Fain, X., Sperlich, P., Baumgartner, M., Schilt, A., Blunier, T., 2012. Continuous measurements of methane mixing ratios from ice cores. Atmos. Meas. Tech. 5, 999-1013. Morville, J., Kassi, S., Chenevier, M., Romanini, D., 2005. Fast, low-noise, mode bymode, cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy by diode-laser self-locking. Appl. Phys. B Lasers Opt. 80, 1027-01038. * NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) project information http://neem.dk/