There is evidence that disturbed structure in the GISP2 cores begins little more than 70% of the way through the ice sheet. This disturbance increases with depth until it becomes large enough to cast suspicion on features lasting centuries or more in the bottom 10% of the ice sheet.

Abstract. Annual layers are visible in the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 ice core from central Greenland, allowing rapid dating of the core. Changes in bubble and grain structure caused by near-surface, primarily summertime formation of hoar complexes provide the main visible annual marker in the Holocene, and changes in "cloudiness" of the ice correlated with dustiness mark Wisconsinan annual cycles; both markers are evident and have been intercalibrated in early Holocene ice. Layer counts are reproducible between different workers and for one worker at different times, with 1% error over century-length times in the Holocene. Reproducibility is typically 5% in Wisconsinan ice-age ice and decreases with increasing age and depth. Cumulative ages from visible stratigraphy are not significantly different from independent ages of prominent events for ice older than the historical record and younger than approximately 50,000 years. Visible observations are not greatly degraded by "brittle ice" or many other core-quality problems, allowing construction of long, consistently sampled time series. High accuracy requires careful study of the core by dedicated observers.

No abstract

Recent observational and modeling studies indicate that the Arctic sea-ice cover is undergoing significant climate-induced changes, affecting both its extent and thickness. The thickness or, more precisely, the mass balance of the ice cover is a key climate-change indicator since it is an integrator of both the surface heat budget and the ocean heat flux. Accordingly, efforts are underway to develop and deploy in situ observing systems which, when combined with satellite remote-sensing information and numerical models, can effectively monitor and attribute changes in the mass balance of the Arctic sea-ice cover. As part of this effort, we have developed an autonomous ice mass-balance buoy (IMB), which is equipped with sensors to measure snow accumulation and ablation, ice growth and melt, and internal ice temperature, plus a satellite transmitter. The IMB is unique in its ability to determine whether changes in the thickness of the ice cover occur at the top or bottom of the ice cover, and hence provide insight into the driving forces behind the change. Since 2000, IMBs have been deployed each spring from the North Pole Environmental Observatory and in several other areas, including a few in the Beaufort Sea and Central Basin. At this point, the collective time series is too short to draw significant and specific conclusions regarding interannual and regional variability in ice mass balance. Comparisons of available data indicate that ice surface ablation is greater in the Beaufort region (67-80 cm), relative to the North Pole (0-30 cm), consistent with a longer period of melt in the more southerly location. Ablation at the bottom of the ice (22 cm), maximum ice thickness (235 cm) and maximum snow depth (28 cm) were comparable in the two regions.