The climate signal recorded in the oxygen-isotope, accumulation and major-ion time series from the Eclipse ice core, Yukon Territory, Canada 

Annals of Glaciology, 35, p. 416-422, 2002 

C.P. Wake and K. Yalcin
Climate Change Research Center, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, U.S.A.
N.S. Gundestrup
Geofysisk Afdeling, Niels Bohr Instituttet for Astronomi, Fysik og Geofysik, Københavns Universitet

ABSTRACT.
The high accumulation rate, nearly complete preservation and detailed chronology of the Eclipse ice core, Yukon Territory, Canada, are well suited for comparison of the glaciochemical record with instrumental time series of temoerature, precipitation and sea-level pressure. Results of cross-correlation analysis of instrumental temperature records with the Eclipse δ¹⁸O time series reveal a significant positive relationship between summertime δ¹⁸O at Eclipse and summer (April-September) temperatures in northwestern North America. The results indicate that the Eclipse δ¹⁸O time series provides a better proxy for regional temperature than does the δ¹⁸O time series from the Mount Logan ice-core record for which only negative correlations were found. Winter accumulation at Eclipse is significantly correlated with several sites in Alaska, but not with any sites in the Yukon. The δ¹⁸O, accumulation and glaciochemical time series also display significant correlations with the Northern Hemisphere sea-level pressure dataset, especially between wintertime sulfate and nitrate concentrations at Eclipse and the intensity of the wintertime Siberian high and Aleutian and Icelandic lows. These results suggest that year-to-year variability in the deposition of pollutants at Eclipse can be linked to changes in atmospheric circulation, while long-term trends can be explained by changes in source strength.