WAIS Divide Laser Dust Logger: Ice Core Optical Logs from 1403 to 3329 Meters

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) Divide ice core contains optical logs of dust particles in clear ice. The data was collected by a laser dust logger between depths of 1403.58 meters and 3329.8 meters. It was published by the AMD/USAP Data Center and last updated in December 2011.

Use Cases

• Reconstructing past atmospheric dust load based on laser scattering measurements in ice.
• Analyzing climate variability over time based on dust deposition layers in the ice core.
• Calibrating ice core chronology based on the depth profile of dust particle concentrations.

Strengths

• Data covers a significant depth range from 1403.58 to 3329.8 meters within the ice core.
• Measurements are from clear ice, which likely provides a cleaner signal for dust analysis.
• Data originates from the authoritative WAIS Divide ice core drilling project.

Limitations

• Last updated 2011-12-06 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

AMD_USAPDC

Collection Method

Optical logs made with a laser dust logger.

Time Range

Depth range corresponds to a temporal sequence of ice layers.

Freshness

Last updated 2011-12-06 23:59:59.999000

Geography

WAIS Divide, Antarctica