Renland Ice Cap Project (ReCAP) total air content data, Eastern Greenland, 2015

Total air content (TAC) of the REnland ice CAP project (RECAP) core, drilled in summer 2015, is measured as a part of investigating the elevation history of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS). TAC is a proxy for the elevation at which the ice was originally formed as the TAC in ice cores is predominantly influenced by surface air pressure and conditions like temperature and local summer insolation. Measurements of the RECAP ice core were made at PICE (Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth, University of Copenhagen) and PSU (Penn State University). While the system at PICE is dedicated to total air content measurements following the barometric method and giving absolute calibrated volumes (Lipenkov et al., 1995), the measurements at PSU are a by-product of measurements for d15N(delta-15-Nitrogen) and CH4(Methane) contents. The study was designed to answer the pertinent question if the Renland ice cap always had the same elevation. Vinther et al (2009) estimated the elevation changes induced in the GIS after the onset of the Holocene from the differences in the δ18O(delta-18-Oxygen) signals of Greenland Icecore Project(GRIP), North Greenland Ice Core Project(NGRIP), Camp Century and DYE-3. They found that though Greenland experienced fairly uniform climatic conditions during the Holocene, the response of the GIS has been erratic at different locations. The study uses d18O(delta-18-Oxygen) of H2O(dihydrogen monoxide) data from the Renland ice cap as an anchor point arguing that the ice cap has not experienced significant ice flow or elevation changes due to its isolation from the GIS owing to the surrounding topography.