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Fidelity of ice core reconstructions

Aktualisiert: 26. Jan. 2022



Hans-Peter Stricker, Kevin Lehninger, and Philipp Lengsfeld

Corresponding author: stricker@relook-climate.de (feel free to reach out to me)


re:look climate gGmbH, Berlin







Abstract


We investigate the fidelity of hypothetical reconstructions of concentrations X(t) of atmospheric air components from virtual ice cores assuming an idealized process of air entrapment during the transition of firn into ice. We consider the entrapment process as a low-pass filter for a signal X(t), define a statistical model describing this process, simulate it using Monte-Carlo techniques, and investigate the achievable resolution of high-resolution reconstructions.

We find that the depth-dependent rate at which air bubbles are entrapped during firn-ice transition is of major importance and demonstrate two methods to estimate it.


“Fidelity refers to the degree to which a model

or simulation reproduces the state and behaviour of

a real world object, feature or condition. Fidelity

is therefore a measure of the realism of a model or

simulation.” (Wikipedia)



Figure 1: Measured values of carbon dioxide concentration in the air entrapped in ice samples taken at different depth at Law Dome (Antarctica) plotted against the estimated mean air age of the samples.







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