Coupling PIXE and SEM/EDAX for characterizing atmospheric aerosols in ice-cores

The atmospheric aerosol plays a key role in controlling the Earth's climatic system. This climatic forcing is related to its dimension and chemical composition and therefore, understanding temporal and spatial fluctuations related to changing environmental conditions is a key step in assessing future climatic change. The atmosphere's chemical constituents are deposited onto polar ice sheets, and conserved by accumulation of snow layers. Drillings in Greenland and Antarctica have provided long-term records of atmospheric constituents spanning the last 150 000 years. Within the framework of the Greenland Ice Core Project (GRIP), we have developed a methodology coupling PIXE to SEM-EDAX analysis for the characterization of the aerosols deposited in polar precipitation. In this paper, we present initial results on soluble/insoluble speciation for both Antarctic and Greenland samples. This study provides new information in the interpretation of ice core paleo-environmental records.