C03_01

The ice core radionuclide perspective on past cosmic ray events

Muscheler R¹, Paleari C¹, Mekhaldi F^1,2, Nguyen L¹, Zheng M^1,4, Adolphi F³, Christl M⁴, Vockenhuber C⁴, Gautschi P⁴, Beer J⁵, Brehm N⁴, Erhardt T^3,6, Wacker L⁴, Nilsson A¹, Herbst K⁷

¹Lund University, Lund, Sweden, ²British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK, ³Alfred-Wegener-Institut , Bremerhaven, Germany, ⁴ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland, ⁵Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland, ⁶University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ⁷Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel, Germany

The recent discovery of strong and rapid radionuclide production enhancements has opened up a whole new field of paleo space weather research. In this presentation we will give an overview of the present status of the ice-core based assessment of past cosmic ray events in comparison to radiocarbon records. We will review the present detection limit and show the comparison of the proposed radionuclide spikes in tree-ring radiocarbon with ice core ¹⁰Be and ³⁶Cl records. We will discuss unresolved issues in either the carbon cycle, ¹⁰Be and ³⁶Cl transport and deposition and/or their theoretical production rates. Furthermore, we will discuss the potential of these rapid production rate enhancements for climate research in general.