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ICE CORE VOSTOK dataset
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This page describes and gives options for manipulating the ICE CORE VOSTOK dataset. We start with the options for manipulating, because once you are comfortable with the system, they are the most useful.

Dataset Options

ICE CORE VOSTOK options Help Expert Mode
display data as colors display data as contours display data as line Data Selection Data FilesTables
Help/Terse
switches back and forth between this relatively descriptive page that contains extended explanations, and the page that just has the information.
Expert Mode
switches into a mode that lets you access several datasets at the same time, and enter data-manipulating commands directly as text rather than clicking on a series of pages.

When in Expert Mode there is a list of active datasets at the top of the page, followed by a text window containing the command equivalent of the current page. These commands can be edited or extended.

Views
(the icons that show different views) go to an interactive data viewer that let you view the data with a variety of plot types (including colors and contours), zoom in and out, and select different slices and different variables. You can also save the view in a variety of formats, including as a clickable link in your own html document, as well as extract the data in the view as a table or datafile.
Data Selection
lets you pick out a subset of the full dataset. You should try the interactive data viewer first.
Data Files
lets you download the dataset in your choice of format.
Tables
lets you view the data as a table. A number of formatting options are available.
Note that there will be many more options once you have picked a particular variable, because the server is currently more adept at manipulating single variables than it is at manipulating datasets (e.g. collections of variables).

Dataset Description

We start with a quick reminder of where you are in the collection of datasets.

SOURCESICECORE*VOSTOK

As you go from left to right, the datasets listed get more and more specific, ending with the current dataset, ICE CORE VOSTOK. Datasets with documentation are marked (*): the * links to the documentation directly.

ICE CORE VOSTOK

VOSTOK from ICE CORE: Chemical measurements from ice cores.

Documents

give additional information about the current dataset.
outline
shows all the different parts of this dataset (the parts are datasets and variables, see below).

Datasets and variables

Variables (also called data or dependent variables) are sets of numbers, along with the grids (independent variables) that place those numbers in space and time, and the additional information (such as units) that render the data meaningful. Datasets are collections of variables and datasets. This will become clearer once you look at the outline.

methane ICE CORE VOSTOK ch4[ Z |]
CO2 ICE CORE VOSTOK CO2[gas_age ice_age min max mean ]
deuterium ICE CORE VOSTOK deuterium[ Z |]
dust flux ICE CORE VOSTOK dstflx[ T |]
dust volume: insoluble microparticles ICE CORE VOSTOK dstvlm[ Z |]
Gas Age ICE CORE VOSTOK gas_age[ D | Z]
Ice Age ICE CORE VOSTOK ice_age[ D | Z]
temperature difference from present ICE CORE VOSTOK temp[ T |]

Grids

Grids are the independent variables contained in this dataset.

time grid: /T (kya) ordered [ (4.) (4.36472) (4.72945) ... (186.)] N= 500 pts :grid
Depth grid: /Z (m) ordered [ (0.0) (0.461481) (3.84568) ... (2076.815)] N= 1477 pts :grid

Other Info

iridl:hasSemantics
iridl:CNRS

References

Jouzel, J., C. Lorius, J. R. Petit, C. Genthon, N. I. Barkov, V. M. Kotlyakov, and V. M. Petrov, Vostok ice core: A continuous isotope temperature record over the last climatic cycle (160,000 years), Nature,329,6138,403-408 (1987)

J. R. Petit, L. Mourner, J. Jouzel, Y. S. Korotkevich, V. I. Kotlyakov & C. Lorius, Palaeoclimatological and chronological implications of the Vostok core dust record, Nature, 343, 56-58 (1990).