A 600-year annual Be record from the NGRIP ice core, Greenland

[1] Despite the extensive use of Be as the most significant information source on past solar activity, there has been only one record (Dye-3, Greenland) providing annual resolution over several centuries. Here we report a new annual resolution Be record spanning the period 1389–1994 AD, measured in an ice core from the NGRIP site in Greenland. NGRIP and Dye-3 Be exhibits similar long-term variability, although occasional short term differences between the two sites indicate that at least two high resolution Be records are needed to assess local variations and to confidently reconstruct past solar activity. A comparison with sunspot and neutron records confirms that ice core Be reflects solar Schwabe cycle variations, and continued Be variability suggests cyclic solar activity throughout the Maunder and Spörer grand solar activity minima. Recent Be values are low; however, they do not indicate unusually high recent solar activity compared to the last 600 years. Citation: Berggren, A.-M., J. Beer, G. Possnert, A. Aldahan, P. Kubik, M. Christl, S. J. Johnsen, J. Abreu, and B. M. Vinther (2009), A 600-year annual Be record from the NGRIP ice core, Greenland, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L11801, doi:10.1029/2009GL038004.