Insoluble microparticle size distributions in Greenland ice

Insoluble microparticle size distributions have been measured for ten samples from a continuous section of the Greenland Crête ice core. Particles were recovered by filtration from the melt and photographed in our scanning electron microscope. All ten distributions peaked at particle diameters in the narrow range 0.17-0.23 μm and, significantly, all had very similar slope parameters on a log-log plot. We suggest that the slope parameter and the peak position will be useful in characterizing insoluble microparticles in snow and ice.