of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany 2Institut für Umweltgeologie, TU-Braunschweig, Germany 3Alfred Wegener Institut f̈ur Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany Received: 9 November 2009 – Published [...] the Neumayer II research station during the Austral sum- mer 2008/2009 field campaign of the Alfred Wegener Insti- tute (AWI) (70.7137◦ S, 8.4179◦ W). All snow pit samples were taken with 60 ml PE beakers [...] snow pit samples were transported in a frozen state (−20◦C) to the cold room facility of the Alfred Wegener Institute at Bremerhaven, Ger- many. In general, methanesulphonate (MS−), Cl−, NO− 3 , SO2− 4