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A central arctic extreme aerosol event triggered by a warm air-mass intrusion. Nat Commun 2022; 13:5290. [PMID: 36075920 PMCID: PMC9458659 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32872-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Frequency and intensity of warm and moist air-mass intrusions into the Arctic have increased over the past decades and have been related to sea ice melt. During our year-long expedition in the remote central Arctic Ocean, a record-breaking increase in temperature, moisture and downwelling-longwave radiation was observed in mid-April 2020, during an air-mass intrusion carrying air pollutants from northern Eurasia. The two-day intrusion, caused drastic changes in the aerosol size distribution, chemical composition and particle hygroscopicity. Here we show how the intrusion transformed the Arctic from a remote low-particle environment to an area comparable to a central-European urban setting. Additionally, the intrusion resulted in an explosive increase in cloud condensation nuclei, which can have direct effects on Arctic clouds’ radiation, their precipitation patterns, and their lifetime. Thus, unless prompt actions to significantly reduce emissions in the source regions are taken, such intrusion events are expected to continue to affect the Arctic climate. Warm and moist air-mass intrusions into the Arctic are more frequent than the past decades. Here, the authors show that warm air mass intrusions from northern Eurasia inject record amounts of aerosols into the central Arctic Ocean strongly impacting atmospheric chemistry and cloud properties.
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Xie Y, Li Z, Li L, Wagener R, Abboud I, Li K, Li D, Zhang Y, Chen X, Xu H. Aerosol optical, microphysical, chemical and radiative properties of high aerosol load cases over the Arctic based on AERONET measurements. Sci Rep 2018; 8:9376. [PMID: 29925872 PMCID: PMC6010420 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-27744-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2017] [Accepted: 06/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Columnar mass concentrations of aerosol components over the Arctic are estimated using microphysical parameters derived from direct sun extinction and sky radiance measurements of Aerosol Robotic Network. Aerosol optical, microphysical, chemical and radiative properties show that Arctic aerosols are dominated by fine mode particles, especially for high aerosol load cases. The average aerosol optical depth (AOD) of the selected Arctic sites in the sampling period is approximately 0.08, with 75% composed of fine mode particles. The fine mode fraction mostly exceeds 0.9 when AOD greater than 0.4. The ammonium sulfate-like component (AS) contributes about 68% of total dry aerosol mass for high-AOD events. The estimated compositions and back trajectories show that the transported aerosol particles from biomass burning events have large amounts of black carbon (BC) and brown carbon, while those from pollution events are characterised by large AS fractions. The instantaneous radiative forcing at the top-of-atmosphere is higher for the more absorbing components, and varies greatly with surface albedo and solar zenith angle. A regression model of columnar composition and radiative forcing within the atmosphere (RFATM) for Arctic aerosol is established, showing that BC dominates a positive RFATM with a high warming efficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yisong Xie
- Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Satellite Remote Sensing, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Zhengqiang Li
- Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Satellite Remote Sensing, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
| | - Li Li
- Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Satellite Remote Sensing, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Richard Wagener
- Environmental & Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, 11973, USA
| | - Ihab Abboud
- Measurement and Analysis Research Section, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ontario, L0L1N0, Canada
| | - Kaitao Li
- Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Satellite Remote Sensing, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Donghui Li
- Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Satellite Remote Sensing, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Ying Zhang
- Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Satellite Remote Sensing, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Xingfeng Chen
- Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Satellite Remote Sensing, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
| | - Hua Xu
- Environment Protection Key Laboratory of Satellite Remote Sensing, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China
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