Characterization of blowing snow aerosol events in the central Arctic
- 1Extreme Environments Research Laboratory, EPFL, Sion, Switzerland (nora.bergner@epfl.ch)
- 2Department of Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- 3Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
- 4Natural Environment Research Council, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK
- 5School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
- 6Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York, USA
- 7Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
- 8Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research/INAR-Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- 9Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
- 10CNRS, INRAE, IRD, Grenoble INP, IGE, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
- 11National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, Physical Sciences Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA
- 12Climate & Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C), The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus
- 13Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering, Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA
Sea salt aerosols play a critical role in aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions. Salty blowing snow has been hypothesized as an important source of sea salt aerosol in polar regions. The snow over sea ice can become salty by upward brine migration or deposition of sea spray produced from leads or transported from the ice edge. Wind-driven resuspension and sublimation of the snow is hypothesized to leave salty aerosol particles behind. Our understanding of aerosol emissions from blowing snow is based mainly on modeling studies, and direct observations to validate this process are sparse. The year-long Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition, with its integrated measurements and sampling of frequent winter storms, is well suited to enhance our understanding of coupled Arctic system processes. Here, we focus on the impact of blowing snow and high wind speed events on aerosol number concentrations, size distributions, optical properties and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations. Total aerosol number concentrations were significantly enhanced during high-wind speed periods, also concurrent with increased scattering aerosol coefficients and CCN concentrations. We further present a process-based characterization of the blowing snow events during MOSAiC and identify the influence of environmental variables on aerosol emissions. Our observations provide new insights into wind-driven aerosol in the central Arctic and may help to validate modelling studies and inform parameterization improvement particularly with respect to aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcing.
How to cite: Bergner, N., Beck, I., Pratt, K., Mirrielees, J., Creamean, J., Frey, M., Heutte, B., Angot, H., Arnold, S., Uin, J., Springston, S., Matrosov, S., Laurila, T., Jokinen, T., Quéléver, L., Pernov, J., Gong, X., Wang, J., and Schmale, J.: Characterization of blowing snow aerosol events in the central Arctic, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-14641, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-14641, 2023.
