Overview of SMÄLTA: Secondary Marine Aerosol precursors and Links to aerosol growth at ice-melT onset in the Arctic

The sources, composition, and reactive transformation of reactive organic carbon (ROC, non-methane organic carbon) as well as the processing, abundances, and distribution of organosulfur compounds in the Arctic marine atmosphere are unconstrained partially due to a lack of targeted measurements.  Understanding the emission, transport and processing of ROC and organosulfur compounds is important for improving our understanding of the impacts of gaseous precursors on aerosol nucleation and growth, and atmospheric oxidation capacity. There is a shift in aerosol size distribution that occurs with the Arctic spring-to-summer transition period and there are very few Arctic marine measurements of trace gases during this same period. Constraining the composition of organosulfur compounds and ROC is important for understanding the drivers in the shift of aerosol size distribution.

We present shipborne gas-phase measurements of ROC and organosulfur compounds in the Arctic marine atmosphere as part of the Atmospheric Rivers and the onseT of sea ice MELT (ARTofMELT) campaign. ARTofMELT took place from May 7^th to June 15^th of 2023 over pack ice and within the marginal ice zone between 78 and 81°N in the Fram Strait. We deployed a reagent ion switching chemical ionization mass spectrometer to target ROC and organosulfur compounds using H­₃O⁺ ionization for the detection of reduced compounds and NH₄⁺ ionization for the detection oxidized species. The measurements encompass a variety of different conditions including ozone depleted air masses (<10ppb_v), cloud influenced air masses, a range of aerosol concentrations, and air masses with southern and northern airmass history with influences from biologically rich marine regions as well as transport from over pack ice. Additionally, measurements of ROC show the presence of ≥C₅ organics in the environment with implications for aerosol size and growth. Here, we show an overview of our measurements and some initial observations of the ROC present during the campaign.