The Role of Light Absorbing Particles in Snow and Ice on Svalbard: A Focus on Dust

The Arctic is warming as much as four times the global rate, with warming particularly pronounced on Svalbard. This warming is leading to reductions in snow, glaciers and sea ice and a potential increase of local dust emissions. In addition to climate warming, another factor that can contribute to snow and ice melt is the deposition of light absorbing particles (LAP). LAP include black carbon, dust and biogenic impurities.  When deposited on snow and ice surfaces, LAP reduce albedo, increase energy absorption, and can accelerate snow and ice melt.  Numerous studies have investigated black carbon in snow and ice cores from Svalbard, but less work has been done on dust, and measurements of snow dust concentrations and dust deposition rates are sparse.  Recent studies have called for an assessment of the impacts of climate change on dust emissions and the cryosphere in the Arctic, as decreases in seasonal snow cover and duration, glacier retreat, and warming temperatures are all hypothesized to lead to an increase in dust sources and emissions, and subsequent deposition of dust on snow and ice surfaces.

We present LAP results from snow and firn core samples that were collected from spatially distributed Svalbard glaciers between 2021-2025. The samples were analyzed for black carbon using a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2), dust concentrations via gravimetric filtration and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), dust spectral reflectance using a spectroradiometer, and dust composition and mineralogy via X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and a scanning electron microscope with a Back Scatter Electron (BSE) detector.  Results indicate that dust concentrations vary seasonally with low concentrations during the winter and higher concentrations during the summer-fall, and there are spatial variations in dust concentrations and dust optical properties that are likely associated with variations in local dust sources. Modeled albedo reductions indicate that LAP albedo reductions are dominated by dust, with smaller albedo reductions from black carbon. Changes in dust emissions and dust deposition spatially and temporally in response to a changing climate on Svalbard are also considered.