Polar regions are experiencing rapid environmental changes that have profound impacts on global climate. Aerosols, clouds, and biogeochemical processes within the sea ice and ocean in these regions play a critical role in regulating the Earth’s energy balance, influencing weather patterns, and driving feedback mechanisms that affect global climate dynamics. This session aims to bring together researchers investigating the complex interactions between aerosols, clouds, and sea ice/ocean biogeochemistry in the Arctic and Antarctic.
We invite contributions that explore sources, transport, and transformation of aerosols; the formation, properties, and impacts of polar clouds; the impact of atmospheric physics and boundary layer dynamics on aerosols and clouds; and the biogeochemical processes in sea ice and ocean that influence and are influenced by these atmospheric components.
Key topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Aerosol-cloud interactions and their influence on cloud microphysics, radiative properties, and precipitation in polar environments
- The impact of natural and anthropogenic aerosols, including sea salt, mineral dust, biological particles, black carbon, and organic aerosols, on polar climate and ecosystem processes
- The influence of atmospheric physics and boundary layer dynamics on polar aerosol and cloud properties
- Sea ice and ocean biogeochemical cycling in polar regions, including the roles of marine and terrestrial sources, and the feedbacks between aerosols, clouds, and surface processes
- Advances in observational and modeling techniques to improve our understanding of aerosol and cloud dynamics in polar regions
- The implications of polar aerosol-cloud interactions for global climate models and predictions
By fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, this session aims to advance our understanding of the interconnectedness of aerosols, clouds, and biogeochemistry in polar regions and their broader climate implications. We welcome submissions from researchers at all career stages and encourage collaboration across disciplines to address these critical scientific challenges. Studies utilizing field observations (especially from observations from recent field campaigns, such as MOSAiC and ARTofMELT in the Arctic and MISO in the Southern Ocean), remote sensing, laboratory experiments, and numerical modeling (on a process, regional or climate level) are invited.