Price, R orcid.org/0000-0003-1981-9860, Baccarini, A, Schmale, J et al. (4 more authors) (2023) Late summer transition from a free-tropospheric to boundary layer source of Aitken mode aerosol in the high Arctic. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 23 (5). pp. 2927-2961. ISSN 1680-7316
Abstract
In the Arctic, the aerosol budget plays a particular role in determining the behaviour of clouds, which are important for the surface energy balance and thus for the region’s climate. A key question is the extent to which cloud condensation nuclei in the high Arctic summertime boundary layer are controlled by local emission and formation processes as opposed to transport from outside. Each of these sources is likely to respond differently to future changes in ice cover. Here we use a global model and observations from ship and aircraft field campaigns to understand the source of high Arctic aerosol in late summer. We find that particles formed remotely, i.e. at latitudes outside the Arctic, are the dominant source of boundary layer Aitken mode particles during the sea ice melt period up to the end of August. Particles from such remote sources, entrained into the boundary layer from the free troposphere, account for nucleation and Aitken mode particle concentrations that are otherwise underestimated by the model. This source from outside the high Arctic declines as photochemical rates decrease towards the end of summer and is largely replaced by local new particle formation driven by iodic acid created during freeze-up. Such a local source increases the simulated Aitken mode particle concentrations by 2 orders of magnitude during sea ice freeze-up and is consistent with strong fluctuations in nucleation mode concentrations that occur in September. Our results suggest a high-Arctic aerosol regime shift in late summer, and only after this shift do cloud condensation nuclei become sensitive to local aerosol processes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Author(s) 2023. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) NE/R009686/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Mar 2023 12:17 |
Last Modified: | 10 Mar 2023 12:17 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Copernicus Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.5194/acp-23-2927-2023 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:197181 |