Browse, J, Carslaw, KS, Mann, GW et al. (3 more authors) (2014) The complex response of Arctic aerosol to sea-ice retreat. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 14. 7543 - 7557. ISSN 1680-7316
Abstract
Loss of summertime Arctic sea ice will lead to a large increase in the emission of aerosols and precursor gases from the ocean surface. It has been suggested that these enhanced emissions will exert substantial aerosol radiative forcings, dominated by the indirect effect of aerosol on clouds. Here, we investigate the potential for these indirect forcings using a global aerosol microphysics model evaluated against aerosol observations from the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) campaign to examine the response of Arctic cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) to sea-ice retreat. In response to a complete loss of summer ice, we find that north of 70° N emission fluxes of sea salt, marine primary organic aerosol (OA) and dimethyl sulfide increase by a factor of ~ 10, ~ 4 and ~ 15 respectively. However, the CCN response is weak, with negative changes over the central Arctic Ocean. The weak response is due to the efficient scavenging of aerosol by extensive drizzling stratocumulus clouds. In the scavenging-dominated Arctic environment, the production of condensable vapour from oxidation of dimethyl sulfide grows particles to sizes where they can be scavenged. This loss is not sufficiently compensated by new particle formation, due to the suppression of nucleation by the large condensation sink resulting from sea-salt and primary OA emissions. Thus, our results suggest that increased aerosol emissions will not cause a climate feedback through changes in cloud microphysical and radiative properties.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
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) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Jan 2015 12:29 |
Last Modified: | 16 Jan 2018 17:54 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-7543-2014 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | European Geosciences Union |
Identification Number: | 10.5194/acp-14-7543-2014 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:81912 |