© Author(s) 2007. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Regional aerosol optical properties and radiative impact of the extreme smoke event in the European Arctic in spring 2006

• Main Authors: C. Lund Myhre, C. Toledano, G. Myhre, K. Stebel, K. E. Yttri, V. Aaltonen, M. Johnsrud, M. Frioud, V. Cachorro, A. De Frutos, H. Lihavainen, J. R. Campbell, A. P. Chaikovsky, M. Shiobara, E. J. Welton, K. Tørseth
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Arctic; Svalbard
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.404.4496; http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/29/63/87/PDF/acp-7-5899-2007.pdf

Abstract. In spring 2006 a special meteorological situation occurred in the European Arctic region giving record high levels of air pollution. The synoptic situation resulted in extensive transport of pollution predominantly from agricultural fires in Eastern Europe into the Arctic region and record high air-pollution levels were measured at the Zeppelin observatory at Ny- ˚Alesund (78 ◦ 54 ′ N, 11 ◦ 53 ′ E) in the period from 25 April to 12 May. In the present study we investigate the optical properties of the aerosols from this extreme event and we estimate the radiative forcing of this episode. We examine the aerosol optical properties from the source region and into the European Arctic and explore the evolution of the episode and the changes in the optical properties. A number of sites in Eastern Europe, Northern Scandinavia and Svalbard are included in the study. The observations