Interannual and seasonal variations in aerosol optical depth of the atmosphere in two regions of Spitsbergen Archipelago (2002–2018)

• Main Authors: Kabanov, Dmitry M., Ritter, Christoph, Sakerin, Sergey M.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Barentsburg; Ny-Ålesund; Ny Ålesund; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2020-83; https://amt.copernicus.org/preprints/amt-2020-83/

In this work hourly averaged sun photometer data from the sites Barentsburg and Ny-Ålesund, both located in Spitsbergen in the European Arctic, are compared. Our data set comprises the years 2011 to 2017. We found for more turbid periods (aerosol optical depth τ 0.5 > 0.1) that typically Barentsburg is more polluted than Ny-Ålesund, especially in the short wave spectrum. However, the diurnal variation of AOD is highly correlated. Next, τ was divided into a fine and coarse mode. It was found that generally the fine mode aerosol optical depth dominates and also shows a larger interannual as inner annual variation. Tau fine τ f is in fact larger in spring during the Arctic Haze period. Overall the aerosol optical depth seems to decrease, although this is not statistically significant.