A missing component of Arctic warming: black carbon from gas flaring

• Published in: Environmental Research Letters
• Main Authors: Mee-Hyun Cho, Rokjin J Park, Jinho Yoon, Yonghan Choi, Jaein I Jeong, Lev Labzovskii, Joshua S Fu, Kan Huang, Su-Jong Jeong, Baek-Min Kim
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 2019
• Subjects: black carbon; gas flaring; sea-ice melting; Arctic warming; moisture transport; Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering; TD1-1066; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Science; Q; Physics; QC1-999; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; albedo; Climate change; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab374d; https://doaj.org/article/381ef67a69d943f3a0c3854b7ccc9d88

Gas flaring during oil extraction over the Arctic region is the primary source of warming-inducing aerosols (e.g. black carbon (BC)) with a strong potential to affect regional climate change. Despite continual BC emissions near the Arctic Ocean via gas flaring, the climatic impact of BC related to gas flaring remains uncertain. Here, we present simulations of potential gas flaring using an earth system model with comprehensive aerosol physics to show that increases in BC from gas flaring can potentially explain a significant fraction of Arctic warming. BC emissions from gas flaring over high latitudes contribute to locally confined warming over the source region, especially during the Arctic spring through BC-induced local albedo reduction. This local warming invokes remote and temporally lagging sea-ice melting feedback processes over the Arctic Ocean during winter. Our findings imply that a regional change in anthropogenic aerosol forcing is capable of changing Arctic temperatures in regions far from the aerosol source via time-lagged, sea-ice-related Arctic physical processes. We suggest that both energy consumption and production processes can increase Arctic warming.