Anthropic Settlements’ Impact on the Light-Absorbing Aerosol Concentrations and Heating Rate in the Arctic

• Published in: Atmosphere
• Main Authors: Niccolò Losi, Piotr Markuszewski, Martin Rigler, Asta Gregorič, Griša Močnik, Violetta Drozdowska, Przemysław Makuch, Tymon Zielinski, Paulina Pakszys, Małgorzata Kitowska, Amedeo Manuel Cefalì, Irene Gini, Andrea Doldi, Sofia Cerri, Pietro Maroni, Ezio Bolzacchini, Luca Ferrero
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2023
• Subjects: black carbon; Arctic; heating rate; direct radiative forcing; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Arctic Ocean; Svalbard; Svalbard Archipelago; Tromsø; Isfjord*; Isfjorden
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14121768; https://doaj.org/article/a96838f6f5904e5c86c672706e305e65

Light-absorbing aerosols (LAA) impact the atmosphere by heating it. Their effect in the Arctic was investigated during two summer Arctic oceanographic campaigns (2018 and 2019) around the Svalbard Archipelago in order to unravel the differences between the Arctic background and the local anthropic settlements. Therefore, the LAA heating rate (HR) was experimentally determined. Both the chemical composition and high-resolution measurements highlighted substantial differences between the Arctic Ocean background (average eBC concentration of 11.7 ± 0.1 ng/m 3 ) and the human settlements, among which the most impacting appeared to be Tromsø and Isfjorden (mean eBC of 99.4 ± 3.1 ng/m 3 ). Consequently, the HR in Isfjorden (8.2 × 10 −3 ± 0.3 × 10 −3 K/day) was one order of magnitude higher than in the pristine background conditions (0.8 × 10 −3 ± 0.9 × 10 −5 K/day). Therefore, we conclude that the direct climate impact of local LAA sources on the Arctic atmosphere is not negligible and may rise in the future due to ice retreat and enhanced marine traffic.