Polar Aerosol Atmospheric Rivers: Detection, Characteristics, and Potential Applications

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
• Main Authors: Lapere, Rémy, Thomas, Jennie, L, Favier, Vincent, Angot, Hélène, Asplund, Julia, Ekman, Annica, M L, Marelle, Louis, Raut, Jean-Christophe, Da Silva, Anderson, Wille, Jonathan, D, Zieger, Paul
• Other Authors: Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE)-Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (Fédération OSUG)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry Stockholm (ACES), Stockholm University, Department of Meteorology Stockholm (MISU), Bolin Centre for Climate Research, TROPO - LATMOS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science Zürich (IAC), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2024
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Arctic; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-04394770; https://insu.hal.science/insu-04394770v1/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-04394770v1/file/JGR%20Atmospheres%20-%202024%20-%20Lapere%20-%20Polar%20Aerosol%20Atmospheric%20Rivers%20%20Detection%20%20Characteristics%20%20and%20Potential%20Applications.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2023jd039606

International audience Aerosols play a key role in polar climate, and are affected by long-range transport from the mid-latitudes, both in the Arctic and Antarctic. This work investigates poleward extreme transport events of aerosols, referred to as polar aerosol atmospheric rivers (p-AAR), leveraging the concept of atmospheric rivers (AR) which signal extreme transport of moisture. Using reanalysis data, we build a detection catalog of p-AARs for black carbon, dust, sea salt and organic carbon aerosols, for the period 1980–2022. First, we describe the detection algorithm, discuss its sensitivity, and evaluate its validity. Then, we present several extreme transport case studies, in the Arctic and in the Antarctic, illustrating the complementarity between ARs and p-AARs. Despite similarities in transport pathways during co-occurring AR/p-AAR events, vertical profiles differ depending on the species, and large-scale transport patterns show that moisture and aerosols do not necessarily originate from the same areas. The complementarity between AR and p-AAR is also evidenced by their long- term characteristics in terms of spatial distribution, seasonality and trends. p-AAR detection, as a complement to AR, can have several important applications for better understanding polar climate and its connections to the mid-latitudes.