The importance of Asia as a source of black carbon to the European Arctic during springtime 2013

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: Liu, D., Quennehen, Boris, Darbyshire, E., Allan, J. D., Williams, P. I., Taylor, J. W., Bauguitte, S. J.-B., Flynn, M. J., Lowe, D., Gallagher, M. W., Bower, K. N., Choularton, T. W., Coe, H.
• Other Authors: School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences Manchester (SEAES), University of Manchester Manchester, Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), TROPO - LATMOS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), National Centre for Atmospheric Science Manchester (NCAS), Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements ( Cranfield (FAAM), National Centre for Atmospheric Science Leeds (NCAS), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)-Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; Arctic; black carbon; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-01156538; https://insu.hal.science/insu-01156538/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-01156538/file/acp-15-11537-2015.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11537-2015

International audience Black carbon aerosol (BC) deposited to the Arctic sea ice or present in the free troposphere can significantly affect the Earth's radiation budget at high latitudes yet the BC burden in these regions and the regional source contributions are poorly constrained. Aircraft measurements of aerosol composition in the European Arctic were conducted during the Aerosol–Cloud Coupling And Climate Interactions in the Arctic (ACCACIA) campaign in March 2013. Pollutant plumes were encountered throughout the lower to upper Arctic troposphere featuring enhancements in CO and aerosol mass loadings, which were chemically speciated into BC and non-refractory sulphate and organic matter. FLEXPART-WRF simulations have been performed to evaluate the likely contribution to the pollution from regional ground sources. By combining up-to-date anthropogenic and open fire biomass burning (OBB) inventories, we have been able to compare the contributions made to the observed pollution layers from the sources of eastern/northern Asia (AS), Europe (EU) and North America (NA). Over 90% of the contribution to the pollution was shown to arise from non-OBB anthropogenic sources. AS sources were found to be the major contributor to the BC burden, increasing background BC loadings by a factor of 3–5 to 100.8 ± 48.4 ng s m −3 and 55.8 ± 22.4 ng s m −3 in the middle and upper troposphere respectively. AS plumes close to the tropopause (about 7.5–8 km) were also observed, with BC concentrations ranging from 55 to 73 ng s m −3 , which will potentially have a significant radiative impact. EU sources influenced the middle troposphere with a BC mean concentration of 70.8 ± 39.1 ng s m −3 but made a minor contribution to the upper troposphere due to the relatively high latitude of the source region. The contribution of NA was shown to be much lower at all altitudes with BC mean concentration of 20 ng s m −3 . The BC transported to the Arctic is mixed with a non-BC volume fraction representing between 90–95% of the mass, and has a ...