Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study
Growing evidence suggests that the sea ice surface is an important source of sea salt aerosol and this has significant implications for polar climate and atmospheric chemistry. It also offers the opportunity to use ice core sea salt records as proxies for past sea ice extent. To explore this possibi...
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Copernicus Publications on behalf of European Geosciences Union
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Online Access: | http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516245/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516245/1/Rhodes.pdf https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/9417/2017/ |
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:516245 2023-05-15T14:59:55+02:00 Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study Rhodes, Rachael H. Yang, Xin Wolff, Eric W. McConnell, Joseph R. Frey, Markus M. 2017-08-07 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516245/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516245/1/Rhodes.pdf https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/9417/2017/ en eng Copernicus Publications on behalf of European Geosciences Union https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516245/1/Rhodes.pdf Rhodes, Rachael H.; Yang, Xin orcid:0000-0002-3838-9758 Wolff, Eric W.; McConnell, Joseph R.; Frey, Markus M. orcid:0000-0003-0535-0416 . 2017 Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17 (15). 9417-9433. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9417-2017 <https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9417-2017> cc_by CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2017 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9417-2017 2023-02-04T19:44:28Z Growing evidence suggests that the sea ice surface is an important source of sea salt aerosol and this has significant implications for polar climate and atmospheric chemistry. It also offers the opportunity to use ice core sea salt records as proxies for past sea ice extent. To explore this possibility in the Arctic region, we use a chemical transport model to track the emission, transport and deposition of sea salt from both the open ocean and the sea ice, allowing us to assess the relative importance of each. Our results confirm the importance of sea ice sea salt (SISS) to the winter Arctic aerosol burden. For the first time, we explicitly simulate the sea salt concentrations of Greenland snow and find they match high resolution Greenland ice core records to within a factor of two. Our simulations suggest that SISS contributes to the winter maxima in sea salt characteristic of ice cores across Greenland. A north-south gradient in the contribution of SISS relative to open ocean sea salt (OOSS) exists across Greenland, with 50 % of sea salt being SISS at northern sites such as NEEM, while only 10 % of sea salt is SISS at southern locations such as ACT10C. Our model shows some skill at reproducing the inter-annual variability in sea salt concentrations for 1991–1999 AD, particularly at Summit where up to 62 % of the variability is explained. Future work will involve constraining what is driving this inter-annual variability and operating the model under different paleoclimatic conditions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland ice cores ice core Sea ice Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Arctic Greenland Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 17 15 9417 9433 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
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ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Growing evidence suggests that the sea ice surface is an important source of sea salt aerosol and this has significant implications for polar climate and atmospheric chemistry. It also offers the opportunity to use ice core sea salt records as proxies for past sea ice extent. To explore this possibility in the Arctic region, we use a chemical transport model to track the emission, transport and deposition of sea salt from both the open ocean and the sea ice, allowing us to assess the relative importance of each. Our results confirm the importance of sea ice sea salt (SISS) to the winter Arctic aerosol burden. For the first time, we explicitly simulate the sea salt concentrations of Greenland snow and find they match high resolution Greenland ice core records to within a factor of two. Our simulations suggest that SISS contributes to the winter maxima in sea salt characteristic of ice cores across Greenland. A north-south gradient in the contribution of SISS relative to open ocean sea salt (OOSS) exists across Greenland, with 50 % of sea salt being SISS at northern sites such as NEEM, while only 10 % of sea salt is SISS at southern locations such as ACT10C. Our model shows some skill at reproducing the inter-annual variability in sea salt concentrations for 1991–1999 AD, particularly at Summit where up to 62 % of the variability is explained. Future work will involve constraining what is driving this inter-annual variability and operating the model under different paleoclimatic conditions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rhodes, Rachael H. Yang, Xin Wolff, Eric W. McConnell, Joseph R. Frey, Markus M. |
spellingShingle |
Rhodes, Rachael H. Yang, Xin Wolff, Eric W. McConnell, Joseph R. Frey, Markus M. Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study |
author_facet |
Rhodes, Rachael H. Yang, Xin Wolff, Eric W. McConnell, Joseph R. Frey, Markus M. |
author_sort |
Rhodes, Rachael H. |
title |
Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study |
title_short |
Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study |
title_full |
Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study |
title_fullStr |
Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study |
title_sort |
sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to greenland ice cores: a model-based study |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications on behalf of European Geosciences Union |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516245/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516245/1/Rhodes.pdf https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/9417/2017/ |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland ice cores ice core Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland Greenland ice core Greenland ice cores ice core Sea ice |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/516245/1/Rhodes.pdf Rhodes, Rachael H.; Yang, Xin orcid:0000-0002-3838-9758 Wolff, Eric W.; McConnell, Joseph R.; Frey, Markus M. orcid:0000-0003-0535-0416 . 2017 Sea ice as a source of sea salt aerosol to Greenland ice cores: a model-based study. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 17 (15). 9417-9433. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9417-2017 <https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9417-2017> |
op_rights |
cc_by |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9417-2017 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
15 |
container_start_page |
9417 |
op_container_end_page |
9433 |
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1766332037118033920 |