Sources of springtime surface black carbon in the Arctic: an adjoint analysis for April 2008
We quantify source contributions to springtime (April 2008) surface black carbon (BC) in the Arctic by interpreting surface observations of BC at five receptor sites (Denali, Barrow, Alert, Zeppelin, and Summit) using a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and its adjoint. Contributions to BC...
Main Authors: | , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Text |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
CU Scholar
2017
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://scholar.colorado.edu/mcen_facpapers/32 https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=mcen_facpapers |
id |
ftunicolboulder:oai:scholar.colorado.edu:mcen_facpapers-1031 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftunicolboulder:oai:scholar.colorado.edu:mcen_facpapers-1031 2023-05-15T14:48:42+02:00 Sources of springtime surface black carbon in the Arctic: an adjoint analysis for April 2008 Qi, Ling Li, Qinbin Henze, Daven K Tseng, Hsien-Liang He, Cenlin 2017-08-15T07:00:00Z application/pdf https://scholar.colorado.edu/mcen_facpapers/32 https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=mcen_facpapers unknown CU Scholar https://scholar.colorado.edu/mcen_facpapers/32 https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=mcen_facpapers http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-BY Mechanical Engineering Faculty Contributions text 2017 ftunicolboulder 2018-10-07T09:09:06Z We quantify source contributions to springtime (April 2008) surface black carbon (BC) in the Arctic by interpreting surface observations of BC at five receptor sites (Denali, Barrow, Alert, Zeppelin, and Summit) using a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and its adjoint. Contributions to BC at Barrow, Alert, and Zeppelin are dominated by Asian anthropogenic sources (40–43 %) before 18 April and by Siberian open biomass burning emissions (29–41 %) afterward. In contrast, Summit, a mostly free tropospheric site, has predominantly an Asian anthropogenic source contribution (24–68 %, with an average of 45 %). We compute the adjoint sensitivity of BC concentrations at the five sites during a pollution episode (20–25 April) to global emissions from 1 March to 25 April. The associated contributions are the combined results of these sensitivities and BC emissions. Local and regional anthropogenic sources in Alaska are the largest anthropogenic sources of BC at Denali (63 % of total anthropogenic contributions), and natural gas flaring emissions in the western extreme north of Russia (WENR) are the largest anthropogenic sources of BC at Zeppelin (26 %) and Alert (13 %). We find that long-range transport of emissions from Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (also known as Jing–Jin–Ji), the biggest urbanized region in northern China, contribute significantly (∼ 10 %)to surface BC across the Arctic. On average, it takes ∼ 12 days for Asian anthropogenic emissions and Siberian biomass burning emissions to reach the Arctic lower troposphere, supporting earlier studies. Natural gas flaring emissions from the WENR reach Zeppelin in about a week. We find that episodic transport events dominate BC at Denali (87 %), a site outside the Arctic front, which is a strong transport barrier. The relative contribution of these events to surface BC within the polar dome is much smaller (∼ 50 % at Barrow and Zeppelin and ∼ 10 % at Alert). The large contributions from Asian anthropogenic sources are predominately in the form of chronic pollution (∼ 40 % at Barrow, 65 % at Alert, and 57 % at Zeppelin) on about a 1-month timescale. As such, it is likely that previous studies using 5- or 10-day trajectory analyses strongly underestimated the contribution from Asia to surface BC in the Arctic. Text Arctic Barrow black carbon Extreme North of Russia Alaska University of Colorado, Boulder: CU Scholar Arctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Colorado, Boulder: CU Scholar |
op_collection_id |
ftunicolboulder |
language |
unknown |
description |
We quantify source contributions to springtime (April 2008) surface black carbon (BC) in the Arctic by interpreting surface observations of BC at five receptor sites (Denali, Barrow, Alert, Zeppelin, and Summit) using a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) and its adjoint. Contributions to BC at Barrow, Alert, and Zeppelin are dominated by Asian anthropogenic sources (40–43 %) before 18 April and by Siberian open biomass burning emissions (29–41 %) afterward. In contrast, Summit, a mostly free tropospheric site, has predominantly an Asian anthropogenic source contribution (24–68 %, with an average of 45 %). We compute the adjoint sensitivity of BC concentrations at the five sites during a pollution episode (20–25 April) to global emissions from 1 March to 25 April. The associated contributions are the combined results of these sensitivities and BC emissions. Local and regional anthropogenic sources in Alaska are the largest anthropogenic sources of BC at Denali (63 % of total anthropogenic contributions), and natural gas flaring emissions in the western extreme north of Russia (WENR) are the largest anthropogenic sources of BC at Zeppelin (26 %) and Alert (13 %). We find that long-range transport of emissions from Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (also known as Jing–Jin–Ji), the biggest urbanized region in northern China, contribute significantly (∼ 10 %)to surface BC across the Arctic. On average, it takes ∼ 12 days for Asian anthropogenic emissions and Siberian biomass burning emissions to reach the Arctic lower troposphere, supporting earlier studies. Natural gas flaring emissions from the WENR reach Zeppelin in about a week. We find that episodic transport events dominate BC at Denali (87 %), a site outside the Arctic front, which is a strong transport barrier. The relative contribution of these events to surface BC within the polar dome is much smaller (∼ 50 % at Barrow and Zeppelin and ∼ 10 % at Alert). The large contributions from Asian anthropogenic sources are predominately in the form of chronic pollution (∼ 40 % at Barrow, 65 % at Alert, and 57 % at Zeppelin) on about a 1-month timescale. As such, it is likely that previous studies using 5- or 10-day trajectory analyses strongly underestimated the contribution from Asia to surface BC in the Arctic. |
format |
Text |
author |
Qi, Ling Li, Qinbin Henze, Daven K Tseng, Hsien-Liang He, Cenlin |
spellingShingle |
Qi, Ling Li, Qinbin Henze, Daven K Tseng, Hsien-Liang He, Cenlin Sources of springtime surface black carbon in the Arctic: an adjoint analysis for April 2008 |
author_facet |
Qi, Ling Li, Qinbin Henze, Daven K Tseng, Hsien-Liang He, Cenlin |
author_sort |
Qi, Ling |
title |
Sources of springtime surface black carbon in the Arctic: an adjoint analysis for April 2008 |
title_short |
Sources of springtime surface black carbon in the Arctic: an adjoint analysis for April 2008 |
title_full |
Sources of springtime surface black carbon in the Arctic: an adjoint analysis for April 2008 |
title_fullStr |
Sources of springtime surface black carbon in the Arctic: an adjoint analysis for April 2008 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sources of springtime surface black carbon in the Arctic: an adjoint analysis for April 2008 |
title_sort |
sources of springtime surface black carbon in the arctic: an adjoint analysis for april 2008 |
publisher |
CU Scholar |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://scholar.colorado.edu/mcen_facpapers/32 https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=mcen_facpapers |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Barrow black carbon Extreme North of Russia Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Barrow black carbon Extreme North of Russia Alaska |
op_source |
Mechanical Engineering Faculty Contributions |
op_relation |
https://scholar.colorado.edu/mcen_facpapers/32 https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=mcen_facpapers |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766319789295271936 |