Arctic smoke ? aerosol characteristics during a record smoke event in the European Arctic and its radiative impact

• Main Authors: Treffeisen, R., Tunved, P., Ström, J., Herber, A., Bareiss, J., Helbig, A., Stone, R. S., Hoyningen-Huene, W., Krejci, R., Stohl, A., Neuber, R.
• Other Authors: Department of Bentho-pelagic processes, Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung (AWI), Department of Applied Environmental Science Stockholm (ITM), Stockholm University, Trier University, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder -National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Institute of Environmental Physics Bremen (IUP), University of Bremen, Department of Meteorology Stockholm (MISU), Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Arctic; Ny-Ålesund; Aitken; Ny Ålesund; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00296252; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00296252/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00296252/file/acp-7-3035-2007.pdf

International audience In early May 2006 a record high air pollution event was observed at Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen. An atypical weather pattern established a pathway for the rapid transport of biomass burning aerosols from agricultural fires in Eastern Europe to the Arctic. Atmospheric stability was such that the smoke was constrained to low levels, within 2 km of the surface during the transport. A description of this smoke event in terms of transport and main aerosol characteristics can be found in Stohl et al. (2007). This study puts emphasis on the radiative effect of the smoke. The aerosol number size distribution was characterised by lognormal parameters as having an accumulation mode centered around 165?185 nm and almost 1.6 for geometric standard deviation of the mode. Nucleation and small Aitken mode particles were almost completely suppressed within the smoke plume measured at Ny-Ålesund. Chemical and microphysical aerosol information obtained at Mt. Zeppelin (474 m a.s.l) was used to derive input parameters for a one-dimensional radiation transfer model to explore the radiative effects of the smoke. The daily mean heating rate calculated on 2 May 2006 for the average size distribution and measured chemical composition reached 0.55 K day ?1 at 0.5 km altitude for the assumed external mixture of the aerosols but showing much higher heating rates for an internal mixture (1.7 K day ?1 ). In comparison a case study for March 2000 showed that the local climatic effects due to Arctic haze, using a regional climate model, HIRHAM, amounts to a maximum of 0.3 K day ?1 of heating at 2 km altitude (Treffeisen et al., 2005).