A central arctic extreme aerosol event triggered by a warm air-mass intrusion

Dada, Lubna; Angot, Hélène; Beck, Ivo; Baccarini, Andrea; Quéléver, Lauriane L. J.; Boyer, Matthew; Laurila, Tiia; Brasseur, Zoé; Jozef, Gina; Boer, Gijs de; Shupe, Matthew D.; Henning, S.; Bucci, Silvia; Dütsch, Marina; Stohl, Andreas; Petäj̈ä, Tuukka; Daellenbach, Kaspar R.; Jokinen, Tuija; Schmale, Julia

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-32872-2

Cited by 38 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 97 publications

(137 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…During the warm air intrusions, air temperatures increased by up to 30 °C at the MOSAiC site, getting close to and even above the melting point. The atmospheric events included record-breaking total water vapor (Rinke et al, 2021) and high liquid water path, increased wind speeds, precipitation, as well as changes in the aerosol regime (Dada et al, 2022) and surface snow metamorphism. Before, during, and after the warm air intrusion the actual SIC in the vicinity of MOSAiC was high (> 95 %).…”

Section: Warm Air Intrusions In April 2020mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea ice concentration satellite retrievals influenced by surface changes due to warm air intrusions: A case study from the MOSAiC expedition.

Rückert¹,

Rostosky²,

Huntemann³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Warm air intrusions over Arctic sea ice can rapidly change the snow and ice surfaceconditions and can alter sea ice concentration (SIC) estimates derived from satellite-based microwave radiometry without altering the true SIC.Here we focus on two warm moist air intrusions that produced surface glazing duringthe Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC)expedition that reached the research vessel Polarstern in mid-April 2020. After theevents, we observe increased SIC deviations between different satellite products,including climate data records, and especially an underestimation of SIC for algorithmsbased on polarization difference.To examine the causes of this underestimation, we use the extensive MOSAiC snowand ice measurements to computationally model the brightness temperatures of thesurface on a local scale. We further investigate the brightness temperatures observedby ground-based radiometers at frequencies 6.9 GHz, 19 GHz and 89 GHz.We show that the drop in the retrieved sea ice concentration of some satellite productscan be attributed to large-scale surface glazing, i.e., the formation of a thin ice crust atthe top of the snowpack, caused by the warming events.Another mechanism affecting satellite products which are mainly based on gradientratios of brightness temperatures, is the interplay of the changed temperature gradientin the snow and snow metamorphism.From the two analyzed climate data record products, one is less affected by thewarming events.The low frequency channels at 6.9 GHz were less sensitive to these snow surfacechanges, which could be exploited in future retrievals of sea ice concentration.

show abstract

Section: Warm Air Intrusions In April 2020mentioning

confidence: 99%

Sea ice concentration satellite retrievals influenced by surface changes due to warm air intrusions: A case study from the MOSAiC expedition.

Rückert¹,

Rostosky²,

Huntemann³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, INP concentrations were elevated throughout all of April 2020. These higher values in the second half of April 2020 likely were connected to a warm air mass intrusion as observed on the research vessel Polarstern (Dada et al, 2022), which was roughly located at 84.6°N, 14°E, about 800 km north-east of VRS. This intrusion observed at Polarstern from April 14 to 16 likely…”

Section: Case Studymentioning

confidence: 59%

Ice Nucleating Particles in Northern Greenland: annual cycles, biological contribution and parameterizations

Sze

Wex²,

Hartmann³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Ice nucleating particles (INPs) can initiate ice formation in clouds at temperatures above −38 °C through heterogeneous ice nucleation. As a result, INPs affect cloud microphysical and radiative properties, cloud life time and precipitation behavior and thereby ultimately the Earth’s climate. Yet, little is known regarding the sources, abundance and properties of INPs especially in remote regions such as the Arctic. In this study, two-year-long INP measurements (from July 2018 to September 2020) at Villum 5 Research Station (VRS) in Northern Greenland are presented. A low-volume filter sampler was deployed to collect filter samples for off-line INP analysis. An annual cycle of INP concentration (NINP) was observed and the fraction of biogenic INPs was found to be higher in snow-free months and lower in months when the surface was snow-covered. Samples were categorized into three different types based only on the slope of their INP spectra, namely into summer, winter and mix type. For each of the types a temperature dependent INP parameterization was derived, clearly different depending on the time 10 of the year. Winter and summer type occurred only during their respective seasons and were seen 60 % of the time. The mixed type occurred in the remaining 40 % of the time throughout the year. April, May and November were found to be transition months. A case study comparing April 2019 and April 2020 was performed. The month of April was selected because a significant difference in NINP was observed during these two periods, with clearly higher NINP in April 2020. NINP in the case study period revealed no clear dependency on either meteorological parameters or different surface types which were passed 15 by the collected air masses. Overall, the results suggest that the coastal regions of Greenland were main sources of INPs in April 2019 and 2020, most likely including both local terrestrial and marine sources. In parallel to the observed differences in NINP, also a higher cloud ice fraction was observed in satellite data for April 2020, compared to April 2019.

show abstract

“…Both studies observed site-specific differences that make each site distinct beyond interannual variability, and these differences are based on the location of a site and particularly the proximity of a site to the Arctic Ocean. Furthermore, a recent study provides evidence that episodic events, such as warm air mass intrusions, may not be fully captured by land-based observatories (Dada et al, 2022), which further highlights potential issues with extrapolating land-based data to the central Arctic Ocean. Indeed, we also observed distinct differences in the PNSD data collected from within the sea ice over the central Arctic Ocean during MOSAiC compared to the land-based sites.…”

Section: Context For Mosaic Aerosol Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A full year of aerosol size distribution data from the central Arctic under an extreme positive Arctic Oscillation: insights from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition

et al. 2023

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The Arctic environment is rapidly changing due to accelerated warming in the region. The warming trend is driving a decline in sea ice extent, which thereby enhances feedback loops in the surface energy budget in the Arctic. Arctic aerosols play an important role in the radiative balance and hence the climate response in the region, yet direct observations of aerosols over the Arctic Ocean are limited. In this study, we investigate the annual cycle in the aerosol particle number size distribution (PNSD), particle number concentration (PNC), and black carbon (BC) mass concentration in the central Arctic during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition. This is the first continuous, year-long data set of aerosol PNSD ever collected over the sea ice in the central Arctic Ocean. We use a k-means cluster analysis, FLEXPART simulations, and inverse modeling to evaluate seasonal patterns and the influence of different source regions on the Arctic aerosol population. Furthermore, we compare the aerosol observations to land-based sites across the Arctic, using both long-term measurements and observations during the year of the MOSAiC expedition (2019–2020), to investigate interannual variability and to give context to the aerosol characteristics from within the central Arctic. Our analysis identifies that, overall, the central Arctic exhibits typical seasonal patterns of aerosols, including anthropogenic influence from Arctic haze in winter and secondary aerosol processes in summer. The seasonal pattern corresponds to the global radiation, surface air temperature, and timing of sea ice melting/freezing, which drive changes in transport patterns and secondary aerosol processes. In winter, the Norilsk region in Russia/Siberia was the dominant source of Arctic haze signals in the PNSD and BC observations, which contributed to higher accumulation-mode PNC and BC mass concentrations in the central Arctic than at land-based observatories. We also show that the wintertime Arctic Oscillation (AO) phenomenon, which was reported to achieve a record-breaking positive phase during January–March 2020, explains the unusual timing and magnitude of Arctic haze across the Arctic region compared to longer-term observations. In summer, the aerosol PNCs of the nucleation and Aitken modes are enhanced; however, concentrations were notably lower in the central Arctic over the ice pack than at land-based sites further south. The analysis presented herein provides a current snapshot of Arctic aerosol processes in an environment that is characterized by rapid changes, which will be crucial for improving climate model predictions, understanding linkages between different environmental processes, and investigating the impacts of climate change in future Arctic aerosol studies.

show abstract

A central arctic extreme aerosol event triggered by a warm air-mass intrusion

Cited by 38 publications

References 97 publications

Sea ice concentration satellite retrievals influenced by surface changes due to warm air intrusions: A case study from the MOSAiC expedition.

Sea ice concentration satellite retrievals influenced by surface changes due to warm air intrusions: A case study from the MOSAiC expedition.

Ice Nucleating Particles in Northern Greenland: annual cycles, biological contribution and parameterizations

A full year of aerosol size distribution data from the central Arctic under an extreme positive Arctic Oscillation: insights from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About