Arctic smoke – record high air pollution levels in the European Arctic due to agricultural fires in Eastern Europe

Abstract

Abstract. In spring 2006, the European Arctic was abnormally warm, setting new historical temperature records. During this warm period, smoke from agricultural fires in Eastern Europe intruded into the European Arctic and caused the most severe air pollution episodes ever recorded there. This paper confirms that biomass burning (BB) was indeed the source of the observed air pollution, studies the transport of the smoke into the Arctic, and presents an overview of the observations taken during the episode. Fire detections from the MODIS instruments aboard the Aqua and Terra satellites were used to estimate the BB emissions. The FLEXPART particle dispersion model was used to show that the smoke was transported to Spitsbergen and Iceland, which was confirmed by MODIS retrievals of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and AIRS retrievals of carbon monoxide (CO) total columns. Concentrations of halocarbons, carbon dioxide and CO, as well as levoglucosan and potassium, measured at Zeppelin mountain near Ny Ålesund, were used to further corroborate the BB source of the smoke at Spitsbergen. The ozone (O3) and CO concentrations were the highest ever observed at the Zeppelin station, and gaseous elemental mercury was also enhanced. A new O3 record was also set at a station on Iceland. The smoke was strongly absorbing – black carbon concentrations were the highest ever recorded at Zeppelin –, and strongly perturbed the radiation transmission in the atmosphere: aerosol optical depths were the highest ever measured at Ny Ålesund. We furthermore discuss the aerosol chemical composition, obtained from filter samples, as well as the aerosol size distribution during the smoke event. Photographs show that the snow at a glacier on Spitsbergen became discolored during the episode and, thus, the snow albedo was reduced. Samples of this polluted snow contained strongly enhanced levels of potassium, sulphate, nitrate and ammonium ions, thus relating the discoloration to the deposition of the smoke aerosols. This paper shows that, to date, BB has been underestimated as a source of aerosol and air pollution for the Arctic, relative to emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Given its significant impact on air quality over large spatial scales and on radiative processes, the practice of agricultural waste burning should be banned in the future.

Springtime Arctic aerosol: Smoke versus haze, a case study for March 2008

“…While in earlier studies on Arctic Haze (Rahn, 1981;Barrie, 1986;Yamanouchi et al, 2005;Law and Stohl, 2007) an anthropogenic origin was already shown, several publications during recent years also revealed that biomass burning (as well forest fire as from agricultural origin) is one possibly important constituent of Arctic Haze as well (Warneke et al, 2009;Fu et al, 2009;Stohl et al, 2007). However, so far to our knowledge biomass burning aerosol has overwhelmingly been observed in summer over Spitsbergen or due to agricultural flaming in eastern Europe once in May 2006 .…”

Seasonal variation of levoglucosan in aerosols over the western North Pacific and its assessment as a biomass-burning tracer

“…Furthermore, levoglucosan has also been detected in a number of ambient studies (e.g., Graham et al, 2002;Puxbaum et al, 2006;Feng et al, 2007). The existence of levoglucosan in aerosols in remote marine (e.g., Mochida et al, 2003a) and polar regions (e.g., Stohl et al, 2007) indicates its long-range transport capability. Because levoglucosan is also detected in sediments (Elias et al, 2001) and Antarctic ice (Gambaro et al, 2008), its application to paleo-environmental studies is potentially important, as well.…”

A new, global, multi‐annual (2000–2007) burnt area product at 1 km resolution

“…Recently, Turquety et al [2007] used fire perimeter data with large uncertainties (of the order of 50%) with active fire data to derive emissions from boreal forest fires. Stohl et al [2006] in their assertion that record high air pollution was caused by agricultural fires in Eastern Europe assumed that every MODIS active fire detected resulted in a burnt area of 180 hectares. Their assumption was derived from a statistical analysis of boreal forest fires presented by Wotawa et al [2006].…”