Deep winter intrusions of urban black carbon into a canyon near Santiago, Chile: A pathway towards Andean glaciers

Huneeus, Nicolás; Lapere, Rémy; Mazzeo, Andrea; Ordóñez, César; Donoso, Nicolás; Muñoz, Ricardo C.; Rutllant, José A.

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118124

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In wintertime, northerlies are still the strongest winds in terms of speed but they are less frequent than southerlies that occur the majority of hours, again associated with moderate wind speeds. Given the configuration of the canyon, northerlies are associated with air masses coming from the urban basin, thus bringing BC deep into the canyon as evidenced in Huneeus et al (2021). These winds are the counterpart of westerlies at PTA.…”

Section: Seasonal Differences In Bc Depositionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Several atmospheric measurement campaigns have been conducted in the vicinity of Santiago aiming to investigate the transport of urban BC into the adjacent Andean valleys, each focusing on a different canyon and/or time period (Cordova et al, 2016;Gramsch et al, 2020;Huneeus et al, 2021). Modeling studies also provided insight on this topic, again focusing on specific periods and/or canyons (Gramsch et al, 2020;Lapere et al, 2021a).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…It is now well established that particulate matter emitted in Santiago has the ability to reach high-elevation areas in the nearby Andes both in summer and winter periods, with transport time of a few hours (Gramsch et al, 2020;Huneeus et al, 2021). Nevertheless, the aforementioned works focus on atmospheric concentrations but do not investigate deposition on snow or ice covered terrain, which is ultimately the issue at stake.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Meteorological export and deposition fluxes of Black Carbon on glaciers of the central Chilean Andes

Lapere

Huneeus

Mailler

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Air pollution in the central zone of Chile not only is a public health concern, but also threatens water resources and climate, in connection with the transport and deposition of black carbon (BC) from urban centers onto the glaciers of the Andes Cordillera. Chemistry-transport simulations reveal a seasonal dichotomy in the flux and latitudinal pattern of BC deposition on glaciers of the central Chilean Andes. The average deposition flux of BC on glaciers between 30° S and 37° S is 4 times larger in winter, affecting mostly low elevation glaciers, whereas the smaller summertime flux affects glaciers evenly, irrespective of their elevation. The contribution of emissions from Santiago city is dominant in summertime with more than 50 % along the Andes, but minor in wintertime with less than 20 % even close to the capital city. Transport at larger scales and more local sources likely account for the remaining flux. The superimposition of synoptic-scale circulation and local mountain-valley circulation along the Andes cordillera drives the differences between summertime and wintertime deposition fluxes and generates a greater meteorological export potential during summer months. Future emissions and climate projections suggest that under the RCP8.5 scenario the gap between summertime and wintertime BC export and deposition flux could decrease, thereby pointing to summertime emission control gaining relevance. The chemistry-transport modeling approach for BC deposition on the Andes sheds light on the importance of the often disregarded summertime emissions on the radiative balance of its glaciers, particularly in the vicinity of Santiago.

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Section: Seasonal Differences In Bc Depositionmentioning

confidence: 98%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Meteorological export and deposition fluxes of Black Carbon on glaciers of the central Chilean Andes

Lapere

Huneeus

Mailler

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…Later in the day, by 19:45, there is a new sharp increase in AOD at the Santiago Beauchef site. This is explained by aerosol re-circulation above the boundary layer, happening during the evenings due to orographic airlifting on the slopes of the Andes mountains [50].…”

Section: Calibration Uncertaintymentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated Low-Cost LED-Based Sun Photometer for City Scale Distributed Measurements

et al. 2021

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We propose a monochromatic low-cost automatic sun photometer (LoCo-ASP) to perform distributed aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements at the city scale. This kind of network could fill the gap between current automatic ground instruments—with good temporal resolution and accuracy, but few devices per city and satellite products—with global coverage, but lower temporal resolution and accuracy-. As a first approach, we consider a single equivalent wavelength around 408 nm. The cost of materials for the instrument is around 220 dollars. Moreover, we propose a calibration transfer for a pattern instrument, and estimate the uncertainties for several units and due to the internal differences and the calibration process. We achieve a max MAE of 0.026 for 38 sensors at 408 nm compared with AERONET Cimel; a mean standard deviation of 0.0062 among our entire sensor for measurement and a calibration uncertainty of 0.01. Finally, we perform city-scale measurements to show the dynamics of AOD. Our instrument can measure unsupervised, with an expected error for AOD between 0.02 and 0.03.

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“…Cereceda-Balic et al (2020) found substantially higher BC concentrations in the atmosphere and in snow samples from Olivares Alfa in comparison with the more southern located Bello glacier (Colorado catchment). Both glaciers are situated at  60 km distance to the capital city Santiago (Cereceda-Balic et al, 2020), which represents a major source of atmospheric pollution too, such as for urban BC (Huneeus et al, 2021;Lapere et al, 2021). Alfonso et al (2019) and Rowe et al (2019) showed increased concentrations of anthropogenic LAIs in snow samples for different sites in Central Chile.…”

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confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic Influence on Surface Changes at Olivares Glaciers, Central Chile

Barandun

Bravo

Grobéty

et al. 2022

Preprint

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<p>We have investigated the source and role of light absorbing impurities (LAI) deposited on the glaciers of the Olivares catchment, in Central Chile. LAI can considerably darken (lower ice albedo) the glacier surface, enhancing their melting. We combined chemical and mineralogical analyses of surface ice samples with field-based spectral reflectance measurements and laboratory analysis to investigate the nature and properties of LAI on the glacier surface. Using remote sensing-based albedo maps, we upscaled local information to glacier-wide coverage. We then used a model to evaluate the sensitivity of surface mass balance to a change in ice albedo. The across-scale surface sample analysis revealed a history of over half a century of LAI deposition. We found traces of mining residuals in glacier surface samples. The glaciers with highest mass loss in the catchment present enhanced concentrations of surface dust particles with low reflectance properties. Our results indicate that dust particles with strong light-absorbing capacity have been mobilized from anthropogenic sources and deposited on the nearby glacier surfaces, thus lowering their surface reflectance. Large scale assessment from satellite-based observations revealed darkening (ice albedo lowering) at most investigated glacier tongues from 1989 to 2018. Mass balance is sensitive to ice albedo changes. However, we believe that an accelerated winter and spring snow albedo decrease, triggered by surface impurities, might be responsible for the above-average mass balances encountered in this catchment.</p>

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Deep winter intrusions of urban black carbon into a canyon near Santiago, Chile: A pathway towards Andean glaciers

Cited by 8 publications

References 33 publications

Meteorological export and deposition fluxes of Black Carbon on glaciers of the central Chilean Andes

Meteorological export and deposition fluxes of Black Carbon on glaciers of the central Chilean Andes

Automated Low-Cost LED-Based Sun Photometer for City Scale Distributed Measurements

Anthropogenic Influence on Surface Changes at Olivares Glaciers, Central Chile

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