The unexpected smoke layer in the High Arctic winter stratosphere during MOSAiC 2019–2020

Abstract

Abstract. During the 1-year MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition, the German icebreaker Polarstern drifted through Arctic Ocean ice from October 2019 to May 2020, mainly at latitudes between 85 and 88.5∘ N. A multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar was operated on board the research vessel and continuously monitored aerosol and cloud layers up to a height of 30 km. During our mission, we expected to observe a thin residual volcanic aerosol layer in the stratosphere, originating from the Raikoke volcanic eruption in June 2019, with an aerosol optical thickness (AOT) of 0.005–0.01 at 500 nm over the North Pole area during the winter season. However, the highlight of our measurements was the detection of a persistent, 10 km deep aerosol layer in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), from about 7–8 to 17–18 km height, with clear and unambiguous wildfire smoke signatures up to 12 km and an order of magnitude higher AOT of around 0.1 in the autumn of 2019. Case studies are presented to explain the specific optical fingerprints of aged wildfire smoke in detail. The pronounced aerosol layer was present throughout the winter half-year until the strong polar vortex began to collapse in late April 2020. We hypothesize that the detected smoke originated from extraordinarily intense and long-lasting wildfires in central and eastern Siberia in July and August 2019 and may have reached the tropopause layer by the self-lifting process. In this article, we summarize the main findings of our 7-month smoke observations and characterize the aerosol in terms of geometrical, optical, and microphysical properties. The UTLS AOT at 532 nm ranged from 0.05–0.12 in October–November 2019 and 0.03–0.06 during the main winter season. The Raikoke aerosol fraction was estimated to always be lower than 15 %. We assume that the volcanic aerosol was above the smoke layer (above 13 km height). As an unambiguous sign of the dominance of smoke in the main aerosol layer from 7–13 km height, the particle extinction-to-backscatter ratio (lidar ratio) at 355 nm was found to be much lower than at 532 nm, with mean values of 55 and 85 sr, respectively. The 355–532 nm Ångström exponent of around 0.65 also clearly indicated the presence of smoke aerosol. For the first time, we show a distinct view of the aerosol layering features in the High Arctic from the surface up to 30 km height during the winter half-year. Finally, we provide a vertically resolved view on the late winter and early spring conditions regarding ozone depletion, smoke occurrence, and polar stratospheric cloud formation. The latter will largely stimulate research on a potential impact of the unexpected stratospheric aerosol perturbation on the record-breaking ozone depletion in the Arctic in spring 2020.

CALIPSO Aerosol-Typing Scheme Misclassified Stratospheric Fire Smoke: Case Study From the 2019 Siberian Wildfire Season

“…However, Haarig et al (2018) and Ohneiser et al (2020) showed that pronounced smoke layers (linked to pyroCb activity) frequently produce depolarization ratios even > 0.15 at 532 nm. On the other hand, Ohneiser et al (2021) reported smoke layers over the high Arctic showing values of PDR532 of 0.02-0.03. So, stratospheric smoke can obviously show rather different depolarization ratio values.…”

“…The Raman lidar technique allows us to independently determined the particle backscatter coefficients at 355 and 532 nm (from the ratio of the total to the respective nitrogen Raman signal) and the particle extinction coefficient at 355 and 532 nm (from the 387 and 607 nm nitrogen Raman signal profiles), and thus, to obtain observed values for the extinction-to-backscatter ratio at these two wavelengths (Ansmann et al, 1992). The latest status of the computation of backscatter and extinction coefficients and lidar ratios at 355 and 532 nm for stratospheric smoke is explained in detail in Haarig et al (2018) and Ohneiser et al (2020), Ohneiser et al (2021). Many measurement examples for Canadian, Australian, and Siberian smoke are shown in these publications.…”

“…The situation became complicated in the summer and autumn of 2019 by the strong wildfire activity at high northern latitudes (Alaska, Canada, Siberia, Figure 1). Especially the enormous, record-breaking wildfires in central and eastern Siberia, with the most intensive fire period from July 19 to August 14, 2019 (Johnson et al, 2021;Ohneiser et al, 2021), are assumed to be responsible for an increase of the stratospheric AOT towards 0.1 as observed with Raman lidar over Leipzig in August 2019, Germany, and in the High Arctic during the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition (Engelmann et al, 2021;Ohneiser et al, 2021) in autumn 2019. High tropospheric smoke AOTs, partly exceeding 3, prevailed over large areas (millions of hectars) in the central-eastern Siberia, north and northeast of Lake Baikal for several weeks in July and August.…”

“…High tropospheric smoke AOTs, partly exceeding 3, prevailed over large areas (millions of hectars) in the central-eastern Siberia, north and northeast of Lake Baikal for several weeks in July and August. As discussed by Ohneiser et al (2021), favorable conditions were given for the initiation of selflifting processes (Boers et al, 2010) which caused a slow ascent of smoke layers up to the UTLS (upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric) height range within several days.…”

“…As a consequence, this leads to very different ice virga characteristics and seeding effects on liquid-water-containing clouds in the middle and lower troposphere. In which way the different aerosol types (liquid sulfate vs liquid, semi-glassy, or glassy smoke particles) may even influence the nucleation of particles of PSCs and ozone depletion in the stratosphere remains an open question (Ohneiser et al, 2021). Thus, a misclassification of occurring stratospheric aerosol types can produce severe artifacts in atmospheric and climate research dealing with the impact of a variety of aerosol types on climate-relevant processes.…”