Unprecedented snow darkening and melting in New Zealand due to 2019–2020 Australian wildfires

Pu, Weihua; Cui, Jiecan; Wu, Dongyou; Shi, Tenglong; Chen, Yang; Xing, Yuxuan; Zhou, Yue; Wang, Xin

doi:10.1016/j.fmre.2021.04.001

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…In 2020 crevasses were well exposed at the surface as expected in late summer in the Southern Hemisphere. However, the glacier surface was unusually discoloured due to the impact of Australian bushfires which occurred early in the new year (Hansen, 2020; Pu and others, 2021; Fig. 3b).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Variability in the vertical temperature profile within crevasses at an alpine glacier

Purdie

Zawar-Reza²,

Katurji³

et al. 2022

J. Glaciol.

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Tasman Glacier, a temperate maritime glacier in the New Zealand Southern Alps, is rapidly receding. Climate warming is resulting in lengthening of the ablation season, meaning crevasses in the accumulation area are becoming exposed at the surface for longer. We combine measurements of air temperature and wind speed from inside crevasses with surface meteorological data, finding that during summer, in-crevasse air temperature is frequently positive, and can at times exceed surface air temperature. Greatest warming occurred in the widest crevasses during clear-sky conditions, but full depth warming of crevasses also occurred at night. Net shortwave radiation contributes to heating of air in the upper regions of crevasses, but turbulent sensible heat transfer was responsible for driving warm air deeper into crevasses. Crevasses orientated to maximise radiation retrieval, and running parallel to wind flow, have the greatest potential for warming and heat storage. We hypothesise a positive feedback loop in the surface energy-balance system, where crevasses entrain and trap heat, which enhances melting, that in turn enlarges the crevasses, enabling greater heat storage and further melting. Energy-balance models that treat accumulation areas of alpine glaciers as homogeneous surfaces will therefore underestimate snow melt and overestimate mass balance.

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Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Variability in the vertical temperature profile within crevasses at an alpine glacier

Purdie

Zawar-Reza²,

Katurji³

et al. 2022

J. Glaciol.

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“…To comprehensively validate the reanalysis simulation, the aerosol optical depth (AOD) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument (Wu et al., 2021) and aerosol index (AI) from ozone‐monitoring‐instrument (OMI; Pu, Cui, et al., 2021) were employed. To evaluate the accuracy of MERRA2 radiation products, the radiation‐related products from the Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System instruments were utilized (Rutan et al., 2015, Figure S4 in Supporting Information ).…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Smoke particles are composed mainly of carbonaceous aerosols (CAs; Cui et al., 2021; Pu, Cui, et al., 2021; Shi et al., 2020; Yu et al., 2019), which may heat the atmosphere through absorption of shortwave solar radiation and cool Earth's surface through the reduction of sunlight (Ding et al., 2016; Haywood & Boucher, 2000; Ma et al., 2020), thus disturbing the radiation balance of the SH (Pu, Shi, et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2016). Smoke aerosols induced direct radiative forcing (RF) of about −16 W m −2 at the surface in Victoria from September 2019 to February 2020 (Chang et al., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Satellite observations have revealed that smoke aerosols emitted from these wildfires were distributed widely across the Pacific Ocean, even reaching South America and the Atlantic Ocean (Hirsch & Koren, 2021; Ohneiser et al., 2020). During the transportation, most aerosols were deposited on downwind landmasses and oceans through dry and wet sedimentation (Li et al., 2021; Pu, Cui, et al., 2021). However, significant amounts of smoke aerosols were injected into the stratosphere, with ∼2.1 Tg being injected over the Southern Hemisphere (SH) in January 2020 alone (Hirsch & Koren, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Causes and Effects of the Long‐Range Dispersion of Carbonaceous Aerosols From the 2019–2020 Australian Wildfires

Niu

Chen

et al. 2022

Geophysical Research Letters

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Australia experienced record‐breaking wildfires during 2019–2020, which emitted large amounts of carbonaceous aerosols (CAs) to the atmosphere. In this study, we explored the atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamic mechanism of the long‐range transport of CAs during November 2019–February 2020. The results indicate that the emitted CAs had a ternary advective spreading pattern across the Pacific Ocean in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), influenced mainly by the westerlies and anticyclonic systems. Upward vertical motion over the convergence zone and heat released from smoke pyro‐cumulonimbus clouds and strong light absorption of CAs provided strong vertical lift as the predominant injection pathway of the CAs into the stratosphere in the central Pacific Ocean in the SH. The abundant tropospheric CAs induced atmospheric heating (and potentially surface cooling), with increasing air temperature and decreasing of surface temperature. The anomalous thermal structure led to changes in atmospheric circulation, which weakened the upward vertical motion.

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“…AR was calculated using the SNICAR model [8], which is a commonly used snow radiativetransfer model [42,43]. A semi-infinite snowpack was assumed with a snow grain size of 1000 µm, representing old snow conditions, consistent with previous studies [44,45]. RF was calculated by multiplying the all-sky snow AR by the incident solar radiance provided by Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) datasets.…”

Section: Calculation Of Bcs Rfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Changes of Black Carbon in Snow and Its Radiative Forcing in CMIP6 Models

Chen

Xing

et al. 2022

Atmosphere

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Black carbon in snow (BCS) has a significant impact on global climate and is an important component of Earth system modeling. Here, we provide a comprehensive evaluation of BCS simulations in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) and its radiative forcing on a global scale. Overall, the multi-model mean generally captures the characteristics of BCS spatial patterns, with maximum concentrations in East Asia and the Tibetan Plateau (~120 ng·g−1), and the lowest in Antarctica (~0.05 ng·g−1). The BCS concentrations in all CMIP6 multi-model mean and individual models generally exhibit a temporally increasing trend globally, with particularly large increases after the 1940s. In terms of seasonal cycles, individual models are generally consistent in most regions. Globally, BCS concentrations are highest around January and lowest in September. The albedo reduction in the Tibetan Plateau and East Asia simulated by the CMIP6 multi-model mean reached ~0.06 in 2014 and may influence climate more than expected.

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Unprecedented snow darkening and melting in New Zealand due to 2019–2020 Australian wildfires

Cited by 13 publications

References 38 publications

Variability in the vertical temperature profile within crevasses at an alpine glacier

Variability in the vertical temperature profile within crevasses at an alpine glacier

Causes and Effects of the Long‐Range Dispersion of Carbonaceous Aerosols From the 2019–2020 Australian Wildfires

Historical Changes of Black Carbon in Snow and Its Radiative Forcing in CMIP6 Models

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