Abstract
Abstract. The Canadian Arctic has experienced decreasing sea ice extent and increasing shipping activity in recent decades. While there are economic incentives to develop resources in the north, there are environmental concerns that increasing marine traffic will contribute to declining air quality in northern communities. In an effort to characterize the relative impact of shipping on air quality in the north, two monitoring stations have been installed in Cape Dorset and Resolute, Nunavut, and have been operational since 1 June 2013. The impact of shipping and other sources of emissions on NOx, O3, SO2, BC, and PM2.5 pollution have been characterized for the 2013 shipping season from 1 June to 1 November. In addition, a high-resolution Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) for both sites was computed. Shipping consistently increased O3 mixing ratio and PM2.5 concentration. The 90% confidence interval for mean difference in O3 mixing ratio between ship- and no ship-influenced air masses were up to 4.6–4.7 ppb and 2.5–2.7 ppb for Cape Dorset and Resolute, respectively. The same intervals for PM2.5 concentrations were up to 1.8–1.9 μg m−3 and 0.5–0.6 μg m−3. Ship-influenced air masses consistently exhibited an increase of 0.1 to 0.3 in the high-resolution AQHI compared to no ship-influenced air masses. Trajectory cluster analysis in combination with ship traffic tracking provided an estimated range for percent ship contribution to NOx, O3, SO2, and PM2.5 that were 12.9–17.5 %, 16.2–18.1 %, 16.9–18.3 %, and 19.5–31.7 % for Cape Dorset and 1.0–7.2 %, 2.9–4.8 %, 5.5–10.0 %, and 6.5–7.2 % for Resolute during the 2013 shipping season. Additional measurements in Resolute suggested that percent ship contribution to black carbon was 4.3–9.8 % and that black carbon constituted 1.3–9.7 % of total PM2.5 mass in ship plumes. Continued air quality monitoring in the above sites for future shipping seasons will improve the statistics in our analysis and characterize repeating seasonal patterns in air quality due to shipping, local pollution, and long-range transport.
Highlights
The Arctic is a highly uncertain environment on the planet in terms of climate change
Traffic near Cape Dorset begins in mid-June and continues toward the end of October, while active traffic near Resolute is limited between late July and early October due to ice conditions and marine navigability
Traffic near Resolute, appears denser compared to Cape Dorset
Summary
The Arctic is a highly uncertain environment on the planet in terms of climate change. The year-to-year and regional variability for most environmental indicators are linked to a persistent warming trend that began more than 30 years ago. Of such indicators, the Arctic sea ice extent annual minimum in September 2013 was almost 20 % less than the 1981–2010 average (Jeffries et al, 2013). The warming trend and receding sea ice will potentially increase marine accessibility in the region. Climate model projections of future sea ice reductions in the Arctic and other considerations have been used to speculate significant increase in ship navigability by mid-century, to the extent that new optimal navigation routes, such as the Northwest Passage, the Northern Sea Route, and the Arctic Bridge, may be accessible to various classes of ice-strengthened ships during the months of July to September (Stephenson et al, 2011; Smith and Stephenson, 2013)
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