Abstract
Abstract. Deposition of light-absorbing aerosol on snow can drastically change the albedo of the snow surface and the energy balance of the snowpack. To study these important effects experimentally and to compare them with theory, it is desirable to have an apparatus for such deposition experiments. Here, we describe a simple apparatus to generate and evenly deposit light-absorbing aerosols onto a flat snow surface. Aerosols are produced (combustion aerosols) or entrained (mineral dust aerosols) and continuously transported into a deposition chamber placed on the snow surface where they deposit onto and into the snowpack, thereby modifying its surface reflectance and albedo. We demonstrate field operation of this apparatus by generating black and brown carbon combustion aerosols and entraining hematite mineral dust aerosol and depositing them on the snowpack. Changes in spectral snow reflectance are demonstrated qualitatively through pictures of snow surfaces after aerosol deposition and quantitatively by measuring hemispherical-conical reflectance spectra for the deposited areas and for adjacent snowpack in its natural state. Additional potential applications for this apparatus are mentioned and briefly discussed.
Highlights
Aerosols in the Earth–atmosphere system play a critical role in radiative forcing and climate change (IPCC, 2013)
Our work presented here describes a simple apparatus to evenly deposit aerosols in an artificial manner onto a flat snow surface through dry deposition for the study of snow–aerosol interactions
Production of Black carbon (BC) and Brown carbon (BrC) to modify snow surface reflectance are presented as examples
Summary
Aerosols in the Earth–atmosphere system play a critical role in radiative forcing and climate change (IPCC, 2013). Carbonaceous aerosols in the atmosphere, including BC and BrC (Chakrabarty et al, 2010; Lack et al, 2014), are dominantly generated by incomplete combustion of fossil and biomass fuels with significant additional generation of secondary organic aerosols through oxidation of volatile precursors in the atmosphere (Bond et al, 2004; Lin et al, 2014) These aerosols are lofted into the atmosphere, where, during transport of a few days to weeks, they undergo secondary processing (Jimenez et al, 2009) and eventually are removed from the atmosphere through wet or dry deposition (Bond et al, 2013). Production of BC and BrC to modify snow surface reflectance are presented as examples
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