Atmospheric Black Carbon and Surface Albedo in the Russian Arctic during Spring

Abstract

We study the statistical relations between the black carbon (BC) content in the atmospheric column and the surface albedo (A), the values of which are available from MERRA-2 reanalysis data for four test areas near the Arctic coast of Russia in April 2010–2016. We also analyze the atmospheric meteorological parameters: air temperature and rainfall and snowfall amounts. The statistical analysis has been carried out using diurnally averaged parameters. An increase in the air temperature is accompanied everywhere by a decrease in the surface albedo, both on a monthly scale and in daily variations. Precipitation in the form of fresh snow increases the surface albedo. On the whole over 7 years, a significant negative correlation between BC and A in April was found in Nenets Autonomous okrug and on the Gydan Peninsula. Separate years (generally diverse for different areas) are revealed when day-to-day variations in A and BC correlate within a month, again with negative coefficients. We estimated possible albedo variations due to changes in different parameters, as well as variations in albedo radiative forcing.