Black carbon in the marine boundary layer over the North Atlantic and seas of the Russian arctic in june-september 2017

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study of the concentrations of black carbon in the marine boundary layer over the Baltic and North Seas, the North Atlantic, the Norwegian, the Barents, the Kara and the Laptev seas from June 30 to September 29, 2017 in the 68th and 69th voyages of research vessel "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh". Black carbon has a significant impact on climate change and the degree of pollution of the Arctic. Black carbon is formed as a result of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels (primarily coal, oil) and biomass or biofuel. It consists of submicron particles and their aggregates and can be transported a great distance from the source. Samples were taken by pumping air for 46 hours through quartz filters Hahnemule at an altitude of 10 m above sea level in a headwind to prevent smoke of the vessel from entering the filters. Subsequently, the black carbon content was determined in the laboratory by the aetalometric method. The backward trajectories of the air mass transfer and the black carbon particles transported by them to the sampling points were calculated using the HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model at http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready.html. The conducted studies show low values of black carbon concentrations (50 ng/m3) along the expedition route when air masses came from the background areas of the North Atlantic and the Arctic. High concentrations of black carbon (100200 ng/m3 and higher) are characteristic for areas with active navigation (the South-Eastern Baltic, the North Sea) and near ports (eg Reykjavik), as well as for incoming air masses from the industrialized regions of Europe to South-Eastern Baltic and from areas of oil and gas fields where associated gas is flared (the North, the Norwegian and the Kara seas).