Horizontal inhomogeneities in the particulate carbon component of the Arctic haze

Abstract

We present results obtained during the ‘AGASP 1983’ Arctic haze aircraft sampling experiment. During this program we operated the aethalometer, an instrument that responds to the aerosol graphitic (‘black’) carbon concentration in real time. Previous results showed strong vertical layering of this component of the Arctic haze. In this paper we present for the first time evidence of horizontal variations of aerosol black carbon concentration. Some of these variations correlate with meteorological parameters, but we also observed horizontal inhomogeneities with a characteristic scale of 50–100 km occurring in the absence of meteorological activity.