Abstract
In order to evaluate the potential impact of the Arctic anthropogenic emission sources it is essential to understand better the natural aerosol sources of the inner Arctic and the atmospheric processing of the aerosols during their transport in the Arctic atmosphere. A 1-year time series of chemically specific measurements of the sub-micrometre aerosol during 2015 has been taken at the Mt. Zeppelin observatory in the European Arctic. A source apportionment study combined measured molecular tracers as source markers, positive matrix factorization, analysis of the potential source distribution and auxiliary information from satellite data and ground-based observations. The annual average sub-micrometre mass was apportioned to regional background secondary sulphate (56%), sea spray (17%), biomass burning (15%), secondary nitrate (5.8%), secondary marine biogenic (4.5%), mixed combustion (1.6%), and two types of marine gel sources (together 0.7%). Secondary nitrate aerosol mainly contributed towards the end of summer and during autumn. During spring and summer, the secondary marine biogenic factor reached a contribution of up to 50% in some samples. The most likely origin of the mixed combustion source is due to oil and gas extraction activities in Eastern Siberia. The two marine polymer gel sources predominantly occurred in autumn and winter. The small contribution of the marine gel sources at Mt. Zeppelin observatory in summer as opposed to regions closer to the North Pole is attributed to differences in ocean biology, vertical distribution of phytoplankton, and the earlier start of the summer season.
Highlights
Arctic warming has proceeded twice as fast as the global average since the mid-1960s (Jeffries and Richter-Menge, 2015), a phenomenon termed Arctic amplification
Zeppelin observatory in 2015 using Positive matrix factorization (PMF) and potential source distributions based on back trajectories
Main constituents of the chemically reconstructed PM1 were organic matter followed by ammonium sulphate and sea salt
Summary
Arctic warming has proceeded twice as fast as the global average since the mid-1960s (Jeffries and Richter-Menge, 2015), a phenomenon termed Arctic amplification. This is worrying given the particular vulnerability of Arctic ecosystems to climate change. Surface radiative forcing and surface temperature response related to short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) such as black carbon (BC), methane, tropospheric ozone (ACIA, 2004) is one of the causes for the Arctic amplification (Serreze and Barry, 2011). BC contributes significantly to the warming of the Arctic climate, directly through absorption of incoming sunlight and indirectly through the reduction of the albedo (darkening) of Arctic snow and ice surfaces due to BC deposition, thereby contributing to the rapid melting of sea ice in the recent decades (Hansen and Nazarenko, 2004).
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