Abstract
The broadband surface albedo of snow can greatly be reduced by the deposition of light-absorbing impurities, such as black carbon on or near its surface. Such a reduction increases the absorption of solar radiation and may initiate or accelerate snowmelt and snow albedo feedback. Coincident measurements of both black carbon concentration and broadband snow albedo may be difficult to obtain in field studies; however, using the relationship developed in this simple model sensitivity study, black carbon mass densities deposited can be estimated from changes in measured broadband snow albedo, and vice versa. Here, the relationship between the areal mass density of black carbon found near the snow surface to the amount of albedo reduction was investigated using the popular snow radiative transfer model Snow, Ice, and Aerosol Radiation (SNICAR). We found this relationship to be linear for realistic amounts of black carbon mass concentrations, such as those found in snow at remote locations. We applied this relationship to measurements of broadband albedo in the Chilean Andes to estimate how vehicular emissions contributed to black carbon (BC) deposition that was previously unquantified.
Highlights
Uncontaminated snow surfaces are among the whitest natural surfaces encountered on Earth with one of the highest broadband albedos in the solar spectrum
We use SNICAR to investigate relationships between snow surface albedo reduction and black carbon (BC) mass density deposited near the surface of an otherwise uncontaminated semi-infinite snowpack to show that unknown amounts of BC mass can be estimated from measurements of the broadband snow albedo, and vice versa
This study was motivated by recent observational work at Portillo, in the Chilean Andes [17], that quantified snow albedo reductions due to the deposition of unquantified amounts of BC from vehicle emission near the top of the snowpack; our work uses these albedo reductions to assess the corresponding areal BC mass density deposited to better understand the impact of anthropogenic activities on the South American cryosphere
Summary
Uncontaminated snow surfaces are among the whitest natural surfaces encountered on Earth with one of the highest broadband albedos in the solar spectrum. The the late season snowpack allows insoluble light-absorbing impurities, including BC, to accumulate at the surface, as shown in Cereceda-Balic et al [17] These BC concentrations can have a significant impact to measured albedo, which can critically alter the Andean cryosphere [29] and its function as water reservoir for the region [30]. Late season snowpack allows insoluble light-absorbing impurities, including BC, to accumulate at the surface, as shown in Cereceda-Balic et al [17] Within SNICAR, we designed a semi-infinite snowpack of 10 Sensitivity m of depth to with impurities
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