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research article

Characteristics and effects of aerosols during blowing snow events in the central Arctic

Bergner, Nora  
•
Heutte, Benjamin Jérémy Laurent  
•
Beck, Ivo Fabio  
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April 9, 2025
Elementa-Science Of The Anthropocene

Sea salt aerosol (SSaer) significantly impacts aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions, and sublimated blowing snow is hypothesized to be an important SSaer source in polar regions. Understanding blowing snow and other wind-sourced aerosols’ climate relevant properties is needed, especially during winter when Arctic amplification is greatest. However, most of our understanding of blowing snow SSaer comes from modeling studies, and direct observations are sparse. Additionally, SSaer can originate from multiple sources, making it difficult to disentangle emission processes. Here, we present comprehensive observations of wind-sourced aerosol during blowing snow events from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition in the central Arctic. High wind speed strongly enhances total aerosol number, submicron sodium chloride mass, cloud condensation nuclei concentrations, and scattering coefficients. Generally, the relative response of aerosol properties to wind speed enhancement is strongest in fall when Arctic aerosol concentrations are lowest. Blowing snow events showed similar aerosol and environmental properties across events, apart from occasions with high snow age (>6 days since last snowfall). Coarse-mode number concentrations (>1 μm) are better explained by variability in wind speed averaged over 12-h air mass back trajectories arriving at the MOSAiC site compared to local, instantaneous wind speed, suggesting the importance of regional transport and consideration of air mass history for wind-driven aerosol production. These MOSAiC observations provide new insights into wind-driven aerosol in the central Arctic and may help validate modeling studies and improve model parameterizations particularly for aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcing.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1525/elementa.2024.00047
Author(s)
Bergner, Nora  

EPFL

Heutte, Benjamin Jérémy Laurent  

EPFL

Beck, Ivo Fabio  
Pernov, Jakob Boyd  

EPFL

Angot, Hélène  
Arnold, Stephen R.
Boyer, Matthew
Creamean, Jessie M.
Engelmann, Ronny
Frey, Markus M.
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Date Issued

2025-04-09

Publisher

University of California Press

Published in
Elementa-Science Of The Anthropocene
Volume

13

Issue

1

Subjects

Arctic

•

Atmosphere

•

Wind-sourced aerosol

•

Blowing snow

•

MOSAiC

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
EERL  
FunderFunding(s)Grant NumberGrant URL

Swiss National Science Foundation

200021_188478

Swiss Polar Institute

DIRCR-2018-004

United States Department of Energy

DE-SC0022046

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Available on Infoscience
April 10, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/249039
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