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Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 10, 24961-24992, 2010
www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/24961/2010/ doi:10.5194/acpd-10-24961-2010 © Author(s) 2010. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
On the potential contribution of open lead particle emissions to the central Arctic aerosol concentration
1University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany
2Stockholm University, Department of Meteorology, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
3University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
4Bert Bolin Center for Climate Research, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract. During the ice-breaker borne ASCOS expedition (Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study) direct eddy covariance measurements of aerosol number fluxes were carried out in August 2008 on the edge of an ice floe drifting in the central Arctic Ocean between 2°–10° W longitude and 87°–87.5° N latitude. The median aerosol transfer velocities over different surface types (open water leads, ice ridges, snow and ice surfaces) ranged from 0.27 to 0.68 mm s−1 during deposition-dominated episodes. Emission periods were observed more frequently over the open lead, while the snow behaved primarily as a deposition surface. Directly measured aerosol fluxes were compared with particle deposition parameterizations in order to estimate the emission flux from the observed net aerosol flux. Finally, the contribution of the open lead particle source to atmospheric variations in particle number concentration was evaluated and compared with the observed temporal evolution of particle number. The direct emission of aerosol particles from the open lead can only explain 5–10% of the observed particle number variation in the mixing layer close to the surface.
Citation: Held, A., Brooks, I. M., Leck, C., and Tjernström, M.: On the potential contribution of open lead particle emissions to the central Arctic aerosol concentration, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 10, 24961-24992, doi:10.5194/acpd-10-24961-2010, 2010.