ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD 1680-7375 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-12-887-2012 The summer aerosol in the Central Arctic 1991–2008: did it change or not? Heintzenberg J. 1 Leck C. 2 Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden 11 01 2012 12 1 887 933 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/12/887/2012/acpd-12-887-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/12/887/2012/acpd-12-887-2012.pdf

In the course of global warming dramatic changes are taking place in the Arctic and boreal environments. However, physical aerosol data in from the central summer Arctic taken over the course of 17 years from 1991 to 2008 to not show clear trends, albeit substantial interannual variations. Several causes can be responsible for these findings. The processes controlling concentrations and particle size distribution of the aerosol over the central Arctic perennial pack ice area, north of 80, may not have changed substantially during this time. Environmental changes are still mainly effective in the marginal ice zone, the ice-free waters and continental rims and have not propagated significantly into the central Arctic yet where they could affect the local aerosol and its sources. The analysis of meteorological conditions of the four expedition summers reveal substantial variations which we see as main causes of the measured variations in aerosol parameters and the lack of clear decadal trends. With combined lognormal fits of the hourly number size distributions of the four expeditions representative mode parameters for the summer aerosol in the central Arctic have been calculated. The combined aerosol statistics discussed in the present paper provide comprehensive physical data on the summer aerosol in the central Arctic. These data are the only aerosol information from this region and will probably remain so for some time because orbiting satellites do not cover the area close to the North Pole.

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