A central arctic extreme aerosol event triggered by a warm air-mass intrusion
- Author(s)
- Lubna Dada, Hélène Angot, Ivo Beck, Andrea Baccarini, Lauriane L. J. Quelever, Matthew Boyer, Tiia M. Laurila, Zoé Brasseur, Gina Jozef, Gijs De Boer, Matthew D. Shupe *, Silvia Henning, Silvia Bucci, Marina Dütsch, Andreas Stohl, Tuukka Petäjä, Kaspar R. Daellenbach, Tuija Jokinen, Julia Schmale
- Abstract
Frequency and intensity of warm and moist air-mass intrusions into the Arctic have increased over the past decades and have been related to sea ice melt. During our year-long expedition in the remote central Arctic Ocean, a record-breaking increase in temperature, moisture and downwelling-longwave radiation was observed in mid-April 2020, during an air-mass intrusion carrying air pollutants from northern Eurasia. The two-day intrusion, caused drastic changes in the aerosol size distribution, chemical composition and particle hygroscopicity. Here we show how the intrusion transformed the Arctic from a remote low-particle environment to an area comparable to a central-European urban setting. Additionally, the intrusion resulted in an explosive increase in cloud condensation nuclei, which can have direct effects on Arctic clouds’ radiation, their precipitation patterns, and their lifetime. Thus, unless prompt actions to significantly reduce emissions in the source regions are taken, such intrusion events are expected to continue to affect the Arctic climate.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Meteorology and Geophysics
- External organisation(s)
- École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, University of Helsinki, Paul Scherrer Institute, Leibniz-Institut für Troposphärenforschung, University of Colorado, Boulder, James J. Howard Marine Sciences Laboratory, The Cyprus Institute
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Volume
- 13
- No. of pages
- 15
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32872-2
- Publication date
- 09-2022
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103039 Aerosol physics, 105206 Meteorology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General, Physics and Astronomy(all), Chemistry(all), Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/a-central-arctic-extreme-aerosol-event-triggered-by-a-warm-airmass-intrusion(c10f22a7-3c5f-4c85-ba33-4cbd3c2d7c0b).html