Aerosol characteristics at the three poles of the Earth as characterized by Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations

Yang, Yikun; Zhao, Chuanfeng; Wang, Quan; Cong, Zhiyuan; Yang, Xiankun; Fan, Hao

doi:10.5194/acp-21-4849-2021

Cited by 44 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 135 publications

(151 reference statements)

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“…The atmosphere is cold, dry, clear and clean [ 38 ]. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) in Antarctica remained at a stable low level of 0.022 during 1996–2013 and 0.024 during 2006–2019 [ 39 , 40 ]. The atmosphere over the Antarctic Plateau is slightly contaminated by aerosols [ 41 , 42 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Variations of Global Solar Radiation and Its Potential Effects at Dome C (Antarctica)

Bai

Zong

Lanconelli

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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An empirical model to predict hourly global solar irradiance under all-sky conditions as a function of absorbing and scattering factors has been applied at the Dome C station in the Antarctic, using measured solar radiation and meteorological variables. The calculated hourly global solar irradiance agrees well with measurements at the ground in 2008–2011 (the model development period) and at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). This model is applied to compute global solar irradiance at the ground and its extinction in the atmosphere caused by absorbing and scattering substances during the 2006–2016 period. A sensitivity study shows that the responses of global solar irradiance to changes in water vapor and scattering factors (expressed by water vapor pressure and S/G, respectively; S and G are diffuse and global solar irradiance, respectively) are nonlinear and negative, and that global solar irradiance is more sensitive to changes in scattering than to changes in water vapor. Applying this empirical model, the albedos at the TOA and the surface in 2006–2016 are estimated and found to agree with the satellite-based retrievals. During 2006–2016, the annual mean observed and estimated global solar exposures decreased by 0.05% and 0.09%, respectively, and the diffuse exposure increased by 0.68% per year, associated with the yearly increase of the S/G ratio by 0.57% and the water vapor pressure by 1.46%. The annual mean air temperature increased by about 1.80 °C over the ten years, and agrees with the warming trends for all of Antarctica. The annual averages were 316.49 Wm−2 for the calculated global solar radiation, 0.332 for S/G, −46.23 °C for the air temperature and 0.10 hPa for the water vapor pressure. The annual mean losses of solar exposure due to absorbing and scattering substances and the total loss were 4.02, 0.19 and 4.21 MJ m−2, respectively. The annual mean absorbing loss was much larger than the scattering loss; their contributions to the total loss were 95.49% and 4.51%, respectively, indicating that absorbing substances are dominant and play essential roles. The annual absorbing, scattering and total losses increased by 0.01%, 0.39% and 0.28% per year, respectively. The estimated and satellite-retrieved annual albedos increased at the surface. The mechanisms of air-temperature change at two pole sites, as well as a mid-latitude site, are discussed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-Term Variations of Global Solar Radiation and Its Potential Effects at Dome C (Antarctica)

Bai

Zong

Lanconelli

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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“…In Fig. 14, we compare our seasonal mean extinction profiles calculated from the MOSAiC profile data sets with CALIPSO long-term observations of Arctic aerosol profiles (Yang et al, 2021) and retrievals of the particle extinction coefficient from satellite-based OMPS-LP (Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite Limb Profiler) measurements at 675 nm and Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II and III observations (Treffeisen et al, 2006;Taha et al, 2021). In this way, a consistent, vertically resolved view on the aerosol condition in the central Arctic during the winter half-year up to 30 km is provided, to our knowledge, for the first time.…”

Section: Case Studies Confirming the Smoke Dominance Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this way, a consistent, vertically resolved view on the aerosol condition in the central Arctic during the winter half-year up to 30 km is provided, to our knowledge, for the first time. Yang et al (2021) analysed Arctic CALIPSO observations for the latitudinal belt from 65-81.8 • N for the time period from June 2006 to December 2019 and made use of the latest data analysis, version 4, with an improved aerosol/cloud discrimination scheme. The shown seasonal mean height profiles are in good agreement with our measurement.…”

Section: Case Studies Confirming the Smoke Dominance Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

The unexpected smoke layer in the High Arctic winter stratosphere during MOSAiC 2019–2020

et al. 2021

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Abstract. During the 1-year MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition, the German icebreaker Polarstern drifted through Arctic Ocean ice from October 2019 to May 2020, mainly at latitudes between 85 and 88.5∘ N. A multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar was operated on board the research vessel and continuously monitored aerosol and cloud layers up to a height of 30 km. During our mission, we expected to observe a thin residual volcanic aerosol layer in the stratosphere, originating from the Raikoke volcanic eruption in June 2019, with an aerosol optical thickness (AOT) of 0.005–0.01 at 500 nm over the North Pole area during the winter season. However, the highlight of our measurements was the detection of a persistent, 10 km deep aerosol layer in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), from about 7–8 to 17–18 km height, with clear and unambiguous wildfire smoke signatures up to 12 km and an order of magnitude higher AOT of around 0.1 in the autumn of 2019. Case studies are presented to explain the specific optical fingerprints of aged wildfire smoke in detail. The pronounced aerosol layer was present throughout the winter half-year until the strong polar vortex began to collapse in late April 2020. We hypothesize that the detected smoke originated from extraordinarily intense and long-lasting wildfires in central and eastern Siberia in July and August 2019 and may have reached the tropopause layer by the self-lifting process. In this article, we summarize the main findings of our 7-month smoke observations and characterize the aerosol in terms of geometrical, optical, and microphysical properties. The UTLS AOT at 532 nm ranged from 0.05–0.12 in October–November 2019 and 0.03–0.06 during the main winter season. The Raikoke aerosol fraction was estimated to always be lower than 15 %. We assume that the volcanic aerosol was above the smoke layer (above 13 km height). As an unambiguous sign of the dominance of smoke in the main aerosol layer from 7–13 km height, the particle extinction-to-backscatter ratio (lidar ratio) at 355 nm was found to be much lower than at 532 nm, with mean values of 55 and 85 sr, respectively. The 355–532 nm Ångström exponent of around 0.65 also clearly indicated the presence of smoke aerosol. For the first time, we show a distinct view of the aerosol layering features in the High Arctic from the surface up to 30 km height during the winter half-year. Finally, we provide a vertically resolved view on the late winter and early spring conditions regarding ozone depletion, smoke occurrence, and polar stratospheric cloud formation. The latter will largely stimulate research on a potential impact of the unexpected stratospheric aerosol perturbation on the record-breaking ozone depletion in the Arctic in spring 2020.

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“…Section 4 finally provides some concluding remarks and an outlook. (Kanitz et al, 2011(Kanitz et al, , 2013Bohlmann et al, 2018;Yin et al, 2019;Baars et al, 2020) is the third one on the left side of the container spots. Besides continuous observations with our multiwavelength Raman lidar (installed inside the air-conditioned container with specially designed roof window for optimum laser-beam transmittance and sampling of backscattered photons), two microwave radiometers for water vapor and cloud liquid-water measurements (one by the University of Cologne), two photometers for aerosol optical thickness (AOT) observations (one by the University of Lille), and a two-dimensional disdrometer were operated for ice crystal morphological studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfire smoke, Arctic haze, and aerosol effects on mixed-phase and cirrus clouds over the North Pole region during MOSAiC: an introduction

et al. 2021

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Abstract. An advanced multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar was operated aboard the icebreaker Polarstern during the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition to continuously monitor aerosol and cloud layers in the central Arctic up to 30 km height. The expedition lasted from September 2019 to October 2020 and measurements were mostly taken between 85 and 88.5∘ N. The lidar was integrated into a complex remote-sensing infrastructure aboard the Polarstern. In this article, novel lidar techniques, innovative concepts to study aerosol–cloud interaction in the Arctic, and unique MOSAiC findings will be presented. The highlight of the lidar measurements was the detection of a 10 km deep wildfire smoke layer over the North Pole region between 7–8 km and 17–18 km height with an aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 532 nm of around 0.1 (in October–November 2019) and 0.05 from December to March. The dual-wavelength Raman lidar technique allowed us to unambiguously identify smoke as the dominating aerosol type in the aerosol layer in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). An additional contribution to the 532 nm AOT by volcanic sulfate aerosol (Raikoke eruption) was estimated to always be lower than 15 %. The optical and microphysical properties of the UTLS smoke layer are presented in an accompanying paper (Ohneiser et al., 2021). This smoke event offered the unique opportunity to study the influence of organic aerosol particles (serving as ice-nucleating particles, INPs) on cirrus formation in the upper troposphere. An example of a closure study is presented to explain our concept of investigating aerosol–cloud interaction in this field. The smoke particles were obviously able to control the evolution of the cirrus system and caused low ice crystal number concentration. After the discussion of two typical Arctic haze events, we present a case study of the evolution of a long-lasting mixed-phase cloud layer embedded in Arctic haze in the free troposphere. The recently introduced dual-field-of-view polarization lidar technique was applied, for the first time, to mixed-phase cloud observations in order to determine the microphysical properties of the water droplets. The mixed-phase cloud closure experiment (based on combined lidar and radar observations) indicated that the observed aerosol levels controlled the number concentrations of nucleated droplets and ice crystals.

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Aerosol characteristics at the three poles of the Earth as characterized by Cloud–Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations

Cited by 44 publications

References 135 publications

Long-Term Variations of Global Solar Radiation and Its Potential Effects at Dome C (Antarctica)

Long-Term Variations of Global Solar Radiation and Its Potential Effects at Dome C (Antarctica)

The unexpected smoke layer in the High Arctic winter stratosphere during MOSAiC 2019–2020

Wildfire smoke, Arctic haze, and aerosol effects on mixed-phase and cirrus clouds over the North Pole region during MOSAiC: an introduction

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