Seasonality of global and Arctic black carbon processes in the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme models
- Univ. of Victoria, BC (Canada); COMSATS Inst. of Information Technology, Islamabad (Pakistan);
- Univ. of Victoria, BC (Canada)
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Center for International Climate and Environmental Research-Oslo (CICERO) (Norway)
- Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Inst., Norrköping (Sweden)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States). Atmospheric Science and Global Change Div. (ASGC)
- Climate Chemistry Measurements and Research, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON (Canada)
This study quantifies black carbon (BC) processes in three global climate models and one chemistry transport model, with focus on the seasonality of BC transport, emissions, wet and dry deposition in the Arctic. In the models, transport of BC to the Arctic from lower latitudes is the major BC source for this region while Arctic emissions are very small. All models simulated a similar annual cycle of BC transport from lower latitudes to the Arctic, with maximum transport occurring in July. Substantial differences were found in simulated BC burdens and vertical distributions, with CanAM (NorESM) producing the strongest (weakest) seasonal cycle. CanAM also has the shortest annual mean residence time for BC in the Arctic followed by SMHI-MATCH, CESM and NorESM. The relative contribution of wet and dry deposition rates in removing BC varies seasonally and is one of the major factors causing seasonal variations in BC burdens in the Arctic. Overall, considerable differences in wet deposition efficiencies in the models exist and are a leading cause of differences in simulated BC burdens. Results from model sensitivity experiments indicate that scavenging of BC in convective clouds acts to substantially increase the overall efficiency of BC wet deposition in the Arctic, which leads to low BC burdens and a more pronounced seasonal cycle compared to simulations without convective BC scavenging. In contrast, the simulated seasonality of BC concentrations in the upper troposphere is only weakly influenced by wet deposition in stratiform (layer) clouds whereas lower tropospheric concentrations are highly sensitive.
- Research Organization:
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); Swedish Environmental Protection Agency; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830; SC0013991; NV-09414-12
- OSTI ID:
- 1324902
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-110584; KP1703010
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 121, Issue 12; ISSN 2169-897X
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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