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Title: Potential sea salt aerosol sources from frost flowers in the pan-Arctic region

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD024713· OSTI ID:1340876
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  3. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

In order to better represent observed wintertime aerosol concentrations at Barrow, Alaska, we implemented an observationally-based parameterization for estimating sea salt production from frost flowers in the Community Earth System Model (CESM). In this work, we evaluate the potential influence of this sea salt source on the pan-Arctic (60ºN-90ºN) climate. Results show that frost flower salt emissions substantially increase the modeled surface sea salt aerosol concentration in the winter months when new sea ice and frost flowers are present. The parameterization reproduces both the magnitude and seasonal variation of the observed submicron sea salt aerosol concentration at surface in Barrow during winter much better than the standard CESM simulation without a frost-flower salt particle source. Adding these frost flower salt particle emissions increases aerosol optical depth by 10% and results in a small cooling at surface. Here, the increase in salt particle mass concentrations of a factor of 8 provides nearly two times the cloud condensation nuclei concentration, as well as 10% increases in cloud droplet number and 40% increases in liquid water content near coastal regions adjacent to continents. These cloud changes reduce longwave cloud forcing by 3% and cause a small surface warming, increasing the downward longwave flux at the surface by 2 W m-2 in the pan-Arctic under the present-day climate.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; SC0006679; AC02‐05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1340876
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-115198
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 121, Issue 18; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 16 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

Modeling emissions for three-dimensional atmospheric chemistry transport models journal May 2018
Antarctic Sea Ice Proxies from Marine and Ice Core Archives Suitable for Reconstructing Sea Ice over the Past 2000 Years journal December 2019
Wintertime enhancements of sea salt aerosol in polar regions consistent with a sea ice source from blowing snow journal January 2017
Evaporating brine from frost flowers with electron microscopy and implications for atmospheric chemistry and sea-salt aerosol formation journal January 2017
Aircraft-based measurements of High Arctic springtime aerosol show evidence for vertically varying sources, transport and composition journal January 2019
Evaporating brine from frost flowers with electron microscopy, and implications for atmospheric chemistry and sea-salt aerosol formation journal January 2017