The Influence of Light Absorbing Aerosols on the Radiation Balance Over Central Greenland

The Arctic region has proven to be more responsive to recent changes in climate than other parts of the Earth. A key component of the Arctic climate is the Greenland Ice Sheet, which has the potential to dramatically influence both sea level, depending on the amount of melting that occurs, and climate, through shifts in the regional radiation balance. Light absorbing aerosols from biomass burning, fossil fuel combustion, and dust sources can potentially have a significant impact on the radiation balance of the ice sheet, although at this time we lack the key measurements needed to accurately quantify aerosol forcing over the ice sheet. For this reason a field study was conducted at Summit, Greenland, from May-July of 2012. Our efforts included real-time measurements of aerosol physical and optical properties including size distribution, multi-wavelength scattering (σ_sp) and backscattering (σ_bsp) coefficients, and multi-wavelength absorption coefficient (σ_ap), as well as measurements of wavelength dependent aerosol optical depth and spectral snow albedo. The measurements serve as inputs to a radiative transfer model to estimate the direct aerosol radiative forcing at both the surface and top of the atmosphere. Preliminary results indicate that the direct aerosol radiative forcing is often several Wm^-2 and is at times greater than 10 Wm^-2. The aerosol chemical composition (major ions, elements, and organic and elemental carbon compounds) was also determined through filter sampling and will be discussed in terms of the sources of light absorbing aerosols over central Greenland.