Albedo Reduction by Black Carbon in Snow: Measurements and Implications (original) (raw)
Industrial and biomass burning emissions of black carbon (BC) from low-and mid-latitudes 2 dominate the radiative forcing by absorbing impurities trapped in snow and ice at mid-and 3 high-northern latitudes. Correct model representation of albedo reduction by BC-contaminated 4 snow is crucial because our GCM simulations show that dirty snow can explain about 30% of 5 the observed 20th century Arctic warming. Until now, measurements of actual snow darkening 6 by BC have been attempted only in the field, under non-reproducible conditions, and limited 7 by the BC concentration that happens to be present. 8 We have conducted the first measurements of the direct effect of BC-contamination on 9 snow albedo by in a controlled environment. We doped natural snow with a commercially 10 available BC-analogue and measured the resulting albedo change at visible and near-infrared 11 wavelengths. Snow albedo was measured in a (portable) integrating sphere system. Snow grain 12 size is estimated from the near-infrared albedo. Snow density, temperature, and BC properties 13 were known a priori. The albedo measurement reproducibility is about 1% for natural snow.
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