Deposition of ambient black carbon (BC) aerosols over snow-covered areas reduces surface albedo and accelerates snowmelt. Based on in-situ atmospheric BC data and the WRF-Chem model, we estimated the dry and wet deposition of BC over the Yala glacier of the central Himalayan region in Nepal during 2016-2018. The maximum and minimum BC dry deposition was reported in pre- and post-monsoon respectively. Approximately 50% of annual dry deposition occurred in the pre-monsoon season (March to May) and 27% of the annual dry deposition occurred in April. The total dry BC deposition rate was estimated as -4.6 mu g m- 2 day- 1 providing a total deposition of 531 mu g m- 2 during the pre-monsoon season. The contribution of biomass burning and fossil fuel sources to BC deposition on an annual basis was 28% and 72% respectively. The annual accumulated wet deposition of BC was 196 times higher than the annual dry deposition. The ten months of observed dry deposition of BC (October 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017 - except December 2016) was -39% lower than that of WRFChem's estimated annual dry deposition from September 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017 partially due to model bias. The deposited content of BC over the snow surface has an important role in albedo reduction, therefore snow samples were collected from the surface of the Yala Glacier and the surrounding region in April 2016, 2017, and 2018. Samples were analyzed for BC mass concentration through the thermal optical analysis and single particle soot photometer method. The BC calculated via the thermal optical method was in the range of 352-854 ng g- 1, higher than the BC calculated through the particle soot photometer method and estimated BC in 2 cm surface snow (imperial equation). The maximum surface snow albedo reduction due to BC was 8.8%, estimated by a widely used snow radiative transfer model and a linear regression equation.

The Poland-AOD aerosol research network was established in 2011 to improve aerosol-climate interaction knowledge and provide a real-time and historical, comprehensive, and quantitative database for the aerosol optical properties distribution over Poland. The network consists of research institutions and private owners operating 10 measurement stations and an organization responsible for aerosol model transport simulations. Poland-AOD collaboration provides observations of spectral aerosol optical depth (AOD), angstrom ngstrom Exponent (AE), incoming shortwave (SW) and longwave (LW) radiation fluxes, vertical profiles of aerosol optical properties and surface aerosol scattering and absorption coefficient, as well as microphysical particle properties. Based on the radiative transfer model (RTM), the aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) and the heating rate are simulated. In addition, results from GEM-AQ and WRF-Chem models (e.g., aerosol mass mixing ratio and optical properties for several particle chemical components), and HYSPLIT back-trajectories are used to interpret the results of observation and to describe the 3D aerosol optical properties distribution. Results of Poland-AOD research indicate progressive improvement of air quality and at mospheric turbidity during the last decade. The AOD was reduced by about 0.02/10 yr (at 550 nm), which corresponds to positive trends in ARF. The estimated clear-sky ARF trend is 0.34 W/m(2)/10 yr and 0.68 W/m(2)/10 yr, respectively, at TOA and at Earth's surface. Therefore, reduction in aerosol load observed in Poland can significantly contribute to climate warming.

Black carbon (BC) deposited on snow lowers its albedo, potentially contributing to warming in the Arctic. Atmospheric distributions of BC and inorganic aerosols, which contribute directly and indirectly to radiative forcing, are also greatly influenced by depositions. To quantify these effects, accurate measurement of the spatial distributions of BC and ionic species representative of inorganic aerosols (ionic species hereafter) in snowpack in various regions of the Arctic is needed, but few such measurements are available. We measured mass concentrations of size-resolved BC (C-MBC) and ionic species in snowpack by using a single-particle soot photometer and ion chromatography, respectively, over Finland, Alaska, Siberia, Greenland, and Spitsbergen during early spring in 2012-2016. Total BC mass deposited per unit area (DEPMBC) during snow accumulation periods was derived from C-MBC and snow water equivalent (SWE). Our analyses showed that the spatial distributions of anthropogenic BC emission flux, total precipitable water, and topography strongly influenced latitudinal variations of C-MBC, BC size distributions, SWE, and DEPMBC. The average size distributions of BC in Arctic snowpack shifted to smaller sizes with decreasing C-MBC due to an increase in the removal efficiency of larger BC particles during transport from major sources. Our measurements of C-MBC were lower by a factor of 13 than previous measurements made with an Integrating Sphere/Integrating Sandwich spectrophotometer due mainly to interference from coexisting non-BC particles such as mineral dust. The SP2 data presented here will be useful for constraining climate models that estimate the effects of BC on the Arctic climate. Plain Language Summary Black carbon (BC) particles, commonly known as soot, are emitted from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. They efficiently absorb solar radiation and thus heat the atmosphere. BC particles emitted at midlatitudes and in the Arctic are deposited onto snow in the Arctic, accelerating snowmelt in early spring by absorbing solar radiation. These processes contribute to warming in the Arctic. Calculations of this warming effect by using numerical models need to be validated by comparison with observed BC concentrations in snowpack. However, there are very few accurate records of concentrations of BC in snow because of technical difficulties in making these measurements. We developed a new laser-induced incandescence technique to measure BC concentrations in snowpack and applied it for the first time in six Arctic regions (Finland, Alaska, North and South Siberia, Greenland, and Spitsbergen). The BC concentrations we measured were highest in Finland and South Siberia, which are closer to large anthropogenic BC sources than the other regions, where our measured BC concentrations were much lower. On average, our BC concentrations were much lower than those previously measured by different techniques. Therefore, previous comparisons of modeled and observed BC concentrations need to be re-evaluated using the present data.

East Asia is the strongest global source region for anthropogenic black carbon (BC), the most important light-absorbing aerosol contributing to direct radiative climate forcing. To provide extended observational constraints on regional BC distributions and impacts, in situ measurements of BC were obtained with a single particle soot photometer during the May/June 2016 Korean-United States Air Quality aircraft campaign (KORUS-AQ) in South Korea. Unique chemical tracer relationships were associated with BC sourced from different regions. The extent and variability in vertical BC mass burden for 48 profiles over a single site near Seoul were investigated using back trajectory and chemical tracer analysis. Meteorologically driven changes in transport influenced the relative importance of different source regions, impacting observed BC loadings at all altitudes. Internal mixing and size distributions of BC further demonstrated dependence on source region: BC attributed to China had a larger mass median diameter (18013nm) than BC attributed to South Korea (15225nm), and BC associated with long-range transport was less thickly coated (604nm) than that sourced from South Korea (7516nm). The column BC direct radiative effect at the top of the atmosphere was estimated to be 1.0-0.5+0.9W/m(2), with average values for different meteorological periods varying by a factor of 2 due to changes in the BC vertical profile. During the campaign, BC sourced from South Korea ( 31%), China (22%), and Russia (14%) were the most significant single-region contributors to the column direct radiative effect.

A reliable assessment of the optical properties of atmospheric black carbon is of crucial importance for an accurate estimation of radiative forcing. In this study we investigated the spatio-temporal variability of the mass absorption cross- (MAC) of atmospheric black carbon, defined as light absorption coefficient (sigma(ap)) divided by elemental carbon mass concentration (m(EC)). sigma(ap) and m(EC) have been monitored at supersites of the ACTRIS network for a minimum period of one year. The 9 rural background sites considered in this study cover southern Scandinavia, central Europe and the Mediterranean. sigma(ap) was determined using filter based absorption photometers and m(EC) using a thermal-optical technique. Homogeneity of the data-set was ensured by harmonization of all involved methods and instruments during extensive intercomparison exercises at the European Center for Aerosol Calibration (ECAC). Annual mean values of sigma(ap) at a wavelength of 637 nm vary between 0.66 and 1.3 Mm(-1) in southern Scandinavia, 3.7-11 Mm(-1) in Central Europe and the British Isles, and 2.3-2.8 Mm(-1) in the Mediterranean. Annual mean values of mEC vary between 0.084 and 0.23 mu g m(-3) in southern Scandinavia, 0.28 -1.1 in Central Europe and the British Isles, and 0.22-0.26 in the Mediterranean. Both sigma(ap) and mEC in southern Scandinavia and Central Europe have a distinct seasonality with maxima during the cold season and minima during summer, whereas at the Mediterranean sites an opposite trend was observed. Annual mean MAC values were quite similar across all sites and the seasonal variability was small at most sites. Consequently, a MAC value of 10.0 m(2) g(-1) (geometric standard deviation = 133) at a wavelength of 637 nm can be considered to be representative of the mixed boundary layer at European background sites, where BC is expected to be internally mixed to a large extent. The observed spatial variability is rather small compared to the variability of values in previous literature, indicating that the harmonization efforts resulted in substantially increased precision of the reported MAC. However, absolute uncertainties of the reported MAC values remain as high as +/- 30-70% due to the lack of appropriate reference methods and calibration materials. The mass ratio between elemental carbon and non-light-absorbing matter was used as a proxy for the thickness of coatings around the BC cores, in order to assess the influence of the mixing state on the MAC of BC. Indeed, the MAC was found to increase with increasing values of the coating thickness proxy. This provides evidence that coatings do increase the MAC of atmospheric BC to some extent, which is commonly referred to as lensing effect. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The aerosol optical depths (AODs) in the wavelength range 380-875 nm and black carbon (BC) mass concentrations were estimated over the tropical Indian Ocean and in the Indian Ocean sector of Southern Ocean, between 14 degrees N and 53 degrees S, during December 2011-February 2012, onboard the Ocean Research Vessel (ORV) Sagar Nidhi. The data were analysed to understand the spectral variability, micro-physical characteristics of aerosols and the associated radiative forcing. Concurrent MODIS-derived chlorophyll a (Chl-a) and sea-surface temperature (SST) provided ancillary data used to understand the variability of biomass in association with fronts and the possible role of phytoplankton as a source of aerosols. AODs and their spectral dependencies were distinctly different north and south of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). North of 11 degrees S (the northern limit of ITCZ), the spectral distribution of AOD followed Angstrom turbidity formule (Junge power law function), while it deviated from such a distribution south of 16 degrees S (southern boundary of ITCZ). At the southern limit of the ITCZ and beyond, the spectral variation of AOD showed a peak around 440 nm, the amplitude of which was highest at similar to 43 degrees S, the axis of the subtropical front (STF) with the highest Chl-a concentration (0.35 mu g l(-1)) in the region. To understand the role of Chl-a in increasing AOD at 440 nm, AOD at this wavelength was estimated using Optical properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC) model. The anomalies between the measured and model-estimated (difference between the measured and estimated AOD values at 440 nm) AOD(440) were correlated with Chl-a concentrations. A very high and significant association with coefficient of determination (R-2=0.80) indicates the contribution of Chl-a as a source of aerosols in this part of the ocean. On the basis of the measured aerosol properties, the study area was divided into three zones; Zone 1 comprising of the area between 10 degrees N and 11 degrees S; Zone 2 from 16 degrees S to 53 degrees S; and Zone 3 from 52 degrees S to 24 degrees S during the return leg. BC mass concentration was in the range 520 ng m(-3) to 2535 ng m(-3) in Zone 1, while it was extremely low in the other zones (ranging from 49.3 to 264.4 ng m(-3) in Zone 2 and from 61.6 ng m(-3) to 303.3 ng m(-3) in Zone 3). The atmospheric direct-short wave radiative forcing (DRSF), estimated using a radiative transfer model (Santa Barbara DISORT Atmospheric Radiative Transfer - SBDART), was in the range 4.72-27.62 wm(-2) north of 16 degrees S, and 4.80-6.25 wm(-2) south of 16 degrees S. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.