Phys.org September 19, 2024
The roles of Arctic aerosols as ice-nucleating particles are crucial for assessing the climate sensitivity of Arctic mixed-phase clouds and predicting their response to Arctic warming. An international team of researchers (Japan, Norway) presented a full-year record of ice-nucleating particle concentrations over Svalbard, where surface warming has been anomalously faster than the Arctic average. While the variation of ice-nucleating particles active at around −30 °C was relatively small, those active at higher temperatures tended to increase exponentially with rising surface air temperatures when the surface air temperatures rose above 0 °C and snow/ice-free barren and vegetated areas appeared in Svalbard. The aerosol population relevant to their increase was largely characterized by dust and biological organic materials that likely originated from local/regional terrestrial sources. According to the researchers their results suggested that highly active ice-nucleating particles could be actively released from Arctic natural sources in response to surface warming… read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Seasonal trends of normalized difference vegetation index… Credit: Communications Earth & Environment volume 5, Article number: 516 (2024)