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Source Attribution and Interannual Variability of Arctic Pollution in Spring Constrained by Aircraft (ARCTAS, ARCPAC) and Satellite (AIRS) Observations of Carbon MonoxideWe use aircraft observations of carbon monoxide (CO) from the NASA ARCTAS and NOAA ARCPAC campaigns in April 2008 together with multiyear (2003-2008) CO satellite data from the AIRS instrument and a global chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem) to better understand the sources, transport, and interannual variability of pollution in the Arctic in spring. Model simulation of the aircraft data gives best estimates of CO emissions in April 2008 of 26 Tg month-1 for Asian anthropogenic, 9.1 for European anthropogenic, 4.2 for North American anthropogenic, 9.3 for Russian biomass burning (anomalously large that year), and 21 for Southeast Asian biomass burning. We find that Asian anthropogenic emissions are the dominant source of Arctic CO pollution everywhere except in surface air where European anthropogenic emissions are of similar importance. Synoptic pollution influences in the Arctic free troposphere include contributions of comparable magnitude from Russian biomass burning and from North American, European, and Asian anthropogenic sources. European pollution dominates synoptic variability near the surface. Analysis of two pollution events sampled by the aircraft demonstrates that AIRS is capable of observing pollution transport to the Arctic in the mid-troposphere. The 2003-2008 record of CO from AIRS shows that interannual variability averaged over the Arctic cap is very small. AIRS CO columns over Alaska are highly correlated with the Ocean Nino Index, suggesting a link between El Nino and northward pollution transport. AIRS shows lower-than-average CO columns over Alaska during April 2008, despite the Russian fires, due to a weakened Aleutian Low hindering transport from Asia and associated with the moderate 2007-2008 La Nina. This suggests that Asian pollution influence over the Arctic may be particularly large under strong El Nino conditions.
Document ID
20090035730
Acquisition Source
Langley Research Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Fisher, J. A. (Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Jacob, D. J. (Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Purdy, M. T. (Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Kopacz, M. (Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
LeSager, P. (Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Carouge, C. (Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Holmes, C. D. (Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Yantosca, R. M. (Harvard Univ. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Batchelor, R. L. (Toronto Univ. Ontario, Canada)
Strong, K. (Toronto Univ. Ontario, Canada)
Diskin, G. S. (NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Fuelberg, H. E. (Florida State Univ. Tallahassee, FL, United States)
Holloway, J. S. (Colorado Univ. Boulder, CO, United States)
McMillan, W. W. (Maryland Univ. Baltimore County Baltimore, MD, United States)
Warner, J. (Maryland Univ. Baltimore County Baltimore, MD, United States)
Streets, D. G. (Argonne National Lab. IL, United States)
Zhang, Q. (Argonne National Lab. IL, United States)
Wang, Y. (Tsinghua Univ. Bejing, China)
Wu, S. (Michigan Technological Univ. Houghton, MI, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2009
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
LF99-9493
Funding Number(s)
WBS: WBS 281945.02.39.01.59
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

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