Identification

Title

Hydroxyl radical and NOx production rates, black carbon concentrations and light-absorbing impurities in snow from field measurements of light penetration and nadir reflectivity of onshore and offshore coastal Alaskan snow

Abstract

Photolytic production rates of NO, NO₂ and OH radicals in snow and the total absorption spectrum due to impurities in snowpack have been calculated for the Ocean-Atmosphere-Sea-Ice-Snowpack (OASIS) campaign during Spring 2009 at Barrow, Alaska. The photolytic production rate and snowpack absorption cross-sections were calculated from measurements of snowpack stratigraphy, light penetration depths (e-folding depths), nadir reflectivity (350-700 nm) and UV broadband atmospheric radiation. Maximum NOx fluxes calculated during the campaign owing to combined nitrate and nitrite photolysis were calculated as 72 nmol m⁻² h⁻¹ for the inland snowpack and 44 nmol m⁻² h⁻¹ for the snow on sea-ice and snowpack around the Barrow Arctic Research Center (BARC). Depth-integrated photochemical production rates of OH radicals were calculated giving maximum OH depth-integrated production rates of -160 nmol m⁻² h⁻¹ for the inland snowpack and -110 - 120 nmol m⁻² h⁻¹ for the snow around BARC and snow on sea-ice. Light penetration (e-folding) depths at a wavelength of 400 nm measured for snowpack in the vicinity of Barrow and snow on sea-ice are -9 cm and 14 cm for snow 15 km inland. Fitting scaled HULIS (HUmic-LIke Substances) and black carbon absorption cross-sections to the determined snow impurity absorption cross-sections show a "humic-like" component to snowpack absorption, with typical concentrations of 1.2-1.5 μgC g⁻¹. Estimates of black carbon concentrations for the four snowpacks are -40 to 70 ng g⁻¹ for the terrestrial Arctic snowpacks and -90 ng g⁻¹ for snow on sea-ice.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7pz59ff

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2012-03-09T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact