Examinations on snowpit and firn core results from Summit, Greenland suggest that there are two mechanisms leading to the observed double nitrate peaks in some years in the industrial era: 1) long-rang transport of nitrate and 2) enhanced local photochemical production of nitrate. Both of these mechanisms are related to pollution transport, as the additional nitrate from either direct transport or enhanced local photochemistry requires enhanced nitrogen sources from anthropogenic emissions.

This paper describes a method to correct the bias in daily fire radiative power (FRP) observations from any low Earth orbit satellite, so that that the budget of daily smoke emissions remains independent of the number of satellites from which FRP observations are taken into account. This ensures the possibility of running a system assimilating observations from several sensors, e.g. the Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS), in case of failure of one of the MODIS instruments.

We propose the existence of a daytime “tropical ring of atomic bromine” surrounding the tropics at a height between 15 and 19km. Our simulations show that VSL bromocarbons produce increases of 3pptv for inorganic bromine and 2pptv for organic bromine in the tropical TTL on an annual average, resulting in a total stratospheric bromine injection of 5pptv. This result suggests that the inorganic bromine injected into the stratosphere may be larger than that from VSL bromocarbons.

Iceland is an active dust source in the high-latitude cold region. Dust day frequency in Iceland is comparable to dust studies from the active parts of China, Mongolia, and Iran. About 50% of annual dust events in the southern part of Iceland take place at sub-zero temperatures or in winter, when dust may be mixed with snow. The Arctic dust events (NE Iceland) are warm, occurring during summer/autumn while the sub-Arctic dust events (S Iceland) are mainly cold, occurring during winter/spring.

Atmospheric aerosol particles acting as CCN are pivotal elements of the hydrological cycle and climate change. In this study, we measured and characterized NCCN in relatively clean and polluted air during the AC3Exp campaign conducted at Xianghe, China, in summer 2013. We found that aerosol particle hygroscopicity and activation are more complex for heavy pollution particles because of the diversity in particle composition and mixing state. We have also shown the possibility of using bulk κc.

Positive matrix factorization (PMF) was applied to the unified high-resolution mass spectra organic species with NO+ and NO2+ ions from the measurement in a mixed region between the boreal forestland and the urban area. The PMF analysis succeeded in separating the mixed spectra into three distinct organic factors and one inorganic factor. The particulate organic nitrate was distinguished by PMF for the first time, with a contribution of one-third of the total nitrate mass.

A long-term analysis of aerosol radiative effects over the Iberian Peninsula is carried out. A reduction of aerosol effects on solar radiation at the surface is observed in the 2000s. Aerosol forcing efficiency is stronger for small and absorbing particles. The contributions of the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared spectral intervals to the total shortwave efficiency vary with the aerosol types, producing the visible range the dominant contribution for all aerosol types.

The article reviews progress in understanding of the Arctic sea ice decline. Processes are revisited from an atmospheric, ocean and sea ice perspective. There is strong evidence for decisive atmospheric drivers of sea ice change. Large-scale ocean influences on the Arctic Ocean hydrology and circulation are highly evident. Ocean heat fluxes are clearly impacting the ice margins. Little indication exists for a direct decisive influence of the warming ocean on the central Arctic sea ice cover.

The air over the ocean is full of sea spray particles ejected by bubbles that burst in the wake of breaking waves. The smallest of such particles, less than a micrometer in diameter, include organic matter derived from ocean biota. This paper introduces a method to calculate the chemical composition of spray particles. Ocean organic matter is divided into several classes using a global model. Basic chemistry relationships predict the amount of organic material in emitted spray.

Marine clouds have a strong effect on the Earth's radiative balance. One proposed climate feedback is that, in a warming climate, marine aerosol emissions will change due to changing wind speeds. We have examined the processes that affect aerosol emissions and removal over 15 years, and high-temporal-resolution output over 2 months. We conclude that wind trends are unlikely to cause a strong feedback in marine regions, but changes in removal processes or transport from continental regions may.

We implement a parameterization of sub-grid new-particle formation in sulfur-rich plumes (P6) for the first time into a global chemical-transport model with online aerosol microphysics. Compared with previous treatments of sub-grid particle formation, use of the P6 parameterization limits sub-grid particle formation in polluted or low-sunlight regions. We also test the sensitivity of sub-grid particle formation to changes in SO2 or NOx emissions due to emissions controls.

An ice cloud model is developed by assuming an ice cloud to be an ensemble of columns and aggregates with specific habit fractions at each particle size bin. The microphysical and optical properties of this two-habit model (THM) are compared with both laboratory and in situ measurements. When the THM is applied to ice cloud property retrieval, excellent spectral consistency is achieved. A comparison between observed and theoretical polarized reflectivities illustrates the applicability of THM.

Current knowledge about the European terrestrial biospheric carbon sink relies upon bottom-up and global surface flux inverse model estimates using in situ measurements. Our analysis of five satellite data sets comprises a regional inversion designed to be insensitive to potential retrieval biases and transport errors. We show that the satellite-derived sink is larger (1.0±0.3GtC/a) than previous estimates (0.4±0.4GtC/a).

We present a case study of BC wet removal by examining aerosol properties in three biomass burning plumes, one of which passed through a precipitating cloud. Nucleation scavenging preferentially removed the largest and most coated BC-containing particles. Calculated single-scattering albedo (SSA) showed little variation, as a large number of non-BC particles were also present in the precipitation-affected plume.

We use the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to quantify the CO sources responsible for the observed CO during the BORTAS-B campaign over Canada in 2011. We found the largest source was biomass burning from Ontario, with smaller sources from fossil fuel emissions from Asia and NE US. We develop an age-of-emission metric and show values in BORTAS-B are consistent with a slowing of photochemistry in plumes. Indirect evidence suggests this slowing is due to aerosols within the plumes.