Unexpectedly high ultrafine aerosol concentrations above East Antarctic  sea ice

Humphries, R. S.; Klekociuk, A. R.; Schofield, R.; Keywood, M.; Ward, J.; Wilson, S. R.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2185-2016

Articles | Volume 16, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2185-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2185-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 4

Research article

|

25 Feb 2016

Research article |

| 25 Feb 2016

Unexpectedly high ultrafine aerosol concentrations above East Antarctic sea ice

R. S. Humphries, A. R. Klekociuk, R. Schofield, M. Keywood, J. Ward, and S. R. Wilson

Data sets

In-situ total aerosol number using condensation particle counters as observed during the SIPEX II voyage of the Aurora Australis, 2012 Humphries, R., Wilson, S., Keywood, M., Ward, J., and Schofield, R. https://doi.org/10.4225/15/5342423241BE4

Hysplit atmospheric back-trajectories at 10m, 500m, 1000m, 10 1500m, 2000m, 2500m, 3000m, 3500m, 4000m collected during the SIPEX II voyage of the Aurora Australis, 2012 Schofield, R. and Klekociuk, A. https://doi.org/10.4225/15/532F83302FF88

In-situ atmospheric ozone measurements observed during the SIPEX II voyage of the Aurora Australis, 2012 Schofield, R., Klekociuk, A., Galbally, I., Molloy, S., and Humphries, R. https://doi.org/10.4225/15/53266BE438281

Aurora Australis Voyage VMS 2012/13 Track and Underway Data (SIPEX II) Reeve, J. https://doi.org/10.4225/15/546580A408D97

Short summary

This work represents the first observational study of atmospheric sub-micron aerosols in the East Antarctic pack ice region and found springtime aerosol concentrations were higher than any observed elsewhere in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean region. Further analysis suggested these aerosols formed in the Antarctic free troposphere. Their subsequent transport to the Southern Ocean, as suggest by trajectory analyses, could help to reduce the discrepancy in the radiative budget in the region.