Comparison of model and ground observations finds snowpack and blowing snow aerosols both contribute to Arctic tropospheric reactive bromine

Swanson, William F.; Holmes, Chris D.; Simpson, William R.; Confer, Kaitlyn; Marelle, Louis; Thomas, Jennie L.; Jaeglé, Lyatt; Alexander, Becky; Zhai, Shuting; Chen, Qianjie; Wang, Xuan; Sherwen, Tomás

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14467-2022

Articles | Volume 22, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14467-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14467-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 22, issue 22

Research article

|

15 Nov 2022

Research article |

| 15 Nov 2022

Comparison of model and ground observations finds snowpack and blowing snow aerosols both contribute to Arctic tropospheric reactive bromine

William F. Swanson, Chris D. Holmes, William R. Simpson, Kaitlyn Confer, Louis Marelle, Jennie L. Thomas, Lyatt Jaeglé, Becky Alexander, Shuting Zhai, Qianjie Chen, Xuan Wang, and Tomás Sherwen

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14467-2022-supplement

Data sets

Atmospheric measurements via Multiple Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAXDOAS), Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska 2012-2018 William Simpson https://doi.org/10.18739/A2R49G90M

The Collaborative O-Buoy Project: Deployment of a Network of Arctic Ocean Chemical Sensors for the IPY and beyond Donald Perovich, Patricia Matrai, Paul Shepson, William Simpson, and Francisco Chavez https://doi.org/10.18739/a2wd4w

Model code and software

GEOS-Chem 12.9.3 The International GEOS-Chem User Community https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3974569

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Short summary

Radical bromine molecules are seen at higher concentrations during the Arctic spring. We use the global model GEOS-Chem to test whether snowpack and wind-blown snow sources can explain high bromine concentrations. We run this model for the entire year of 2015 and compare results to observations of bromine from floating platforms on the Arctic Ocean and at Utqiaġvik. We find that the model performs best when both sources are enabled but may overestimate bromine production in summer and fall.