An observational estimate of Arctic UV-absorbing aerosol direct radiative forcing on instantaneous and climatic scales

Sorenson, Blake T.; Zhang, Jianglong; Reid, Jeffrey S.; Xian, Peng

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11867-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11867-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11867-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 19

Research article

|

01 Oct 2025

Research article |

| 01 Oct 2025

An observational estimate of Arctic UV-absorbing aerosol direct radiative forcing on instantaneous and climatic scales

Blake T. Sorenson, Jianglong Zhang, Jeffrey S. Reid, and Peng Xian

Data sets

Sea Ice Concentrations from Nimbus-7 SMMR and DMSP SSM/I-SSMIS Passive Microwave Data N. DiGirolamo et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MPYG15WAA4WX

MODIS 1km Calibrated Radiances Product MODIS Characterization Support Team (MCST) https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD021KM.061

CERES Single Scanner Footprint (SSF) TOA/Surface Fluxes, Clouds and Aerosols Aqua-FM3 Edition4A NASA/LARC/SD/ASDC https://doi.org/10.5067/AQUA/CERES/SSF-FM3_L2.004A

MODIS Atmosphere L2 Cloud Product (06_L2) S. Platnick et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD06_L2.061

MODIS Atmosphere L3 Daily Product S. Platnick et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD08_D3.061

MODIS Atmosphere L3 Monthly Product S. Platnick et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD08_M3.061

OMI/Aura Near UV Aerosol Optical Depth and Single Scatter Albedo 1-orbit L2 Swath 13x24 km V003 O. Torres https://doi.org/10.5067/Aura/OMI/DATA2004

Short summary

Plumes of wildfire smoke in the Arctic affect the Arctic radiative budget. Using a neural network and observations from satellite-based sensors, we analyzed the direct radiative forcing of smoke particles on the Arctic climate and estimated long-term forcing trends. Strong negative trends in aerosol direct radiative forcing were found in northern Russia and Canada, with positive trends found over parts of the Arctic Ocean. Overall, smoke plumes may act to counter future Arctic warming.