Impact of wildfire smoke on Arctic cirrus formation – Part 1: Analysis of MOSAiC 2019–2020 observations

Ansmann, Albert; Jimenez, Cristofer; Roschke, Johanna; Bühl, Johannes; Ohneiser, Kevin; Engelmann, Ronny; Radenz, Martin; Griesche, Hannes; Hofer, Julian; Althausen, Dietrich; Knopf, Daniel A.; Dahlke, Sandro; Gaudek, Tom; Seifert, Patric; Wandinger, Ulla

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4847-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4847-2025

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4847-2025

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

Articles | Volume 25, issue 9

Research article

|

09 May 2025

Research article |

| 09 May 2025

Impact of wildfire smoke on Arctic cirrus formation – Part 1: Analysis of MOSAiC 2019–2020 observations

Albert Ansmann, Cristofer Jimenez, Johanna Roschke, Johannes Bühl, Kevin Ohneiser, Ronny Engelmann, Martin Radenz, Hannes Griesche, Julian Hofer, Dietrich Althausen, Daniel A. Knopf, Sandro Dahlke, Tom Gaudek, Patric Seifert, and Ulla Wandinger

Data sets

PollyNET lidar data base Polly http://polly.tropos.de/

Optical aerosol profiles from the Raman Lidar Polly-XT during MOSAiC K. Ohneiser et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.935539

Custom collection of categorize data from RV Polarstern between 11 Oct 2019 and 30 Sep 2020 R. Engelmann et al. https://doi.org/10.60656/00945b67503743f0

nitial radiosonde data from 2019--10 to 2020--09 during project MOSAiC M Maturilli et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.928656

HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model, backward trajectory calculation tool HYSPLIT https://www.ready.noaa.gov/hypub-bin/trajtype.pl?runtype=archive

Short summary

In this study, we focus on the potential impact of wildfire smoke on cirrus formation. For the first time, state-of-the-art aerosol and cirrus observations with lidar and radar, presented in this paper (Part 1 of a series of two articles), are closely linked to the comprehensive modeling of gravity-wave-induced ice nucleation in cirrus evolution processes, presented in a companion paper (Part 2). We found a clear impact of wildfire smoke on cirrus evolution.