10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Abstract View
Ice Core Recorded Black Carbon Variations from Muztagh Ata Reveal Kuwait Fires and the Quantitative Evaluation of Source Contribution and Impacts on Glacier Melting
JIAMAO ZHOU, Xuexi Tie, Shuyu Zhao, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Abstract Number: 611 Working Group: Remote/Regional Atmospheric Aerosol
Abstract Refractory black carbon (BC) can be transported in the atmosphere from surface to high latitudes and deposited to the ice preserving a history of emissions and atmospheric transport. A yearly resolution BC records from the ice core drilled at Muztagh Ata Mountain are analyzed in order to investigate the BC variations and identify potential source areas by using a global chemical transportation model (MOZART-4). We conclude that the emissions from big Kuwait fires at the beginning of 90s are the dominant source of impurities while the concentrations of BC in the ice core displayed distinct increase by numerical simulation experiments compared with ice core records during the period of Kuwait fires and several pre- and post- years. It suggests that fine BC aerosols from surrounding natural aerosol source regions convectively lifted from the surface boundary layer into the upper troposphere and then integrated with the westerly belt is an effective pathway for BC entering the Muztagh Ata mountains, and increase BC trends in the local glaciers with additional affection by deposition progresses.. Quantitative estimation of surrounding sources for the BC concentrations in the Muztagh Ata is firstly carried out by using MOZART-4 model to study the respective transportation pathway and factional contributions. Central Asia is the predominately contribution source region during summer monsoon and South Asia is the largest source during non-monsoon followed emissions from Europe which determined by contemporary emission variation and wet deposition. Furthermore, the albedo reduction and radiative forcing increase caused by black carbon depositing on the surface of snow and ice have been calculated in Muztagh Ata glaciers and BC emissions from the Persian Gult during early 90s had enhanced climate forcing and runoff by over 3 times compared with that of typical normal years. Consequently, emissions in the east part of north hemisphere caused by heavy pollution incidents such as big fires have a tight linkage with BC concentration and deposition trends in the Muztagh Ata. This study provides an important investigation of regional transportation and emissions over east Pamir.