On radiative effects of anthropogenic aerosol components in Arctic haze and snow

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Abstract
The Arctic aerosol is strongly enriched by anthropogenic pollution which may cause significant modifications of the Arctic climate. A radiation model with an optically interactive snow surface layer is developed to investigate the effect of anthropogenic elemental carbon (EC) and sulphuric acid in the Arctic atmosphere. The model, based on the delta-Eddington method, has 490 wavelength intervals covering solar and terrestrial radiation domains. Computations were made for aerosols-containing natural components and cases contaminated by anthropogenic EC and sulphuric acid, both categories with dry and moist conditions. Comparisons of model results with measurements in the Arctic of direct and total irradiance agree well. During mid-spring averaged conditions, the increase in the daily mean solar warming is found to be 2 or 3 times lower than earlier estimates. The previously expected surface cooling can be offset by direct to diffuse conversion in the haze and by snow contamination. In the infrared, the haz...