A Characterization of Arctic Aerosols as Derived from Airborne Observations and their Influence on the Surface Radiation Budget

The Arctic is a key player in the climate system because of the strong modification of the surface energy budget through snow and ice cover, which is tightly coupled to the global circulation of the atmosphere and the ocean. AWI (Alfred Wegener Institute) initiated therefore together with EC (Environment Canada) a special airborne program, as the Polar Airborne Measurements and Arctic Regional Climate Model Simulation Project (PAMARCMiP). The past two campaigns with POLAR 5 took place during April 2009 as well as April 2011. The Instrumentation, included a tethered electromagnetic (EM) sensor for sea ice thickness measurements [Haas et al, 2010], analyzers for ozone, gaseous elementary mercury, bromine monoxide, aerosol light scattering and aerosol light absorption and refractory black carbon, aerosol number concentration and aerosol size distribution, and aerosol optical depth (AOD). In addition, aerosol and ozone LIDAR were operated, and drop sondes were launched to characterize atmospheric state variables and to use it for combined LIDAR and aerosol data analysis [Hoffmann et al., 2012]. The traverses were completed within about a month, providing 3-D snapshots of aerosol, trace gases, atmospheric condition and sea ice thickness