Title: An examination of black carbon albedo effects in the cryosphere and on light colored surfaces having implications for climate modeling.

Importance: Black Carbon (BC) emissions disproportionately impact the cryosphere, particularly near emission sources in the Arctic and Himalayas. Uncertainty in emission data, deposition, and processing on snow and ice and on light surfaces such as beaches and deserts makes it difficult to account for impacts on regional and global warming and snow and ice melt. 

Background: Measurement and observation-based research is needed to improve the understanding of the mechanisms governing deposition and processing of BC on snow and ice and light colored surfaces. 

Thesis: Black carbon plays a bigger role in climate change than is currently represented in climate models, particularly in regard to albedo changes.

Approach: Address uncertainties in BC cryosphere impacts, as outlined in Kang et al., via in-situ research and analysis:

1. Coordinating a BC-in-snow measurement inter-comparison project to measure the same snow samples using different instruments/techniques, as summarized in Section 2, with the goal of providing an optimal estimate (with quantified uncertainty) of the BC-in-snow concentrations and the associated radiative forcing; 
2. Comparing and validating remote-sensing observations of snow cover, snow grain size, optical properties of snow-BC mixtures, and impurity-induced snow albedo reduction; 
3. Designing laboratory experiments to quantify the most important unknown parameters (e.g., meltwater scavenging efficiency) and their impacts on the estimation of the BC-induced snow darkening effect; 
4. Performing experiments in which the measurements are taken more frequently (e.g., daily resolution) to capture the cycle of snow (from accumulation to melting) and the lifecycle of BC (from the deposition on the snow surface to the scavenging by meltwater)."

 

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