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Abstract

Arctic temperature is raising at a rate of two to four times faster than the global average. The Arctic cryosphere has been undergoing rapid melting over the past few decades. Previous studies indicated that short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) have substantial impacts on Arctic warming. Black carbon (BC) is one of the SLCFs, which can absorb solar radiation efficiently warming the atmosphere. The deposition of BC on snow and ice accelerates snow and ice melting by reducing surface albedo. In this study, we investigated the distribution, transportation, and radiation effects of BC in the Arctic from June 2015 to May 2017 by using the meteorology–chemistry model (Weather Research and Forecasting model couple with Chemistry, WRF-Chem). The results showed that near-surface BC concentrations in the Arctic presented higher values during winter-spring, which can be largely contributed by the stronger near-surface northward transport of aerosols from northern Eurasia during this period. The northward transport can be found in the higher troposphere during summer-autumn, while it was probably inefficient due to enhanced wet scavenging of aerosols. BC-induced near-surface temperature changes were stronger in the Arctic in winter and autumn, and the downward longwave radiation related to cloudiness changes played an important role for driving near-surface temperature. In summer and spring, the relatively less changes in near-surface temperature may be the result of the mutual offset between the surface longwave and shortwave radiation changes.