Kaitlyn Confer

and 7 more

We evaluate the effects of rapidly changing Arctic sea ice conditions on sea salt aerosol (SSA) produced by oceanic wave-breaking and the sublimation of wind-lofted salty blowing snow on sea ice. We use the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to assess the influence of changing extent of the open ocean, multi-year sea ice, first-year sea ice (FYI), and snow depths on SSA emissions for 1980-2017. We combine snow depths from the Lagrangian snow-evolution model (SnowModel-LG) together with an empirically-derived snow salinity function of snow depth to derive spatially and temporally varying snow surface salinity over Arctic FYI. We find that snow surface salinity on Arctic sea ice is increasing at a rate of ~30% decade-1 and SSA emissions are increasing at a rate of 7-9% decade-1 during the cold season (November – April). As a result, simulated SSA mass concentrations over the Arctic increased by 8-12% decade-1 in the cold season for 1980-2017. Blowing snow SSA accounts for more than 75% of this increase. During the warm season (May – October), sea ice loss results in a 12-14% decade-1 increase in SSA emissions due to increasing open ocean emissions. Observations of SSA mass concentrations at Alert, Canada display positive trends during the cold season (10-12% decade-1), consistent with our pan-Arctic simulations. During fall, Alert observations show a negative trend (-18% decade-1), due to locally decreasing wind speeds and thus lower open ocean emissions. These significant changes in SSA concentrations could potentially affect past and future bromine explosions and Arctic climate feedbacks.