Atmosphere/Snow Interactions
Objectives:
- To understand air/snow surface reactions involving halogenated and carbonyl compounds.
- To understand snowpack chemistry and the photochemical production/destruction of various reactive species.
- To determine the effect of increased aerosols due to open water in leads on halogens and photochemistry.
Overview of Arctic Halogen Chemistry:
It has been known for several decades that surface level ozone (and mercury) undergoes rapid depletion, to near zero concentrations, in springtime in polar environments on or near sea ice. This chemistry occurs via a photochemical heterogeneous catalytic chain reaction between ozone and molecular bromine known as a “bromine explosion”. During a bromine explosion Br2 is first generated by photochemical oxidation in the snow pack. Once Br2 is released into the atmosphere, it is photolysed to form a radical bromine atom. This then begins a catalytic destruction cycle with ozone.
While Br2 is the most potent destroyer of ozone, other halogens (Cl2 and I2) are also produced photochemically in the snowpack, and significantly affect atmospheric chemistry in the Arctic. In the Shepson group all three molecular halogens, as well as various other halogen species are measured using chemical ionization mass spectrometry (see picture above on left). This method has been used to demonstrate photochemical production of halogens in the snowpack (see picture above on right).
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We have demonstrated that the snowpack produces halogens, there are many details about this chemistry that are still poorly understood. The rate of X2 production in the snowpack, and how they mix into the atmosphere above is not well understood. The picture below shows the set-up for eddy covariance fluxes measured on the arctic tundra in spring 2016. In addition to fluxes, vertical profiles of halogens were measured up to an altitude of 7 meters. These are the first measurements of halogens greater than 3 m high and lower than 300 m.
You can learn more about the Arctic, the people who live there, and the wide variety of research going on in the area at arcticstories.net