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Polar Atmosphere and Snow Chemistry

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Global Atmospheric-Biospheric Chemistry

Part of the book series: Environmental Science Research ((ESRH,volume 48))

Abstract

In the last fifteen years, considerable progress has been made in understanding the occurrence, origin, pathways, history and relevance to global change of natural and anthropogenic substances in the polar troposphere. In addition, glacial snow and ice have provided historical records of tropospheric composition of greenhouse gases and of snow deposited in the polar regions. One of the most remarkable features of polar studies is the extreme geographical contrast between the Arctic and Antarctic. The Arctic troposphere is underlain by an active ocean surrounded by pollutant-emitting, industrialized continents while the Antarctic troposphere lies over a massive, 4 km thick, ice sheet surrounded by the pollution-free southern ocean. The Arctic troposphere is much more polluted (Arctic haze) than its southern counterpart and has different exposure to compounds of natural origin such as wind blown dust or marine gases and particles. The pollution has an impact on both physical and chemical climatology. Anthropogenic Arctic haze aerosols of black carbon and sulphate have a net warming influence in the north in contrast to elsewhere on the globe where (with less black carbon) they tend to offset the impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Biogeochemical cycles of many substances including carbon, sulfur and nitrogen are perturbed. Compounds potentially toxic to polar ecosystems also accumulate.

Phenomena of interest in the polar regions include chemistry associated with Arctic haze pollution, the destruction of lower tropospheric ozone over the Arctic ocean at polar sunrise induced by marine halogens in the presence of sulfuric acid aerosols, oxidant chemistry of both polar tropospheres, chemical control of clouds and atmospheric energy budgets, and the relationship between glacial and atmospheric composition.

Historical records of atmospheric composition are available from glaciers and instrumental records of atmospheric optical properties and atmospheric composition. They indicate that the Arctic region has been polluted particularly in the winter-half of the year since at least the turn of the century.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Atmospheric Environment Service, 4905 Dufferin St., Downsview, Ontario, Canada, M3H 5T4

    Leonard A. Barrie

  2. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de L’Environment, CNRS, BP 96, 38402, St. Martin, d’Hères-Cedex, France

    Robert J. Delmas

Authors
  1. Leonard A. Barrie
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  2. Robert J. Delmas
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Ronald G. Prinn

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Barrie, L.A., Delmas, R.J. (1994). Polar Atmosphere and Snow Chemistry. In: Prinn, R.G. (eds) Global Atmospheric-Biospheric Chemistry. Environmental Science Research, vol 48. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2524-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2524-0_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6075-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-2524-0

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