The Relation Between Aerosol Vertical Distribution and Temperature Inversions in the Arctic in Winter and Spring

Abstract

Temperature inversions, being a common meteorological phenomenon in the Arctic, especially during winter and spring, play a special role in regulating the distribution of aerosols. Using 10 years of collocated satellite observations, we evaluate the covariability of the vertical distribution of aerosol extinction and different atmospheric stability regimes. It is observed that as the atmospheric stability increases, more aerosols are trapped below inversions over the majority of the Arctic (except in the Pacific sector) during winter, indicating low-level transport from lower latitudes into the Arctic. In contrast, additional aerosol layers are accumulated above inversion layers during spring in the Eurasian and Pacific sectors as the stability increases, indicating long-range transport at higher altitudes. In this study, satellite observations are, for the first time, used as sole evidence to support the hypothesis that low-level transport dominates in winter and free tropospheric transport dominates in spring.