A controlled snowmaking experiment testing the relation between black carbon content and reduction of snow albedo

Abstract

Radiative transfer modeling of the reduction of snow albedo by black carbon (BC) requires experimental verification. In natural snow the albedo reduction is at most a few percent, and even with accurate measurements, attribution is ambiguous because snow albedo depends on other variables. In this experiment, artificial snowpacks are made by freezing of water droplets produced by a snowmaking machine in an open field, using water with and without added soot, in amounts about 100 times natural background soot levels, so as to obtain a large signal on albedo. The optically effective snow grain size is determined from the measured near-infrared albedo; matching the measured visible albedo then requires addition of BC to the radiative transfer model. The BC content of the artificial snowpacks is measured by filtering the meltwater; the filters are analyzed by a laboratory spectrophotometer as is done for filters from samples of natural snow. The BC content indicated by the filters agrees with that required in the model to match the observed albedo, but significant uncertainties remain, so further experiments are needed. Copyright © 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.