Chemical processes in snow and ice

Abstract

The ability of snow and ice to act as a chemically reactive medium is only a recently discovered phenomenon. The production of photochemically and oxidatively active species can have a number of impacts on the overlying atmosphere, including the initiation of ozone and mercury depletion events and alteration of the oxidizing capacity of the boundary layer. Both field and laboratory measurements have advanced the field significantly, yet our understanding of the fundamental behavior of solutes in snow and ice, partitioning of chemicals between air/snow/ice, and a molecular level understanding of many reaction mechanisms remain limited.