ABSTRACT
Among many others, the aspect of ice melt during summer and ice accumulation during winter months over the Arctic region increased the researchers’ challenge of finding the impact of albedo variations due to black carbon (BC) aerosol scattering/absorption. This chapter reports the results obtained from the BC and solar spectral measurements carried out at ‘Indian Arctic Station, Himadri’, located in the northernmost part of the world, Ny-Ålesund, Norway, during 2011–2014. The contribution from long-range transport of pollutants from far-away places is found to dominate the local sources such as emissions from shipping and power plants to the annual cycle with maximum BC mass concentration during winter/early-spring season and minimum concentration during the summer season. Moreover, higher BC concentrations were observed in 2012 as compared to other years in the study period. The spectral variations of aerosol optical depth observed during the summer months indicate enormous contribution of fine-mode aerosol particles to the BC mass concentration, particularly in 2012. Further, the zenith skylight spectra in the spectral range of 200–1100 nm indicate maximum particle scattered intensity around 500 nm. These results play a vital role in the earth-atmosphere radiation balance and hence exhibit profound influence on regional and global climate changes.
