Local Arctic air pollution: Sources and impacts
Open accessAbstract
Local emissions of Arctic air pollutants and their impacts on climate, ecosystems and health are poorly understood. Future increases due to Arctic warming or economic drivers may put additional pressures on the fragile Arctic environment already affected by mid-latitude air pollution. Aircraft data were collected, for the first time, downwind of shipping and petroleum extraction facilities in the European Arctic. Data analysis reveals discrepancies compared to commonly used emission inventories, highlighting missing emissions (e.g. drilling rigs) and the intermittent nature of certain emissions (e.g. flaring, shipping). Present-day shipping/petroleum extraction emissions already appear to be impacting pollutant (ozone, aerosols) levels along the Norwegian coast and are estimated to cool and warm the Arctic climate, respectively. Future increases in shipping may lead to short-term (long-term) warming (cooling) due to reduced sulphur (CO 2 ) emissions, and be detrimental to regional air quality (ozone). Further quantification of local Arctic emission impacts is needed.
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These studies highlight significant shortcomings in current inventories and reported emissions such as missing mobile sources and key components like PM and volatile organic compounds, precursors to secondary organic aerosol.
“These studies, and further discussion of these results in Law et al. (2017), highlight signi fi cant shortcomings in current inventories and reported emissions such as missing mobile sources and key components like PM and volatile organic compounds, precursors to secondary organic aerosol (SOA).”
From Local Arctic Air Pollution: A Neglected but Serious Problem (2018) · cites this paper as Law et al., 2017
The Results section (‘Improved estimation of local Arctic emissions’; page unavailable) identifies missing mobile-platform emissions and says the NEA inventory does not report aerosol emissions. It does not establish that VOCs are missing: it says TNO-MACC includes VOC emissions. The paper suggests particle production from VOC leaks and potential organic-aerosol formation, but does not explicitly identify VOCs as precursors to secondary organic aerosol. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMore recent Arctic-wide simulations using the Winther et al. (2014) emissions investigated the impacts of future shipping and found significant increases in ozone concentrations particularly along the northern Norwegian coast, the Barents Sea, and off the northern coast of Alaska.
“More recent Arctic-wide simulations using the Winther et al. (2014) emissions investigated the impacts of future shipping and found signi fi cant increases in ozone concentrations particularly along the northern Norwegian coast, the Barents Sea, and off the northern coast of Alaska (Law et al., 2017) in line with prior estimates (Dalsøren et al., 2007; Granier et al., 2006).”
From Local Arctic Air Pollution: A Neglected but Serious Problem (2018) · cites this paper as Law et al., 2017
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Cites
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Local Arctic Air Pollution: A Neglected but Serious Problem
Schmale, J., Arnold, S. R., Law, K. S., Thorp, T., Anenberg, S., Simpson, W. R., Mao, J., & Pratt, K. A. (2018) · Earth's Future · doi:10.1029/2018ef000952 · Cited by 219 · see citing works
“(2014) emissions investigated the impacts of future shipping and found significant increases in ozone concentrations particularly along the northern Norwegian coast, the Barents Sea, and off the northern coast of Alaska (Law et al., 2017) in line with prior estimates (Dalsøren et al.”
BackgroundResultInfluentialSelf-citationArctic tropospheric ozone: assessment of current knowledge and model performance
Whaley, C. H., Law, K. S., Hjorth, J. L., Skov, H., Arnold, S. R., Langner, J., Pernov, J. B., Bergeron, G., Bourgeois, I., Christensen, J. H., et al. (2023) · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics · doi:10.5194/acp-23-637-2023 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citationCappelletti, D., Petroselli, C., Mateos, D., Herreras, M., Ferrero, L., Losi, N., Gregorič, A., Frangipani, C., La Porta, G., Lonardi, M., et al. (2022) · Atmospheric Environment · doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2022.119373 · Cited by 14 · see citing works
- Authors
- Law, K. S., Roiger, A., Thomas, J. L., Marelle, L., Raut, J.-C., Dalsøren, S., Fuglestvedt, J., Tuccella, P., Weinzierl, B., & Schlager, H.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) (DE)
- Laboratoire atmosphères, milieux, observations spatiales (FR)
- CICERO Center for International Climate Research (NO)
- University of L'Aquila (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Law, Kathy S.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Ambio
- Published
- 2017-10-26
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- S3
- Pages
- 453-463
- ISSN
- 0044-7447 (ISSN-L)
- 1654-7209
- PMC
- PMC5673878
- OpenAlex
- W2766510518
- Cited by
- 71
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 3.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- AMBIO (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi dell Aquila (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- European Commission
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (2012-2015, ANR-11-BS56-0021)
- Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- Grand Équipement National De Calcul Intensif
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Arctic and Russian Policy Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Maritime Transport Emissions and Efficiency
- Keywords
- Arctic air pollution, local emissions, ship emissions, oil extraction, drilling rigs, flaring, airborne measurements, emission inventory, ozone, aerosols, Arctic warming, radiative forcing, air quality, health effects, ecosystems, Norwegian coast
- MeSH terms
- Air Pollutants, Air Pollution, Arctic Regions, Climate, Environmental Monitoring, Norway, Ozone, Ships, Ecosystem
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