Measurements of atmospheric aerosol vertical distributions above Svalbard, Norway, using unmanned aerial systems (UAS)
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Abstract. Atmospheric aerosol vertical distributions were measured above Svalbard, Norway, in April 2011 during the Cooperative Investigation of Climate-Cryosphere Interactions campaign (CICCI). Measurements were made of the particle number concentration and the aerosol light absorption coefficient at three wavelengths. A filter sample was collected on each flight at the altitude of maximum particle number concentration. The filters were analyzed for major anions and cations. The aerosol payload was flown in a NOAA/PMEL MANTA Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). A total of 18 flights were flown during the campaign totaling 38 flight hours. The data show frequent aerosol layers aloft with high particle number concentration (1000 cm−3) and enhanced aerosol light absorption (1 Mm−1). Air mass histories of these aerosol layers were assessed using FLEXPART particle dispersion modeling. The data contribute to an assessment of sources of BC to the Arctic and potential climate impacts.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The STAP b_abs showed good agreement with other filter-based reference instruments such as the multiangle absorption photometer (MAAP).
“The performance of the STAP was previously reported by Bates et al. (2013), Pikridas et al. (2019) and Pilz et al. (2022), and b abs showed good agreement with other filterbased reference instruments such as the multiangle absorption photometer (MAAP).”
From In situ vertical observations of the layered structure of air pollution in a continental high-latitude urban boundary layer during winter (2025) · cites this paper as Bates et al. (2013)
The Methods describe a BMI ABS absorption photometer, and the Results and discussion report comparing its absorption measurements with a ground-based PSAP. The paper does not identify the instrument as a STAP or report a MAAP comparison; it describes the ABS–PSAP correlation as less robust (r² = 0.56), rather than good agreement. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMeteorological variability, such as wind shifts (dispersing seeded plumes), low wind speeds <2 m/s (causing aerosol stagnation), or cloud breakup (disrupting stratocumulus homogeneity), served as universal triggers for operational pauses.
“For instance, meteorological variability, such as wind shifts (dispersing seeded plumes), low wind speeds < 2 m/s (causing aerosol stagnation), or cloud breakup (disrupting stratocumulus homogeneity), served as universal triggers for operational pauses (e.g., Bates et al., 2013; Hoffmann & Feingold, 2021)”
From Past Field Experiments of Solar Radiation Modification: A Review of the Scientific and Technical Aspects for Governance (2026) · cites this paper as Bates et al., 2013
The Methods section says flight plans could be amended to target atmospheric layers and monitor potential icing, but does not describe operational pauses. The Results and discussion section reports aerosol and meteorological measurements, not wind shifts, winds below 2 m/s, or cloud breakup as triggers for pauses. Searches for those conditions and for weather-related flight postponements found no supporting passage in our copy; page numbers were not provided. (LLM, conf=0.74)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
No references could be resolved yet.
Research works printed but not linked: 19
- Brock, C. A., Cozic, J., Bahreini, R., Froyd, K. D., Middlebrook, A. M., McComiskey, A., Brioude, J., Cooper, O. R., Stohl, A., Aikin, K. C., de Gouw, J. A., Fahey, D. W., Ferrare, R. A., Gao, R.-S., Gore, W., Holloway, J. S., Hübler, G., Jefferson, A., Lack, D. A., Lance, S., Moore, R. H., Murphy, D. M., Nenes, A., Novelli, P. C., Nowak, J. B., Ogren, J. A., Peischl, J., Pierce, R. B., Pilewskie, P., Quinn, P. K., Ryerson, T. B., Schmidt, K. S., Schwarz, J. P., Sodemann, H., Spackman, J. R., Stark, H., Thomson, D. S., Thornberry, T., Veres, P., Watts, L. A., Warneke, C., and Wollny, A. G.: Characteristics, sources, and transport of aerosols measured in spring 2008 during the aerosol, radiation, and cloud processes affecting Arctic Climate (ARCPAC) Project, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 2423-2453, doi:10.5194/acp-11-2423- 2011, 2011. · DOI · Paper page
- de Villiers, R. A., Ancellet, G., Pelon, J., Quennehen, B., Schwarzenboeck, A., Gayet, J. F., and Law, K. S.: Airborne mea- surements of aerosol optical properties related to early spring transport of mid-latitude sources into the Arctic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 5011-5030, doi:10.5194/acp-10-5011-2010, 2010. · DOI
- Doherty, S. J., Warren, S. G., Grenfell, T. C., Clarke, A. D., and Brandt, R. E.: Light-absorbing impurities in Arctic snow, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 11647-11680, doi:10.5194/acp-10- 11647-2010, 2010. · DOI
- Flanner, M. G., Zender, C. S., Randerson, J. T., and Rasch, P. J.: Present day climate forcing and response from black carbon in snow, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D11202, doi:10.1029/2006JD008003, 2007. · DOI · Paper page
- Flanner, M. G., Zender, C. S., Hess, P. G., Mahowald, N. M., Painter, T. H., Ramanathan, V., and Rasch, P. J.: Springtime warming and reduced snow cover from carbonaceous particles, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 2481-2497, doi:10.5194/acp-9-2481- 2009, 2009. · DOI
- Hansen, J., Sato, M., Ruedy, R., Nazarenko, L., Lacis, A., Schmidt, G. A., Russell, G., Aleinov, I., Bauer, M., Bauer, S., Bell, N., Cairns, B., Canuto, V., Chandler, M., Cheng, Y., Del Genio, A., Faluvegi, G., Fleming, E., Friend, A., Hall, T., Jackman, C., Kel- ley, M., Kiang, N., Koch, D., Lean, J., Lerner, J., Lo, K., Menon, S., Miller, R., Minnis, P., Novakov, T., Oinas, V., Perlwitz, Ja., Perlwitz, Ju., Rind, D., Romanou, A., Shindell, D., Stone, P., Sun, S., Tausnev, N., Thresher, D., Wielicki, B., Wong, T., Yao, M., and Zhang, S.: Efficacy of climate forcings, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D18104, doi:10.1029/2005JD005776, 2005. · DOI
- Hegg, D. A., Warren, S. G., Grenfell, T. C., Doherty, S. J., and Clarke, A. D.: Sources of light-absorbing aerosol in arctic snow and their seasonal variation, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 10923- 10938, doi:10.5194/acp-10-10923-2010, 2010. · DOI
- Hirdman, D., Burkhart, J. F., Sodemann, H., Eckhardt, S., Jeffer- son, A., Quinn, P. K., Sharma, S., Ström, J., and Stohl, A.: Long- term trends of black carbon and sulphate aerosol in the Arctic: changes in atmospheric transport and source region emissions, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 9351-9368, doi:10.5194/acp-10-9351- 2010, 2010. · DOI
- Jacobson, M. Z.: Short-term effects of controlling fossil-fuel soot, biofuel soot and gases, and methane on climate, arctic ice, and air pollution health, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D14209, doi:10.1029/2009JD013795, 2010. · DOI
- Køltzow, M.: The effect of a new snow and ice albedo scheme on re- gional climate model simulation, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D07110, doi:10.1029/2006JD007693, 2007. · DOI
- Law, K. S. and Stohl, A.: Arctic air pollution: Origins and impacts, Science, 315, 1537-1540, doi:10.1126/science.1137695, 2007. · DOI · Paper page
- Quinn, P. K., Bates, T. S., Baum, E., Doubleday, N., Fiore, A. M., Flanner, M., Fridlind, A., Garrett, T. J., Koch, D., Menon, S., Shindell, D., Stohl, A., and Warren, S. G.: Short-lived pollu- tants in the Arctic: their climate impact and possible mitigation strategies, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 1723-1735, doi:10.5194/acp- 8-1723-2008, 2008. · DOI
- Sharma, S., Andrews, E., Barrie, L., Ogren, J., and Lavoue, D.: Variations and sources of the equivalent black carbon in the high Arctic revealed by long-term observations at Alert and Barrow: 1989-2003, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D14208, doi:10.1029/2005JD006581, 2006. · DOI
- Shindell, D.: Local and remote contributions to Arctic warming, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L14704, doi:10.1029/2007GL030221, 2007. · DOI
- Shindell, D. and Faluvegi, G.: Climate response to regional radiative forcing during the twentieth century, Nat. Geosci., 2, 294-300, doi:10.1038/NGEO473, 2009. · DOI
- Shindell, D. T., Chin, M., Dentener, F., Doherty, R. M., Faluvegi, G., Fiore, A. M., Hess, P., Koch, D. M., MacKenzie, I. A., Sander- son, M. G., Schultz, M. G., Schulz, M., Stevenson, D. S., Teich, H., Textor, C., Wild, O., Bergmann, D. J., Bey, I., Bian, H., Cuve- lier, C., Duncan, B. N., Folberth, G., Horowitz, L. W., Jonson, J., Kaminski, J. W., Marmer, E., Park, R., Pringle, K. J., Schroeder, S., Szopa, S., Takemura, T., Zeng, G., Keating, T. J., and Zu- ber, A.: A multi-model assessment of pollution transport to the Arctic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 5353-5372, doi:10.5194/acp-8- 5353-2008, 2008. · DOI
- Spackman, J. R., Gao, R. S., Neff, W. D., Schwarz, J. P., Watts, L. A., Fahey, D. W., Holloway, J. S., Ryerson, T. B., Peischl, J., and Brock, C. A.: Aircraft observations of enhancement and deple- tion of black carbon mass in the springtime Arctic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 9667-9680, doi:10.5194/acp-10-9667-2010, 2010. · DOI
- Stohl, A.: Characteristics of atmospheric transport into the arctic troposphere, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D11306, doi:10.1029/2005JD006888, 2006. · DOI · Paper page
- Stohl, A., Forster, C., Frank, A., Seibert, P., and Wotawa, G.: Technical note: The Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART version 6.2, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 2461-2474, doi:10.5194/acp-5-2461-2005, 2005. · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Ferrero, L., Cappelletti, D., Busetto, M., Mazzola, M., Lupi, A., Lanconelli, C., Becagli, S., Traversi, R., Caiazzo, L., Giardi, F., et al. (2016) · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics · doi:10.5194/acp-16-12601-2016 · Cited by 92 · see citing works
Pikridas, M., Bezantakos, S., Močnik, G., Keleshis, C., Brechtel, F., Stavroulas, I., Demetriades, G., Antoniou, P., Vouterakos, P., Argyrides, M., et al. (2019) · Atmospheric Measurement Techniques · doi:10.5194/amt-12-6425-2019 · Cited by 60 · see citing works
Self-citationCAMP: an instrumented platform for balloon-borne aerosol particle studies in the lower atmosphere
Pilz, C., Düsing, S., Wehner, B., Müller, T., Siebert, H., Voigtländer, J., & Lonardi, M. (2022) · Atmospheric Measurement Techniques · doi:10.5194/amt-15-6889-2022 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Hernandez-Jaramillo, D. C., Medcraft, C., Braga, R. C., Butcherine, P., Doss, A., Kelaher, B., Rosenfeld, D., & Harrison, D. P. (2024) · Environmental Science: Atmospheres · doi:10.1039/d4ea00009a · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Pohorsky, R., Baccarini, A., Brett, N., Barret, B., Bekki, S., Pappaccogli, G., Dieudonné, E., Temime-Roussel, B., D'Anna, B., Cesler-Maloney, M., et al. (2025) · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics · doi:10.5194/acp-25-3687-2025 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“The size distribution from 8 to 1500 nm was measured with a scanning electrical mobility spectrometer (SEMS model 2100, Brechtel Manufacturing Inc., USA). optical particle counter (POPS, Handix Scientific, USA) provided an extended size distribution measurement from 186 3”
Hernandez‐Galindo, I., Määttänen, A., Redmond Roche, B. H., Boucher, O., Irvine, P. J., & Moore, J. C. (2026) · Earth's Future · doi:10.1029/2025ef007254 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bates, T. S., Quinn, P. K., Johnson, J. E., Corless, A., Brechtel, F. J., Stalin, S. E., Meinig, C., & Burkhart, J. F.
- Affiliations
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Brechtel (United States) (US)
- University of California, Merced (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brechtel, F. J.
- Venue
- Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
- Publisher
- Copernicus GmbH
- Published
- 2013-08-26
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 2115-2120
- ISSN
- 1867-1381 (ISSN-L)
- 1867-8548
- OpenAlex
- W2115162555
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 5 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 2.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Atmospheric measurement techniques (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- BIBSYS Brage (BIBSYS (Norway)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1023651)
- Norges Forskningsråd (184724)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
- Keywords
- atmospheric aerosols, vertical aerosol distribution, Arctic aerosols, black carbon, particle number concentration, aerosol absorption, aerosol chemical composition, air mass back trajectories, FLEXPART, Svalbard, unmanned aerial systems
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
