气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): A review of black carbon in snow and ice and its impact on the cryosphere

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DOI	10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103346
	A review of black carbon in snow and ice and its impact on the cryosphere
	Kang S.; Zhang Y.; Qian Y.; Wang H.
发表日期	2020
ISSN	00128252
卷号	210
英文摘要	Black carbon (BC) has emerged as an important short-lived climate forcer. Due to its light absorption properties, BC can darken the snow/ice surface, affect the energy balance, and further lead to acceleration of the melting of the cryosphere (e.g., glaciers, snow cover, and sea ice). By reviewing the recent published literatures, we present an overview of the historical changes, spatial distribution of BC in snow/ice, and how these changes are related to the cryospheric melting. Ice core records show a rapid increase of BC concentrations that began in the 1850s and continued throughout the 20th century, which is consistent with an increase of BC emissions owing to industrialization. A decrease of BC amount since 1970s in Arctic and European ice cores has been partially attributed to the Clean Air Act. However, in the Himalayas, BC records show a continuous increase during this period. Generally, BC concentrations in snow and ice in the mid-latitude regions are one to two orders of magnitude higher than those in the polar regions. In particular, BC concentrations in aged snow and granular ice in the ablation areas of mountain glaciers are one to three orders of magnitude higher than those in fresh snow or snowpits in the glacier accumulation areas due to BC accumulation during melting season. BC in the surface snow/ice is responsible for about 20% of the albedo reduction in the Tibetan Plateau during glacier melt season. Globally, observations and modeling results indicate that radiative forcing (RF) induced by BC in snow and ice is highest in the mid-latitudes, ranging from several W m−2 in fresh snow to hundreds of W m−2 in aged snow and granular ice in the glacier ablation areas. The large BC-in-snow RF and associated snow albedo feedback lead to an acceleration in the total glacier melt (approximately 20%) and/or a reduction in the duration of the snow cover by several days, resulting in an increase of glacier discharge. Given our limited understanding of quantifying the role of BC in cryospheric melting, it is important to synthesize the existing research on the multi-scale processes related to BC in snow and ice to identify the gaps in our understanding of these processes and to propose a path forward to improve the quality of our observations of the aforementioned phenomena to fill these gaps. © 2020 The Author(s)
关键词	Albedo reduction Black carbon Climate change Cryosphere Glacier Snow cover
英文关键词	albedo; black carbon; climate change; climate effect; climate feedback; climate forcing; concentration (composition); cryosphere; glacier; historical perspective; ice core; polar region; snow cover; snowmelt; spatial distribution; Arctic; China; Europe; Himalayas; Qinghai-Xizang Plateau
语种	英语
来源期刊	Earth Science Reviews
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/203755
作者单位	State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Lanzhou, 730000, China; CAS Centre for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352, United States
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Kang S.,Zhang Y.,Qian Y.,et al. A review of black carbon in snow and ice and its impact on the cryosphere[J],2020,210.
APA	Kang S.,Zhang Y.,Qian Y.,&Wang H..(2020).A review of black carbon in snow and ice and its impact on the cryosphere.Earth Science Reviews,210.
MLA	Kang S.,et al."A review of black carbon in snow and ice and its impact on the cryosphere".Earth Science Reviews 210(2020).