Black carbon in seasonal snow across northern Xinjiang in northwestern China

Abstract

Black carbon (BC) particles in snow can significantly reduce the snow albedo and enhance the absorption of solar radiation, with important impacts on climate and the hydrological cycle. A field campaign was carried out to measure the BC content in seasonal snow in Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces of western China, in January and February 2012. 284 snow samples were collected at 38 sites, 6 in Qinghai and 32 in Xinjiang. The observational results at the sites in Xinjiang, where the absorbing impurities in snow are dominated by BC particles, are reported in this work. The BC mass fractions in seasonal snow across northern Xinjiang have a median value of ∼70 ng g ^−1 , much lower than those in northeast China. The estimated concentration of BC at the cleanest site in Xinjiang is 20 ng g ^−1 , which is similar to that found along the coast of the Arctic Ocean. It is found that the BC content of snow decreases with altitude. Taking into account this altitude dependence, our measured BC contents in snow are consistent with a recent measurement of BC in winter snow on Tianshan glacier. The data from this field campaign should be useful for testing transport models and climate models for the simulated BC in snow.

Keywords

• black carbon
• seasonal snow
• Northern Xinjiang
• climate change