Wildfire Smoke-Derived Black Carbon Deposition on the Greenland Ice Sheet: Integrating Remotely Sensed, Modeled, and In-Situ Data to Investigate Smoke Deposition Patterns and Albedo Reduction

This talk is one of three graduate student presentations (~15 minutes each) to be delivered during this week's speaker series. 

Wildfire smoke contains black carbon (BC), which has the strongest light-absorbing ability of all light-absorbing particles (e.g. dust, brown carbon, and snow algae). When deposited on snow and ice, BC darkens the surface, increasing solar radiation absorption and accelerating melt. Smoke from North American wildfires can be transported across Baffin Bay and be deposited on the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS)—a 1.7 million km² mass of snow and ice that is now the largest contributor to global sea level rise. As wildfires intensify with climate change, more smoke may be transported to the GrIS, further reducing its albedo and increasing melt.

This study uses modeled smoke deposition fluxes to the surface of the GrIS to examine spatial and temporal deposition patterns over the past 20 years. It also integrates remotely sensed albedo measurements and meteorological data from automatic weather stations to quantify albedo reductions attributed to black carbon at varying spatial resolutions. The goal of this study is to improve understanding of smoke deposition patterns across regions of the GrIS and isolate the impact of BC on albedo reduction.

Photo, below, from near Pituffik Space Base (Thule) on the Greenland Ice Sheet, June 2024. Credit: Ella Hall