Heavy metals and black carbon in the atmosphere over the Barents sea: concentrations and fluxes onto the surface

Abstract

Estimates of the fluxes of anthropogenic heavy metals (HM) – Pb, Cd, As, Zn, Ni, Cr, Cu – from the atmosphere onto the surface of the Barents Sea are based on previously calculated concentrations of these elements in near-surface atmosphere at three points of the Sea coast (on Kola Peninsula, in Nenets Nature Reserve, on Frantz-Josef Land archipelago). For lead and cadmium, the contributions of their anthropogenic emissions in foreign Europe, as well as of windblowing dust and soil particles have been taking into account(from EMEP reports). About 50% of lead and about 40% of cadmium come from those sources to the whole Sea area. In general, the atmosphere supplies yearly only a fraction of percent of HMs containing in the Barents Sea waters. In spring, during the period of ice melting, the atmospheric contribution to HM concentrations in Sea waters may be 2-10 times higher than average annual values. Also, we studied the spatial variations of black carbon (BC) contentin the atmosphere over the Barents Sea based on satellite data (reanalysis MERRA-2).The mean BC fluxes onto the snowed surface, and respective amendments the surface albedo and its radiation forcing were estimatedfor three regions under investigation.