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Date of Award
Fall 2024
Document Type
Masters Thesis
Department or Program Affiliation
Environmental Sciences
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Environmental Sciences
First Advisor
Khan, Alia L.
Second Advisor
Shull, David, 1965-
Third Advisor
Xian, Peng
Abstract
Globally, snowpacks are diminishing due to climate change, and black carbon (BC) exacerbates snow and ice melt. Thus, expanding BC-in-snow observations and constraining the impact of BC on snow in climate models is imperative. The first two chapters of this thesis build a historical dataset of observations of BC in Arctic snow and ice from 1998 to 2018 across 21 studies and use the historical dataset of historical BC observations to verify modeled aerosol deposition fluxes from the Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System (NAAPS) reanalysis model. Over 2000 observations from the BC archive were compared to NAAPS-RA modeled dust, smoke, and anthropogenic and biogenic fine aerosol deposition. The weak correlation between BC concentrations in surface snow and modeled smoke deposition suggests a mismatch between the predicted and observed values. Residual analysis indicates that the modeled smoke aerosol deposition underestimates BC. The third chapter of this thesis measured dissolved black carbon (DBC) with the benzenepolycarboxylic acid (BPCA) method in samples of Cascades snow collected in 2022 and 2023. To examine the impact of smoke deposition on local snow, I tested differences in BPCA ratio between early- and late-season samples. I used both stand-alone high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry to quantify BPCAs in the samples, from which I calculated DBC concentrations. Though the number of samples collected for this study was limited, I updated the instrument technique and thus advanced the ability to quantify DBC in dilute snow and ice samples.
Type
Text
Keywords
black carbon, dissolved black carbon, Arctic, NAAPS, Cascades, snow, cryosphere, radiative forcing
Publisher
Western Washington University
OCLC Number
1461785252
Subject – LCSH
Soot--Environmental aspects--Arctic regions; Soot--Environmental aspects--Cascade Range; Snow--Cascade Range--Analysis; Climatic changes--Arctic regions; Arctic regions--Environmental conditions
Geographic Coverage
Arctic regions; Northwest, Pacific; Cascade Range
Format
application/pdf
Genre/Form
masters theses
Language
English
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Recommended Citation
Vaux, Sally M., "Black carbon in snow in the Pacific Northwest and the Arctic: ground verification of model-derived data and the associated radiative forcing" (2024). WWU Graduate School Collection. 1336.
https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwuet/1336