Light-Absorbing Particles in Snow and Ice

Dear Colleagues,

Pure snow has the highest albedo on the natural Earth’s surface, and exerts a cooling effect. However, when light-absorbing particles (LAPs) such as black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), dust, and algae are deposited on snow, they can significantly alter the optical properties of snow and contribute to positive radiative forcing through increased incident solar irradiance absorption due to the reduction of snow albedo. Our understanding of LAPs in snow mainly comes from limited ground-based observations, model simulations, and remote sensing retrievals, but remains far from complete.

We invite the submission of original research articles and reviews on any aspect of light-absorbing particles in snow and ice, including (but not limited to) physicochemical properties of LAPs in snow, LAPs–snow albedo feedback, etc., and their variations across space and time. We encourage studies using the most recent technology (e.g., remote sensing) to address such issues. Modelling simulation studies that focus on the radiative effects of LAPs in snow on the climate system are equally welcome. We are also interested in studies using in situ observations and reanalysis datasets to address spatial and temporal variabilities of LAPs in snow.

Dr. Wei Pu
Dr. Hewen Niu
Guest Editors

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