The composition of atmospheric aerosol and its quantitative characteristics in the near-polar area of the Arctic Ocean (AO) are poorly studied. In the drifting expedition “North Pole-41” we carried out for the first time an extended (October 2022–May 2024) cycle of the complex aerosol studies at high latitudes of the AO (81°–88.5° N). The average mass concentration of black carbon (еВС) in the surface air layer over 20 months of measurements was 19 ng/m3; volume concentrations of submicron (Vf) and coarse (Vс) aerosol were 0.41 and 0.65 μm3/cm3, respectively. The aerosol optical depth of the atmosphere at a wavelength of 0.5 μm and the Ångström exponent in the spring periods of 2023 and 2024 were, on the average, 0.095 and 1.52, respectively. In our data, the seasonal variations in the aerosol and black carbon concentrations were well manifested, similar to more southern areas of the AO. The concentrations were maximal in spring (еВС = 29 ng/m3, Vf = 0.61 μm3/cm3, Vc = 0.77 μm3/cm3) and minimal in June–October (еВС = 11 ng/m3, Vf = 0.13 μm3/cm3, Vc = 0.26 μm3/cm3). Despite the qualitative similarity of the seasonal variations, the average aerosol characteristics in the near-pole area were severalfold lower than the long-term data in more southern regions of the ocean and at polar stations (Barentsburg and Cape Baranov). Our results introduce a quantitative certainty to the regularities of the spatial and seasonal aerosol variations in the high-latitude AO regions.
Sakerin et al. (Sun,) studied this question.