Seasonal Variation in High Arctic Stratospheric Aerosols Observed by Lidar at Ny Ålesund, Svalbard between March 2014 and February 2018

Abstract

Stratospheric aerosols over the high Arctic at Ny Ålesund, Svalbard (79°N, 12°E) were observed continuously for four years from March 2014 by a lidar system using the second harmonic wavelength (532 nm) of the Nd:YAG laser. Our observations reveal the seasonal features of stratospheric aerosols and the arrival of the smoke at the high Arctic from Canadian forest-fire in August 2017. We estimated the seasonal variation for three years before the Canadian forest-fire when there was no apparent volcanic effect. In the estimation, we removed polar stratospheric clouds by the threshold temperature of their formation. The seasonal variation for the three years is that the vertical profiles of the backscattering ratio take a maximum value of about 1.05-1.06 at altitudes between 13 and 16 km from December to March, and about 1.02-1.04 at altitudes between 17 and 20 km from April to November. These results are compared with the results observed at the low Arctic, northern Norway. We also present the increases in the backscattering ratio and the volume depolarization ratio from September to December 2017 caused by the smoke from the Canadian forest-fire.