Blowing-snow-produced sea salt particles

The Arctic warms nearly four times faster than the global average and aerosols play an increasingly important role in Arctic climate change. In the Arctic, sea salt is a major aerosol component in terms of mass concentration during winter and spring. However, the mechanisms of sea salt aerosol production remain unclear. Sea salt aerosols are typically thought to be relatively large in size but low in number concentration, implying that their influence on cloud condensation nuclei population and cloud properties is generally minor. Here we present observational evidence of abundant sea salt aerosol production from blowing snow in the central Arctic (Gong et al. Nature Geoscience, 2023).

Link the aerosol and cloud properties via flight measurements

Aerosols influence Earth’s radiation budget and climate indirectly by modifying the properties and lifetime of clouds. The maximum supersaturation is one of the most important parameters affecting the cloud’s microphysical and radiative properties. However, due to the difficulty of directly measuring the supersaturation inside ambient clouds, at present, very few studies have examined maximum supersaturation and its variation (Gong et al. AGU Advances, 2023).

Sources of CCN and INPs in extreme environments

To understand climate change, we need to first understand the climate in the pristine environment as a baseline. Hereby a central question of my research, which carries great societal relevance, is: what determines the short- and long-term variation of CCN and INPs in a clean environment with as less anthropogenic influences as possible? Due to the complexity of the variables involved, this question can only be answered through research that integrates the fields of CCN and INP population measurements, synoptic conditions, air mass sources, as well as the vertical profile of aerosol-/meteorology-related parameters (Gong et al. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2019, 2020a,b, 2022a,b).

Future research directions include: (1) Using explainable deep learning algorithms to understand the controlling factors of cloud condensation nuclei and ice-nucleating particles in extreme environments, such as the Arctic, Antarctic, and third poles; (2) Ice nucleating particles, especially the biological ice nuclei, in coastal and remote marine regions; (3) Blowing snow contribution to cloud condensation nuclei, ice-nucleating particles, and climate effect in polar regions.

Dr. Gong‘s group conduct the highest-caliber research to elucidate the role of CCN and INPs in aerosol-cloud-climate interactions, including (i) handling of instrumentation, (ii) field campaign measurements, (iii) historical data collection and analysis, and (iv) machine learning.