Impacts of soot, ash, sand, and haze on snow albedo in Sierra Nevada, Spain

Snow covers are greatly affected by particles deposited on their surface. In this work, an experimental campaign was carried out in the Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain). The optical effect of different contaminating particles on the snow covers was measured using a field spectroradiometric system comp...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: González Correa, Sofía, Pacheco-Ferrada , Diego, Castro , Lina, Cereceda-Balic , Francisco, Lapuerta Amigo, Magín, Ballesteros Yáñez, Rosario
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Repositorio:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/44589
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13111903
https://hdl.handle.net/10578/44589
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ash
Contamination
Deposition
Haze
Optical properties
Sand
Snow albedo
Soot
Descripción
Sumario:Snow covers are greatly affected by particles deposited on their surface. In this work, an experimental campaign was carried out in the Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain). The optical effect of different contaminating particles on the snow covers was measured using a field spectroradiometric system composed of three upwelling spectroradiometers and three downwelling ones. Sand collected from a Mediterranean beach (Spain), ash collected from the La Palma volcano eruption, haze collected from an event that occurred in Spain, and soot collected from a diesel vehicle were employed for contaminating the snow. Soot, ash, and sand were analysed with X-ray diffraction to obtain their min eralogical composition or their structural characteristics, whereas hazes mineralogical composition was obtained from the literature. From this information, the refractive index of each material was weigh-averaged, considering the refractive indices of their components. After measurements, snow samples were filtered and weighted to evaluate the particle concentrations in the snow. Previous contamination with soot was observed due to the existence of a nearby road. Snow albedo was calculated with the OptiPar model. The experimental and modelled results show that contaminating with sand decreases the snow albedo in the visible range whereas it increases the albedo in the infrared range. However, the rest of the materials lead to a decrease in the albedo in the whole spectrum, although with different intensities depending on the wavelength range.