Carbonaceous Aerosols and Ice Nucleation Activity in Iceland Environmental Samples

Heterogeneous ice nucleation is a key process for ice cloud formation, snowfall, and freezing of water bodies. Ice nucleating particle (INP) cloud feedbacks are one of the largest sources of uncertainties in Earth’s Energy Budget. Although INPs are essential in the development of mixed-phased and glaciated clouds, their composition, sources, and cloud feedbacks remain poorly constrained. Previous studies have shown mixed results on the potential of light-absorbing particles (LAP), such as black carbon (BC) and high latitude dust (HLD), serving as INPs. However, many of these studies use laboratory or model-generated particles that may not represent the complex morphology and behaviors of ambient light-absorbing particles sufficiently. Here, we use in situ surface snow samples, collected during Spring 2018 in Svínafellsjökull, Iceland. The samples were analyzed by an immersion freezing mechanism for their ice nucleation activity (INA). Portions of the filtered samples were concentrated by lyophilization to observe the potential enhancement of INA. We investigated environmental samples of deposited aerosols to better understand the role activity of HLD and BC in ice nucleating activity in mixed-phase clouds in Iceland. We found concentrations of 16 ± 27 ng g−1 and 33 ± 66 × 106 ng g−1 for BC and HLD, respectively. However, we found that isolated methanol-soluble organic aerosols have a more prominent role than BC and HLD in Iceland. We conclude that BC and HLD are insignificant INP but that they can inhibit INA from other INP.