Observed Atmospheric 133Xe Concentrations in the Arctic and their relationship to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)

This paper reports on ¹³³Xe monitoring results from three Arctic stations from 2014 to 2019. The results show that the atmospheric surface monthly activity concentrations (MAC) and observation frequency (MOF) of ¹³³Xe in Arctic winter and spring are much higher than those observed sporadically in summer. The ratios of winter to summer average MAC, which reflects the degree of seasonal variation, were 6.4, 5.2, and 3.2 for Spitsbergen, Yellowknife, and Resolute, respectively. The average of MOF ratios also showed similar trends, with a more pronounced seasonal pattern in Spitsbergen, followed by Resolute and Yellowknife. Compared with the monthly NAO index for the same period, the temporal variation patterns of ¹³³Xe MAC at the three Arctic monitoring sites showed the highest similarity in Spitsbergen, followed by Resolute and Yellowknife. The linear regressions analysis of ¹³³Xe MAC and MOF at these Arctic stations showed that the R² values were highest between Resolute and Yellowknife stations (0.56 and 0.68 respectively); between Spitsbergen and Resolute stations (0.46 and 0.66 respectively); and lowest between Spitsbergen and Yellowknife (0.33 and 0.55 respectively).