Low ozone dry deposition rates to sea ice during the MOSAiC field campaign: Implications for the Arctic boundary layer ozone budget

Dry deposition to the surface is one of the main removal pathways of tropospheric ozone (O-3). We quantified for the first time the impact of O-3 deposition to the Arctic sea ice on the planetary boundary layer (PBL) O-3 concentration and budget using year-round flux and concentration observations from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) campaign and simulations with a single-column atmospheric chemistry and meteorological model (SCM). Based on eddy-covariance O-3 surface flux observations, we find a median surface resistance on the order of 20,000 s m(-1), resulting in a dry deposition velocity of approximately 0.005 cm s(-1). This surface resistance is up to an order of magnitude larger than traditionally used values in many atmospheric chemistry and transport models. The SCM is able to accurately represent the yearly cycle, with maxima above 40 ppb in the winter and minima around 15 ppb at the end of summer. However, the observed springtime ozone depletion events are not captured by the SCM. In winter, the modelled PBL O-3 budget is governed by dry deposition at the surface mostly compensated by downward turbulent transport of O-3 towards the surface. Advection, which is accounted for implicitly by nudging to reanalysis data, poses a substantial, mostly negative, contribution to the simulated PBL O-3 budget in summer. During episodes with low wind speed (<5 m s(-1)) and shallow PBL (<50 m), the 7-day mean dry deposition removal rate can reach up to 1.0 ppb h(-1). Our study highlights the importance of an accurate description of dry deposition to Arctic sea ice in models to quantify the current and future O-3 sink in the Arctic, impacting the tropospheric O-3 budget, which has been modified in the last century largely due to anthropogenic activities.

Automated summary

We quantified the impact of O-3 deposition to the Arctic sea ice on the PBL O-3 concentration and budget. The surface resistance on the order of 20,000 s m(-1) was found to be higher than traditionally used values in many atmospheric chemistry and transport models. The SCM accurately represented the yearly cycle but failed to capture observed springtime ozone depletion events.