Carbonaceous aerosols contribute largely to particulate matter in ambient air. Elemental carbon (EC) is a soot-like component of carbonaceous aerosols, which causes health effects and induces global warming. Due to the climatic vulnerability of the Arctic, information on emission sources of EC is especially required for this region.
We therefore quantified the main emissions of EC, which are fossil-fuel combustion and biomass burning, for Svalbard in the European Arctic. For this, we performed radiocarbon (¹⁴C) measurements of EC from air filters using an optimized approach.

This work was carried out in the group of Prof. Sönke Szidat.

References:

• M. Rauber, G. Salazar, K. E. Yttri, S. Szidat;
  "An optimised organic carbon/elemental carbon (OC/EC) fraction separation method for radiocarbon source apportionment applied to low-loaded Arctic aerosol filters"
  Atmos. Meas. Tech., 2023, 16(3), 825-844; doi:10.5194/amt-16-825-2023.
• K. E. Yttri, A. Bäcklund, F. Conen, S. Eckhardt, N. Evangeliou, M. Fiebig, A. Kasper-Giebl, A. Gold, H. Gundersen, C. L. Myhre, S. M. Platt, D. Simpson, J. D. Surratt, S. Szidat, M. Rauber, K. Tørseth, M. A. Ytre-Eide, Z. Zhang, W. Aas;
  "Composition and sources of carbonaceous aerosol in the European Arctic at Zeppelin Observatory, Svalbard"
  EGUsphere, 2023, preprint; doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-615.