NOx Release from Snow and Ice Covered Surface in Polar Regions and the Tibetan Plateau

The exchanges of NOx between snow and air have significant impact on the atmospheric components and photochemical processes in the overlying boundary layer. Such exchanges increase the oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere and may have a crucial impact on the air signals that are retrieved from ice cores. In the recent years, sunlit snow and ice have been demonstrated to be important NOx sources in the polar atmospheric boundary layer. This paper makes a thorough review on the release of NOx from snow and ice, including field observations and experimental evidences, release mechanisms and influential parameters that affect such a release process, polar NOx concentrations and fluxes, and environmental impacts of the chemical processes of NOx in the polar atmospheric boundary layer. In the Tibetan Plateau, the released NOx observed recently in the sunlit snow/ice-cover is 1-order magnitude more than that in polar regions, but further scientific research is still needed to reveal its impact on the atmospheric oxidizing capacity.CitationWang, F., W. Lin, J. Wang, et al., 2011: NOx release from snow and ice covered surface in polar regions and the Tibetan Plateau. Adv. Clim. Change Res., 2(3), doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1248.2011.00141.