Short bio:
Xianda Gong received his Ph.D. degree in Meteorology from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research in 2020. He then worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined Westlake University as a principle investigator in 2023. The research focus of Gong’s group is to quantify the effects of atmospheric aerosols on radiation, clouds, and climate in remote marine environments and polar regions. Dr. Gong has published 18 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Nature Geoscience, Bulletin of American Meteorology Society, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, etc.
Abstract:
The Arctic warms nearly four times faster than the global average, and aerosols play an increasingly important role in Arctic climate change. Here we present observational evidence of abundant sea salt aerosol production from blowing snow in the central Arctic. Blowing snow was observed more than 20% of the time from November to April. The sublimation of blowing snow generates high concentrations of fine-mode sea salt aerosol (diameter below 300 nm), enhancing cloud condensation nuclei concentrations up to tenfold above background levels. Using a global chemical transport model, we estimate that from November to April north of 70° N, sea salt aerosol produced from blowing snow accounts for about 27.6% of the total particle number, and the sea salt aerosol increases the longwave emissivity of clouds, leading to a calculated surface warming of +2.30 W m−2 under cloudy sky conditions.
