Record-breaking 2023 fires signal a new era of smoke-driven darkening on the Greenland Ice Sheet

Record-breaking 2023 fires signal a new era of smoke-driven darkening on the Greenland Ice Sheet | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Record-breaking 2023 fires signal a new era of smoke-driven darkening on the Greenland Ice Sheet Alia Khan, Ella Hall, Peng Xian This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9571979/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Boreal wildfires, intensified by warming, transport smoke aerosols to the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), reducing surface albedo and accelerating melt. Using two decades (2003–2023) of aerosol model fluxes and surface observations, we identify a structural shift toward intensified smoke loading since 2019. This peaked during the record-breaking 2023 Canadian wildfire season, which contributed >20% of total deposition since 2003, with southern GrIS anomalies reaching ten times the 20-year average. Persistent "heat domes" and pyrocumulonimbus events likely facilitated this exceptionally efficient transport. We demonstrate that in 2023, smoke deposition was the primary driver of albedo variability in the ablation zone, explaining 46.4% of the variance—nearly five times the influence of air temperature. These results indicate that the record-breaking 2023 season serves as a harbinger of a new regime where smoke-driven surface darkening plays a critical role in Arctic melt-albedo feedbacks, potentially decoupling ice-sheet mass loss from traditional thermodynamic drivers. Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Cryospheric science Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate-change impacts Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Atmospheric science Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Figure 6 is not available with this version Supplementary Files NCCTS2023ExtendedData.docx Extended Data NCCTS2023SupplementaryInfo.docx Supplementary Information Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9571979","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":634916139,"identity":"3fb14a1a-d86f-40b3-af5f-2632c4a96f39","order_by":0,"name":"Alia Khan","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACdsYGBoYDB4AMIP0AJAJkM/Dg08IM08IDxAnEaQGrAiqTSCBSC38zc+MHhjN35M0lHz98kFBxT57veAPjg7dtuLVIHGZslmC48cxw5+w0Y4OEM8WGM88cYDaci0cLw2HGBgmGD4cZN9zOYZNIbEtg3HAjgU2aF48WeaAtP4Ba7DfcPAPWYg/Uwv4bnxaDw4xtQIcdTtxwgwesJRFkCzM+LYZALRYJZw4nbzgD9ktC8swzB5sl55zDrUXuePvjGx+OHbbdcPzwwwcfKhJs+443H/zwpgyP90EgAZULitxRMApGwSgYBRQBAET8XrbjYuQyAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4425-1528","institution":"University of Colorado - 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