Photochemical Production of Carbon Monoxide in Snow

Carbon monoxide concentrations were measured over an 8-day period (March 1997) in freshly fallen snow samples collected at Mount Sonnblick (Austria). Diurnal changes were systematically observed in the snow, with higher CO during daytime, indicating that light-dependent CO production processes are active in surface snow layers. Mean daytime CO concentrations in snow varied significantly from one day to another and were found to be well correlated with the daily mean atmospheric CO concentrations. Thus, the more polluted the air mass during the snow fall, the more CO was produced through photolytical processes. Furthermore closed chamber experiments were made, giving similar observations: rapid increases of CO concentration occurred within the chamber when the snow was exposed to sunlight. In the dark, however, CO concentrations decreased. CO fluxes between the surface of the snowpack and the atmosphere were estimated at 0.6 ppb/day which may be significant in the local CO budget but not on a global scale. Laboratory experiments showed that CO was rapidly formed when melted snow samples were exposed to the light from a solar simulator and that the initial CO formation rate was strongly correlated with the concentrations of Total Organic Carbon in the melted snow samples. This correlation indicates that organic compounds present in snow precipitation are the major substrate for the photochemical CO production observed in freshly fallen snow. Recent studies have reported high formaldehyde concentrations in the snowpack and we suggest HCHO photolysis to be partly responsible of CO production in snow.