Black carbon (BC),organic carbon (OC),and mineral dust (MD) are the most important light-absorbing particulate impurities in snow.A field campaign was conducted in January and February of 2010 to measure light-absorbing particles in snow across northern China.About 400 snow samples were collected at 46 sites in 6 provinces.A spectrophotometer was used to separate snow particulate absorption by BC and non-BC constituents,based on the different spectral dependences of their light absorption.Light absorption by mineral dust is due to iron oxides,so iron concentration was determined by chemical analysis.Using assumed mass absorption efficiencies for BC,OC and iron,the fractional contribution of each to total absorption was estimated.The lowest concentrations of BC were in the remote northeast on the border of Siberia,with an average concentration in surface snow of 135 ng·g-1.South of this,in the Industrial Northeast,the median snow BC concentration was 1220 ng·g-1.In the northeast,snow particulate light absorption was dominated by BC.Across the grassland of Inner Mongolia OC,likely mostly from local soil,dominates light absorption,with median BC concentrations of 340 ng·g-1 responsible for only about a third of total particulate light absorption.In the Qilian Mountains,at the northern boundary of the Tibetan Plateau,snow particulate light absorption is dominated by local soil and desert dust.