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Abstract: Abstract. Characterising the physico-chemical properties of dust-emitting sediments in arid regions is fundamental to understanding the effects of dust on climate and ecosystems. However, knowledge regarding high-latitude dust (HLD) remains limited. This study focuses on analysing the particle size distribution (PSD), mineralogy, cohesion, iron (Fe) mode of occurrence, and visible–near infrared (VNIR) reflectance spectra of dust-emitting sediments from dust hotspots in Iceland (HLD region). Extensive analysis was conducted on samples of top sediments, sediments, and aeolian ripples collected from seven dust sources, with particular emphasis on the Jökulsá basin, encompassing the desert of Dyngjunsandur. Both fully and minimally dispersed PSDs and their respective mass median particle diameters revealed remarkable similarities (56 ± 69 and 55 ± 62 µm, respectively). Mineralogical analyses indicated the prevalence of amorphous phases (68 ± 26 %), feldspars (17 ± 13 %), and pyroxenes (9.3 ± 7.2 %), consistent with thorough analyses of VNIR reflectance spectra. The Fe content reached 9.5 ± 0.40 wt %, predominantly within silicate structures (80 ± 6.3 %), complemented by magnetite (16 ± 5.5 %), hematite/goethite (4.5 ± 2.7 %), and readily exchangeable Fe ions or Fe nano-oxides (1.6 ± 0.63 %). Icelandic top sediments exhibited coarser PSDs compared to the high dust-emitting crusts from mid-latitude arid regions, distinctive mineralogy, and a 3-fold bulk Fe content, with a significant presence of magnetite. The congruence between fully and minimally dispersed PSDs underscores reduced particle aggregation and cohesion of Icelandic top sediments, suggesting that aerodynamic entrainment of dust could also play a role upon emission in this region, alongside saltation bombardment. The extensive analysis in Dyngjusandur enabled the development of a conceptual model to encapsulate Iceland's rapidly evolving high dust-emitting environments.
Keywords: mineral dust, high-latitude dust, Icelandic dust, aerosol particles
Published in RUNG: 29.11.2024; Views: 932; Downloads: 5
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Abstract: Abstract. The chemical and morphological properties of mineral dust aerosols emitted by wind erosion from arid and semi-arid regions influence climate, ocean, and land ecosystems; air quality; and multiple socio-economic sectors. However, there is an incomplete understanding of the emitted dust particle size distribution (PSD) in terms of its constituent minerals that typically result from the fragmentation of soil aggregates during wind erosion. The emitted dust PSD affects the duration of particle transport and thus each mineral's global distribution, along with its specific effect upon climate. This lack of understanding is largely due to the scarcity of relevant in situ measurements in dust sources. To advance our understanding of the physicochemical properties of the emitted dust PSD, we present insights into the elemental composition and morphology of individual dust particles collected during the FRontiers in dust minerAloGical coMposition and its Effects upoN climaTe (FRAGMENT) field campaign in the Moroccan Sahara in September 2019. We analyzed more than 300 000 freshly emitted individual particles by performing offline analysis in the laboratory using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). Eight major particle-type classes were identified with clay minerals making up the majority of the analyzed particles both by number and mass, followed by quartz, whereas carbonates and feldspar contributed to a lesser extent. We provide an exhaustive analysis of the PSD and potential mixing state of different particle types, focusing largely on iron-rich (Fe oxide-hydroxides) and feldspar particles, which are key to the effects of dust upon radiation and clouds, respectively. Nearly pure or externally mixed Fe oxide-hydroxides are present mostly in diameters smaller than 2 µm, with the highest fraction below 1 µm at about 3.75 % abundance by mass. Fe oxide-hydroxides tend to be increasingly internally mixed with other minerals, especially clays, as particle size increases; i.e., the volume fraction of Fe oxide-hydroxides in aggregates decreases with particle size. Pure (externally mixed) feldspar represented 3.2 % of all the particles by mass, of which we estimated about a 10th to be K-feldspar. The externally mixed total feldspar and K-feldspar abundances are relatively invariant with particle size, in contrast to the increasing abundance of feldspar-like (internally mixed) aggregates with particle size with mass fractions ranging from 5 % to 18 %. We also found that overall the median aspect ratio is rather constant across particle size and mineral groups, although we obtain slightly higher aspect ratios for internally mixed particles. The detailed information on the composition of freshly emitted individual dust particles and quantitative analysis of their mixing state presented here can be used to constrain climate models including mineral species in their representation of the dust cycle.
Keywords: mineral dust, Moroccan Sahara, electron microscopy
Published in RUNG: 13.05.2024; Views: 1734; Downloads: 8
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Abstract: Discriminating the absorption coefficients of aerosol mineral dust and black carbon (BC) in different aerosol size fractions is a challenge because of BC's large mass absorption cross-section compared to dust. Ambient aerosol wavelength dependent absorption coefficients in supermicron and submicron size fractions were determined with a high time resolution. The measurements were performed simultaneously using identical systems at an urban and a regional background site in Qatar. At each site, measurements were taken by co-located Aethalometers, one with a virtual impactor (VI) and the other with a PM1 cyclone to respectively collect super-micron-enhanced and submicron fractions. The combined measurement of aerosol absorption and scattering coefficients enabled the particles to be classified based on their optical properties' wavelength dependence. The classification reveals the presence of BC internally/externally mixed with different aerosols. Helium ion microscopy images provided information concerning the extent of mineral dust in the submicron fraction. The determination of absorption coefficients during dust storms and non-dust periods was used to establish the absorption Ångström exponent for dust and BC. Non-parametric wind regression, potential source contribution function and back-trajectory analysis reveal major regional sources of desert dust associated with north-westerly winds and a minor local dust contribution. In contrast, major BC sources found locally were associated with south-westerly winds with a smaller contribution made by offshore emissions transported by north-easterly and easterly winds. The use of a pair of Aethalometers with VI and PM1 inlets separates contributions of BC and dust to the aerosol absorption coefficient.
Keywords: aerosol absorption, black carbon, mineral dust, desert dust, Arabian Peninsula
Published in RUNG: 29.02.2024; Views: 2863; Downloads: 13
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Abstract: During June 2022, the Cyprus Institute (CyI) took part in the ASKOS experiment in Mindelo, Cape Verde, with several of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), fitted with a number of in-situ aerosol instruments able to profile the Saharan Air Layer between the surface and an altitude of 5,300 m. In addition to ASKOS objectives, transnational access project Diurnal vAriation of the vertically resolved siZe distribution in the Saharan Air Layer  (DAZSAL) was also carried out at the same time. The campaign aimed at validating the Aeolus L2A product in the presence of dust and marine aerosols, estimating the influence on Aeolus products of non-spherical particles, evaluating the impact of particle orientation, and study the diurnal cycle of the dust size-distribution at high altitude. In this presentation we will present and discuss the scientific objectives, the context, the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) that we developed in-house, and the instruments used, together with their limitations, calibration methods, uncertainties, challenges and difficulties encountered. We will also discuss the logistical and planning challenges that such a campaign entails.Operations took place from the Cesaria Evora International Airport. The instruments deployed on-board the UAVs permitted to evaluate the height-resolved particle size-distribution between 0.1 and 40 µm and detect cases of particle orientation, to complement the observations with ground-based remote sensing set out by NOA and TROPOS. Moreover, 24 high-altitude dust samples were collected on impactors, for further analysis by Scanning Electron Microscopy. In total, 25 scientific flights were performed on 12 flying days (almost half of which at night). Five flights were conducted during Aeolus overpasses. Weather has been a determining factor for both the ground-based remote sensing operations and the UAS operation, and airport traffic has been another constraint that needed to be accounted for, in the UAS operation.
Keywords: UAV, mineral dust, climate change, Aeolus satellite
Published in RUNG: 21.12.2023; Views: 3142; Downloads: 4
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Abstract: ESA’s Aeolus satellite observations are expected to have the biggest impact for the improvement of numerical weather prediction in the Tropics. An important case relating to the predictability of tropical weather systems is the outflow of Saharan dust, its interaction with cloud microphysics and impact on the development of tropical storms over the Atlantic Ocean.The Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign (JATAC) deployed on Cabo Verde (2021/2022) and the US Virgin Islands (2021) supported the validation and preparation of the ESA missions Aeolus, EarthCARE and WIVERN, and addressed science objectives regarding the Saharan Aerosol layer, African Easterly Waves and Jet, Tropical Easterly Jet, and the Intertropical Convergence Zone, as well as their relation to the formation of convective systems, and the long-range transport of dust and its impact on air quality.JATAC started in July 2021 with the deployment of ground-based instruments in the frame of the ASKOS project at the Ocean Science Center Mindelo, including the eVe and PollyXT lidars, and a W-band Doppler cloud radar. By mid-August, the CPEX-AW campaign started operations from the US Virgin Islands with NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory in the Western Tropical Atlantic and Caribbean carrying the Doppler Aerosol Wind Lidar (DAWN), Airborne Precipitation and Cloud Radar (APR-3), Water Vapor DIAL and HSRL (HALO), microwave sounder (HAMSR) and dropsondes. In September the DLR Falcon-20 aircraft, carrying the ALADIN Airborne Demonstrator (A2D) and the 2-µm Doppler wind lidar, and the Safire Falcon-20, carrying the high-spectral-resolution Doppler lidar (LNG), the RASTA Doppler cloud radar, in-situ cloud and aerosol instruments, and dropsondes, were deployed to Sal in the frame of the AVATAR-T and CADDIWA projects. The Aerovizija Advantic WT-10 light aircraft with optical particle spectrometers, filter-photometers and nephelometers for in-situ aerosol characterisation was operating in close coordination with the ground-based observations in the CAVA-AW project.The activities continued in June 2022 when the ASKOS ground based observations were enhanced with UAV airborne in-situ aerosol measurements deployed by the Cyprus Institute, solar radiation measurements supported by PMOD/WRC, dust particle orientation measurements (WALL-E lidar), and radiosonde releases equipped with electric field-mills. NASA deployed the DC-8 aircraft all September to Sal with the 2021 payload in the framework of the CPEX-CV activity, including regular radiosonde launches. As in 2021, the Aerovizija aircraft took part with in-situ aerosol measurements during two weeks in September. JATAC was supported by dedicated numerical weather and dust simulations supporting forecasting efforts and addressing open science questions.Around 60 scientific flights of four aircraft, with an additional 25 UAV flights, were performed during JATAC. 23 Aeolus orbits were underflown, many of them with simultaneous observations of multiple aircraft collocated with ground-based observations. In addition, the science objectives were fully covered through the large number of flights, ground based cloud and aerosol observations, regular radiosondes and dropsondes.Overall, JATAC activities have resulted in a high-quality and comprehensive dataset supporting a wide range of tropical atmospheric research, the validation of Aeolus and other satellites, and have provided key reference data for the development future Earth Observation missions.
Keywords: Aeolus satellite, airborne measurements, mineral dust, cal/val, calibration, validation
Published in RUNG: 21.12.2023; Views: 2631; Downloads: 5
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