Elemental Composition and Air Trajectories of African Dust Transported in Northern Italy

Bonelli, P.; Marcazzan, G.; Cereda, E.

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-3354-0_27

Cited by 19 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…This trend may be explained by a higher contribution during Saharan intrusions of agglomerated clay minerals with respect to bulk crustal material (Rahn, 1976). Similar results were found in two remote sites in northern and central Italy: the Stelvio National Park (Bonelli et al, 1996) and the Mt. Cimone Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) station (Marenco et al, 2006).…”

Section: Elemental Signaturessupporting

confidence: 73%

“…To distinguish between local soil dust and Saharan dust, a stringent signature may be given by elemental ratios (Bonelli et al, 1996;Borbély-Kiss et al, 2004;Marenco et al, 2006). In Fig.…”

Section: Elemental Signaturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many authors characterised Saharan dust events observed in Italy (see for example Prodi and Fea, 1979;Marcazzan et al, 1993;Bonelli et al, 1996;Barnaba and Gobbi, 2004;Meloni et al, 2007;Cristofanelli et al, 2009;Pavese et al, 2009), but only few recent works have focused on the assessment of the desert dust contribution to PM10 limit values (Gobbi et al, 2007;Perrino et al, 2009;Matassoni et al, 2009;Pederzoli et al, 2010). A very similar approach to that reported in (Escudero et al, 2007) was used in the works of Matassoni et al (2009) and Pederzoli et al (2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, as the impact of desert dust at ground level is well characterised by an increase of all soil-related elements and changes in elemental ratios, field campaigns followed by elemental analysis can indeed be very effective to assess the real impact of these episodes on PM at ground level (Marcazzan et al, 1993;Bonelli et al, 1996;Borbély-Kiss et al, 2004;Chiari et al, 2005;Marenco et al, 2006;Nicolás et al, 2008). The choice of methods not relying on elemental data is mainly due to cost and time required for reliable chemical speciation analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Saharan dust impact in central Italy: An overview on three years elemental data records

Nava

Becagli

Calzolai

et al. 2012

Atmospheric Environment

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h i g h l i g h t s< PIXE is very effective to quantify the actual mineral dust contribution to PM. < The impact of Saharan intrusions on PM10 is extremely variable from case to case. t r a c tIn southern European countries, Saharan dust may episodically produce significant increases of PM10, which may also cause the exceedance of the PM10 daily limit value established by the European Directive (2008/50/EC). The detection with very high sensitivity of all the elements that constitute mineral dust makes PIXE technique a very effective tool to assess the actual impact of these episodes.In this work, a review of long-term series of elemental concentrations obtained by PIXE has been accomplished with the aim of identifying the occurrence of Saharan dust transport episodes over long periods in Tuscany and characterising them in terms of composition and impact on PM concentration, tracing back their contribution to the exceedances of the PM10 limit value.The impact of the different Saharan intrusions on PM10 showed a very high variability. During the most intense episodes (which occurred with a frequency of few times per year) the calculated soil dust . The Saharan dust contribution was decisive to cause the exceedance of the PM10 daily limit value in the 1e2% of the days considered in the present work.

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Section: Elemental Signaturessupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Elemental Signaturesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Saharan dust impact in central Italy: An overview on three years elemental data records

Nava

Becagli

Calzolai

et al. 2012

Atmospheric Environment

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“…Both elemental and mass estimated Ca/Si values were higher than those generally found in the literature for North African dust transport events, which generally varied from 0.10 to 0.40 depending on the source region [Bergametti et al, 1989;Blanco et al, 2003;Chiapello et al, 1997;Formenti et al, 2003;Gatz and Prospero, 1996;Kandler et al, 2007;Marenco et al, 2006;Reid et al, 2003]. Other research performed in Italy, where the topsoil is also calcium enriched [Salminen et al, 2005], generally present higher [Bergametti et al, 1989;Bonelli et al, 1996;Marenco et al, 2006]. These variations suggest the potential influence of local topsoil composition on the Ca/Si ratio.…”

Section: Chemical Composition Of Individual Particles: Cluster Analysismentioning

confidence: 67%

Variations on morphology and elemental composition of mineral dust particles from local, regional, and long‐range transport meteorological scenarios

Coz¹,

Gómez-Moreno²,

Casuccio³

et al. 2010

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] Mineral dust is the second major source of PM 10 in Madrid, reaching up to 80% of the PM 10 mass during certain long-range dust transport events. Three different types of scenarios have been found to be associated with the high particle concentration episodes in the city: local anthropogenic, regional recirculation, and African dust transport processes. The present study focuses on the characterization of the individual mineral dust particles related to some chemical and morphological features during these three types of episodes, with special attention to local and regional episodes. To achieve this purpose, four different samples were selectively collected during the 2004-2005 period campaigns, one corresponding to each type of scenario and other sample from an Atlantic ventilated one. Meteorological situation, dust source identification, impact on ambient concentrations, size range distribution, and particle individual analysis have been characterized for each of them. Elemental composition and morphology of more than 30,000 mineral particles were analyzed by computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy. Particles were grouped into clusters based on their elemental composition, and the aspect ratio (AR) of each cluster or category was compared for each type of episode. The AR was related to the mineralogical crystal structure of each chemical cluster. The dates chosen for microscopy analysis were in good agreement in size distribution and chemical composition with the average of the dates in the entire campaign and with those from previous campaigns. Major differences between local/regional and long-range transported mineral dust were found in the relative abundance between carbonates and silicates, with much higher abundance of calcium carbonates in the first ones. These differences between silicate and carbonate contents were consistent with the results found in previous campaigns and were directly related to the composition of the parent topsoil by studying the Ca/Si ratios of similar episodes recorded all over the Iberian Peninsula. Differences in morphology were also found for these scenarios. The predominance of calcium carbonate under regional and local influence is scientifically relevant since this mineral is known to react with both SO 2 and HNO 3 in the atmosphere. Larger average AR values were found for dust particles from long-range transport, and smaller average AR values were found for particles from local and regional resuspended dust. The increasing average AR value has been linked to the silicate cluster presence, whereas a reduction has been observed within the carbonate cluster.Citation: Coz, E., F. J. Gómez-Moreno, G. S. Casuccio, and B. Artíñano (2010), Variations on morphology and elemental composition of mineral dust particles from local, regional, and long-range transport meteorological scenarios,

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Synoptic analysis of a rare event of Saharan dust reaching the Arctic region

Barkan

Alpert

2010

Weather

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A rare event of Saharan dust cloud in the subarctic region north of the Scandinavian Peninsula was discovered by the LiDAR of the Arctic LiDAR Observatory (ALOMAR) on 7 August. The origin of this cloud was from the permanent dust reservoir which exists in the atmosphere above the Sahara and was not necessarily a result of a single dust storm. The wind flow and the geopotential height at 700mbar in the area bounded by 0°N–80°N and 100°W–40°E were examined for 1–4 August. Additionally, the 6–7 day forward trajectories from the location 28°N–0°E were computed for the same time. It was found, that during 1–2 August, a strong southwesterly flow formed in northern Africa and western Europe, between a trough along the Atlantic coast of southern Europe and northern Africa and the eastern branch of the subtropical high. This synoptic situation was suitable to long‐range transportation of the dust from the Sahara to the Arctic. © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society

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Elemental Composition and Air Trajectories of African Dust Transported in Northern Italy

Cited by 19 publications

References 7 publications

Saharan dust impact in central Italy: An overview on three years elemental data records

Saharan dust impact in central Italy: An overview on three years elemental data records

Variations on morphology and elemental composition of mineral dust particles from local, regional, and long‐range transport meteorological scenarios

Synoptic analysis of a rare event of Saharan dust reaching the Arctic region

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