North African soil dust and European pollution transport to America during the warm season: Hidden links shown by a passive tracer simulation

Gangoiti, Gotzon; Alonso, Lucio; Navazo, Marino; García, José María González; Millán, Millán M.

doi:10.1029/2005jd005941

Cited by 40 publications

(42 citation statements)

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“…6b): air originally from the Mediterranean flows north to south across Tunisia and Northern Algeria and is then westward transported along the southern slope of the Atlas mountains toward the North Atlantic Ocean. This transport pathway is similar to the "mean airflows" previously described by Millán et al (1997) and Gangoiti et al (2006). This transport pathway is the result of the meteorological scenario typical of the summertime (Fig.…”

Section: Transport Pathways Of Saharan Airflowsmentioning

confidence: 49%

“…Studies performed by Millán et al (1997) and Gangoiti et al (2006) have shown that aged pollutants emitted in Eastern Spain and re-circulated in the Western Mediterranean basin may also be mixed with North African desert dust, and then be exported to the North Atlantic in the SAL. These coastal and mountain breezes involved in the regional transport and aging of pollutants have also been described for the North African side of the Western Mediterranean (Algeria -Tunisia; Bouchlaghem et al, …”

Section: Summary Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…observations in the Canary Islands (Prospero et al, 1995;Alastuey et al, 2005;Kandler et al, 2007), Cape Verde Dall'Osto et al, 2010), Puerto Rico (Reid et al, 2003) and Barbados (Li-Jones and Prospero, 1998). The few studies focused on investigating the origin of these pollutants have shown that the transport of pollutants from Europe and their mixing with North African desert dust may contribute to the observed dust + pollutants mixing (Millán et al, 1997;Kallos et al, 1998;Gangoiti et al, 2006;Astitha et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transport of desert dust mixed with North African industrial pollutants in the subtropical Saharan Air Layer

et al. 2011

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Abstract. An analysis of chemical composition data of particulate matter samples (TSP, PM 10 and PM 2.5 ) collected from 2002 to 2008 in the North Atlantic free troposphere at the Izaña Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) observatory (Tenerife, Canary Islands) shows that desert dust is very frequently mixed with particulate pollutants in the Saharan Air Layer (SAL). The study of this data set with Median Concentrations At Receptor (MCAR) plots allowed the identification of the potential source regions of the dust and particulate pollutants. Areas located at the south of the southern slope of the Atlas mountains emerge as the most frequent source of the soil desert dust advected to the northern edge of the SAL in summer. Industrial emissions occurring in Northern Algeria, Eastern Algeria, Tunisia and the Atlantic coast of Morocco appear as the most important source of the nitrate, ammonium and a fraction of sulphate (at least 60 % of the sulphate <10 µm transported from some regions) observed in the SAL. These emissions are mostly linked to crude oil refineries, phosphate-based fertilizer industry and power plants. Although desert dust emissions appear as the most frequent source of the phosphorous observed in the SAL, high P concentrations are observed when the SAL is affected by emissions from open mines of phosphate and phosphate based fertilizer industry. The results also show that a significant fraction of the sulphate (up to 90 % of sulphate <10 µm transported from some regions) observed in the SAL may be influenced by soil emissions of evaporite minerals in well defined regions where dry saline lakes (chotts) are present. These interpretations of the MCAR plots are consistent with the results obtained with the Positive Matrix Factorization

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Section: Transport Pathways Of Saharan Airflowsmentioning

confidence: 49%

Section: Summary Discussion and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transport of desert dust mixed with North African industrial pollutants in the subtropical Saharan Air Layer

et al. 2011

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“…Dust is frequently mixed with particulate pollutants in the Saharan Air Layer (Rodríguez et al, 2011). In addition to sources related to industrial and local population centres on the African continent, pollutants from Europe and North America can be rapidly transported to Africa where they are mixed with dust-laden air masses (Astitha et al, 2010;Fomba et al, 2013;Gangoiti et al, 2006;Kallos et al, 1998). Koçak et al (2005) observed higher levels of excess Pb in dust-rich air from Africa than in air from other sectors, which they suggested may be due to Saharan dust acting as an impaction or adsorption surface for finer anthropogenic aerosols, although they could not rule out the possibility of higher anthropogenic emissions from Africa being partly or wholly responsible for the observation.…”

Section: Accepted M Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerosol time-series measurements over the tropical Northeast Atlantic Ocean: Dust sources, elemental composition and mineralogy

et al. 2015

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The North Atlantic receives the largest dust loading of any of the world's oceans due to its proximity to North African deserts and prevailing wind patterns. The supply of biologically important trace elements and nutrients via aerosols has an important influence on biogeochemical processes and ecosystems in this ocean region. In this study we continuously sampled aerosols between July 2007 and July 2008 at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory (CVAO), which is situated on an island group close to the North African continent and under the Saharan/Sahelian dust outflow path. The aim of our work was to investigate temporal variations in aerosol concentration, composition and sources in the Cape Verde region over a complete seasonal cycle, and for this purpose we undertook mineralogical and chemical (42 elements ). These observations have been attributed to dust transport occurring in higher altitude air layers and mainly north of the Cape Verde during summer, whilst in winter the dust transport shifts south and occurs in the lower altitude trade winds with consequent greater influence on the Cape Verde region. The elemental composition of the aerosols closely agreed with mean upper crustal abundances, with the exception of elements with pronounced anthropogenic sources (e.g. Zn and Pb) and major constituents of sea water (Na and Mg). A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT3 Mineral analysis showed that clays were the most abundant mineral fraction throughout the whole sampling period, with an increase in quartz and clays during strong dust events and an associated decrease in calcite. This could have important implications for the estimation of release of for exampleFe from mineral dust with clays having a higher Fe solubility than quartz.The elemental composition and mineralogy of aerosol samples collected during the cruise were indistinguishable from those collected at the CVAO during the same period, although mean atmospheric Al was 65% higher at the CVAO than those measured on the ship due to the irregular and uneven nature of dust transport.Air mass back-trajectories showed an important role for southern source regions of the NorthAfrican deserts during summer, with 92.5% of the samples indicating a contribution from the Sahel.Significantly elevated ratios of V, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb with Al were present in samples originating from the Sahel compared with samples with a more northerly origin. This was likely due to enhanced anthropogenic emissions related to the greater population densities in the Sahel compared with the less developed Saharan regions further north.Ratios of other elements and trends in rare earth elements could however not be used to distinguish differences in source regions. Similar source material compositions, the mixing of dust from different regions during transport, and the pooling of samples over a 1-3 day collection period appears to have diluted specific signals from source regions.

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“…Several studies have shown that mineral dust in the atmosphere is often mixed with anthropogenic aerosol (e.g. Kandler et al, 2007;Gangoiti et al, 2006). Recently, Rodríguez et al (2011) showed that anthropogenic emissions from crude oil refineries and power plants, located on Northern African coasts, contribute to desert dust mixing with particulate pollutants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerosol radiative forcing during African desert dust events (2005–2010) over Southeastern Spain

et al. 2012

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Abstract. The daily (24 h) averages of the aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) at the surface and the top of the atmosphere (TOA) were calculated during desert dust events over Granada (southeastern Spain) from 2005 to 2010. A radiative transfer model (SBDART) was utilized to simulate the solar irradiance values (0.31-2.8 µm) at the surface and TOA, using as input aerosol properties retrieved from CIMEL sun photometer measurements via an inversion methodology that uses the sky radiance measurements in principal plane configuration and a spheroid particle shape approximation. This inversion methodology was checked by means of simulated data from aerosol models, and the derived aerosol properties were satisfactorily compared against well-known AERONET products. Good agreement was found over a common spectral interval (0.2-4.0 µm) between the simulated SBDART global irradiances at surface and those provided by AERONET. In addition, simulated SBDART solar global irradiances at the surface have been successfully validated against CM-11 pyranometer measurements. The comparison indicates that the radiative transfer model slightly overestimates (mean bias of 3 %) the experimental solar global irradiance. These results show that the aerosol optical properties used to estimate ARF represent appropriately the aerosol properties observed during desert dust outbreak over the study area. The ARF mean monthly values computed during desert dust events ranged from −13 ± 8 W m −2 to −34 ± 15 W m −2 at surface, from −4 ± 3 W m −2 to −13 ± 7 W m −2 at TOA and from +6 ± 4 to +21 ± 12 W m −2 in the atmosphere. We have checked if the differences found in aerosol optical properties among desert dust sectors translate to differences in ARF. The mean ARF at surface (TOA) were −20 ± 12 (−5 ± 5) W m −2 , −21 ± 9 (−7 ± 5) W m −2 and −18 ± 9 (−6 ± 5) W m −2 for sector A (northern Morocco; northwestern Algeria), sector B (western Sahara, northwestern Mauritania and southwestern Algeria), and sector C (eastern Algeria, Tunisia), respectively. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test revealed that daily ARF values at TOA for sector A were significantly different from the other two sectors, likely as a result of the lower values of single scattering albedo obtained for sector A. The mean values of aerosol radiative forcing efficiency at surface (TOA) were −74 ± 12 W m −2 (−17 ± 7 W m −2 ) for sector A, −70 ± 14 W m −2 (−20 ± 9 W m −2 ) for sector B, and −65 ± 16 W m −2 (−22 ± 10 W m −2 ) for sector C, and thus comparable between the three sectors in all seasons.

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North African soil dust and European pollution transport to America during the warm season: Hidden links shown by a passive tracer simulation

Cited by 40 publications

References 61 publications

Transport of desert dust mixed with North African industrial pollutants in the subtropical Saharan Air Layer

Transport of desert dust mixed with North African industrial pollutants in the subtropical Saharan Air Layer

Aerosol time-series measurements over the tropical Northeast Atlantic Ocean: Dust sources, elemental composition and mineralogy

Aerosol radiative forcing during African desert dust events (2005–2010) over Southeastern Spain

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