The AMMA MULID network for aerosol characterization in West Africa

Cavalieri, Olga; Donfrancesco, G. Di; Cairo, F.; Fierli, F.; Snels, Marcel; Viterbini, M.; Cardillo, F.; Chatenet, B.; Formenti, Paola; Marticorena, Béatrice; Rajot, Jean-Louis

doi:10.1080/01431161.2010.502156

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This maximum is consistent with the maximum of dust emission simulated over the Western Sahara and driven by surface winds in source regions (Marticorena and Bergametti, 1995;Marticorena and Bergametti, 1996;Laurent et al, 2008). Saharan dust can be very efficiently transported toward the Sahel and produce high surface concentrations since at this period, dust transport occurs mainly in the surface layers (Léon et al, 2009;Cavalieri et al, 2010). The difference in the level of concentration between the stations can be explained by differences in the distance from the stations to active dust sources.…”

Section: Seasonal Patternsupporting

confidence: 70%

Temporal variability of mineral dust concentrations over West Africa: analyses of a pluriannual monitoring from the AMMA Sahelian Dust Transect

Marticorena

Chatenet

Rajot³

et al. 2010

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

183

193

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Abstract. The Sahelian belt is known to be a region where atmospheric levels of suspended mineral dust are among the highest observed on Earth. In the framework of the AMMA (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis) International Program, a transect of 3 ground based stations, the "Sahelian Dust Transect" (SDT), has been deployed in order to obtain quantitative information on the mineral dust content and its variability over the Sahel. The three stations, namely Banizoumbou (Niger), Cinzana (Mali) and M'Bour (Senegal) are aligned around 14 • N along the east-westward main pathway of the Saharan and Sahelian dust towards the Atlantic Ocean. We discuss data collected between January 2006 and December 2008 to investigate the main characteristics of the mineral dust concentration over West Africa and their connection with the dominant meteorological situations. The succession of the dry season during which the Sahel is under the influence of the dry Harmattan wind and the wet season induced by the entrance of the monsoon flow is clearly identified from the basic meteorological parameters (air temperature and moisture, wind direction). Atmospheric dust concentrations at the three stations exhibit a similar seasonal cycle, with a monthly maximum during the dry season and a minimum occurring during the rainy season, indicating that the general pattern of dust concentration is similar at regional scale. This seasonal cycle of the dust concentrations Correspondence to: B. Marticorena (marticorena@lisa.univ-paris12.fr) is not phased with the seasonal cycle of surface wind velocity locally measured, suggesting that it is mainly controlled by Saharan dust transport. Local dust emissions induced by strong surface winds are responsible for the occurrence of extremely high daily concentrations observed at the beginning of the rainy season. A decrease in the dust concentration is observed when moving from Niger to Senegal.

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Section: Seasonal Patternsupporting

confidence: 70%

Temporal variability of mineral dust concentrations over West Africa: analyses of a pluriannual monitoring from the AMMA Sahelian Dust Transect

Marticorena

Chatenet

Rajot³

et al. 2010

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

183

193

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“…The inlet is located at ∼9 m from the ground level in M'Bour and ∼6 m in Banizoumbou and Cinzana. Occasionally, aerosol vertical profiles were measured by a one-wavelength microlidar (Cavalieri et al, 2011). This instrument allows measurement of particulate concentrations ranging from a few micrograms to a few grams per cubic meters.…”

Section: The Sahelian Dust Transectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As highlighted by many authors (i.e. Jaenicke and Schütz, 1978;d'Almeida and Schütz, 1983) the size range respectively covered by the mass and the number dust size distributions are very different. As an example, using a size distribution typical of emission conditions (emission by an aluminosilicate silt soil type (ASS) under a wind friction velocity U * of 55 cm s −1 derived from Alfaro and Gomes, 2001), Forêt et al (2006) estimated that particles with diameters greater than 2 µm represent 98 % of the mass distribution while they account for only 12 % of the number distribution.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of the mineral dust content over Western Africa from the event to the annual scale with the CHIMERE-DUST model

et al. 2011

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Abstract.The chemistry and transport model CHIMERE-DUST have been used to simulate the mineral dust cycle over the Sahara in 2006. Surface measurements deployed during the AMMA field campaign allow to test the capability of the model to correctly reproduce the atmospheric dust load and surface concentrations from the daily to the seasonal time-scale. The simulated monthly mean Aerosol Optical Depths (AOD) and surface concentrations are significantly correlated with the measured ones. The simulated daily concentrations and hourly AOD are in the same range of magnitude than the observed ones despite relatively high simulated dust emissions. The level of agreement between the simulations and the observations has been quantified at different time scales using statistical parameters classically used to evaluate air quality models. The capability of the model to reproduce the altitude of the dust transport was tested for two contrasted cases of low and high altitude transport. These results highlight the sensitivity of the simulations to the surface winds used as external forcing and the necessity to further constrain the dust mass budget at the regional scale.

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“…The in-let is located at ∼9 m from the ground level in M'Bour and ∼6 m in Banizoumbou and Cinzana. Occasionally, aerosol vertical profiles were measured by a one-wavelength microlidar (Cavalieri et al, 2011). This instrument allows measurement of particulate concentrations ranging from a few micrograms to a few grams per cubic meters.…”

Section: The Sahelian Dust Transectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of the mineral dust content over Western Africa with the CHIMERE-DUST model from the event to the annual scale

Schmechtig¹,

Marticoréna²,

Chatenet³

et al. 2011

Preprint

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The chemistry and transport model CHIMERE-Dust have been used to simulate the mineral dust cycle over the Sahara in 2006. Surface measurements deployed during the AMMA field campaign allows to test the capability of the model to correctly reproduce the atmospheric dust load and surface concentrations from the daily to the seasonal time-scale. The seasonal pattern simulated for Aerosol Optical Depth and surface concentrations are in good agreement with observations. The simulated daily concentrations and hourly AOD are in the same range than the observed one despite relatively high simulated dust emissions. At the different time-scales, the quantitative agreement between the simulations and the observations is fairly good. The capability of the model to reproduce the altitude of the dust transport was tested for two contrasted cases of low and high altitude transport. These results highlights the sensitivity of the simulations to the surface winds used as external forcing and the necessity to further constrain the dust mass budget at the regional scale

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The AMMA MULID network for aerosol characterization in West Africa

Cited by 13 publications

References 46 publications

Temporal variability of mineral dust concentrations over West Africa: analyses of a pluriannual monitoring from the AMMA Sahelian Dust Transect

Temporal variability of mineral dust concentrations over West Africa: analyses of a pluriannual monitoring from the AMMA Sahelian Dust Transect

Simulation of the mineral dust content over Western Africa from the event to the annual scale with the CHIMERE-DUST model

Simulation of the mineral dust content over Western Africa with the CHIMERE-DUST model from the event to the annual scale

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