1. Contribution of the world's main dust source regions to the global cycle of desert dust
- Author
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J. F. Kok, A. A. Adebiyi, S. Albani, Y. Balkanski, R. Checa-Garcia, M. Chin, P. R. Colarco, D. S. Hamilton, Y. Huang, A. Ito, M. Klose, L. Li, N. M. Mahowald, R. L. Miller, V. Obiso, C. Pérez García-Pando, A. Rocha-Lima, J. S. Wan, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences [Los Angeles] (AOS), University of California [Los Angeles] (UCLA), University of California (UC)-University of California (UC), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette] (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Modelling the Earth Response to Multiple Anthropogenic Interactions and Dynamics (MERMAID), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences [Ithaca) (EAS), Cornell University [New York], Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputacion (BSC - CNS), NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), Department of Physics [Baltimore], University of Maryland [Baltimore County] (UMBC), University of Maryland System-University of Maryland System, European Project: 708119,H2020,H2020-MSCA-IF-2015,DUSC3(2016), University of California-University of California, Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Kok, J, Adebiyi, A, Albani, S, Balkanski, Y, Checa-Garcia, R, Chin, M, Colarco, P, Hamilton, D, Huang, Y, Ito, A, Klose, M, Li, L, Mahowald, N, Miller, R, Obiso, V, Perez Garcia-Pando, C, Rocha-Lima, A, and Wan, J
- Subjects
Atmospheric Science ,Biogeochemical cycle ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,QC1-999 ,Extinction (astronomy) ,Global dust cycle ,Flux ,010501 environmental sciences ,010502 geochemistry & geophysics ,Atmospheric sciences ,01 natural sciences ,Atmosphere ,Atmospheric models ,Earth's atmosphere ,Simulació per ordinador ,Earth System Model ,ddc:550 ,[SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces, environment ,Aerosol ,QD1-999 ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Climate Model ,[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean, Atmosphere ,Asian Dust ,Physics ,Aerosol model simulations ,Dust ,15. Life on land ,Atmosfera -- Aspectes ambientals ,Chemistry ,Earth sciences ,Deposition (aerosol physics) ,13. Climate action ,Enginyeria agroalimentària::Ciències de la terra i de la vida [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC] ,Air quality ,Environmental science ,Climate model ,Aerosols--Measurement ,Desert dust - Abstract
Even though desert dust is the most abundant aerosol by mass in Earth's atmosphere, the relative contributions of the world's major source regions to the global dust cycle remain poorly constrained. This problem hinders accounting for the potentially large impact of regional differences in dust properties on clouds, the Earth's energy balance, and terrestrial and marine biogeochemical cycles. Here, we constrain the contribution of each of the world's main dust source regions to the global dust cycle. We use an analytical framework that integrates an ensemble of global aerosol model simulations with observationally informed constraints on the dust size distribution, extinction efficiency, and regional dust aerosol optical depth (DAOD). We obtain a dataset that constrains the relative contribution of nine major source regions to size-resolved dust emission, atmospheric loading, DAOD, concentration, and deposition flux. We find that the 22–29 Tg (1 standard error range) global loading of dust with a geometric diameter up to 20 µm is partitioned as follows: North African source regions contribute ∼ 50 % (11–15 Tg), Asian source regions contribute ∼ 40 % (8–13 Tg), and North American and Southern Hemisphere regions contribute ∼ 10 % (1.8–3.2 Tg). These results suggest that current models on average overestimate the contribution of North African sources to atmospheric dust loading at ∼ 65 %, while underestimating the contribution of Asian dust at ∼ 30 %. Our results further show that each source region's dust loading peaks in local spring and summer, which is partially driven by increased dust lifetime in those seasons. We also quantify the dust deposition flux to the Amazon rainforest to be ∼ 10 Tg yr−1, which is a factor of 2–3 less than inferred from satellite data by previous work that likely overestimated dust deposition by underestimating the dust mass extinction efficiency. The data obtained in this paper can be used to obtain improved constraints on dust impacts on clouds, climate, biogeochemical cycles, and other parts of the Earth system. This research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (grant nos. 1552519 and 1856389) and the Army Research Office (cooperative agreement number W911NF-20-2-0150). This research was further support by the University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to Adeyemi A. Adebiyi and the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 708119 awarded to Samuel Albani and no. 789630 awarded to Martina Klose. Ramiro Checa-Garcia received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation under grant 641816 (CRESCENDO). Akinori Ito received support from JSPS KAKENHI grant number 20H04329 and Integrated Research Program for Advancing Climate Models (TOUGOU) grant number JPMXD0717935715 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. Peter R. Colarco and Adriana Rocha-Lima were supported by the NASA Atmospheric Composition: Modeling and Analysis Program (Richard Eckman, program manager) and the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) for computational resources. Yue Huang was supported by NASA grant 80NSSC19K1346 awarded under the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) program. Ron L. Miller and Vincenzo Obiso received support from the NASA Modeling, Analysis and Prediction Program (NNG14HH42I) along with the NASA EMIT project and the Earth Venture Instrument program, with computational resources from the NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS). Samuel Albani received funding from MIUR (Progetto Dipartimenti di Eccellenza 2018-2022). Carlos Pérez García-Pando received support from the European Research Council (grant no. 773051, FRAGMENT), the EU H2020 project FORCES (grant no. 821205), the AXA Research Fund, and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (RYC-2015-18690 and CGL2017-88911-R). Longlei Li received support from the NASA EMIT project and the Earth Venture – Instrument program (grant no. E678605). Yves Balkanski and Ramiro Checa-Garcia received funding from the PolEASIA ANR project under allocation ANR-15-CE04-0005. Peer Reviewed "Article signat per 18 autors/es: Jasper F. Kok, Adeyemi A. Adebiyi, Samuel Albani, Yves Balkanski, Ramiro Checa-Garcia, Mian Chin, Peter R. Colarco, Douglas S. Hamilton, Yue Huang, Akinori Ito, Martina Klose, Longlei Li, Natalie M. Mahowald, Ron L. Miller, Vincenzo Obiso, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Adriana Rocha-Lima, and Jessica S. Wan"
- Published
- 2021
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