1. The export of African mineral dust across the Atlantic and its impact over the Amazon Basin
- Author
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Wang, Xurong, Wang, Qiaoqiao, Prass, Maria, Pöhlker, Christopher, Moran-Zuloaga, Daniel, Artaxo, Paulo, Gu, Jianwei, Yang, Ning, Yang, Xiajie, Tao, Jiangchuan, Hong, Juan, Ma, Nan, Cheng, Yafang, Su, Hang, and Andreae, Meinrat O
- Subjects
Earth Sciences ,Atmospheric Sciences ,Climate Action ,Astronomical and Space Sciences ,Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences ,Atmospheric sciences ,Climate change science - Abstract
Abstract. The Amazon Basin is frequently influenced by transatlantic transport of African dust plumes during its wet season (January–April), which not only interrupts the near-pristine atmospheric condition in that season, but alsoprovides nutrient inputs to the Amazon rainforest upon deposition. In thisstudy, we use the chemical transport model GEOS-Chem to investigate theimpact of the export of African mineral dust to the Amazon Basin during theperiod of 2013–2017, constrained by multiple datasets obtained from theAErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET), MODIS, as well as the Cayenne site and the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO) site in the Amazon Basin. With an optimized particle mass size distribution (PMSD) of dust aerosols, the model captures observed aerosol optical depth (AOD) well in terms of both the mean value and the decline rate of the logarithm of AOD over the Atlantic Ocean along the transport path (AOaTP), implying consistency with the observed export efficiency of African dust along the transatlantic transport. With an annual emission of 0.73±0.12 Pg yr−1, African dust entering the Amazon Basin during the wet season accounts for 40±4.5 % (up to 70 %) of surface aerosol mass concentrations over the basin. Observed dust peaks over the Amazon Basin are generally associated with relatively higher African dust emissions (including the Sahara and the Sahel) and longer lifetimes of dust along the transatlantic transport, i.e., higher export efficiency of African dust across the Atlantic Ocean. The frequency of dust events during the wet season is around 18 % when averaged over the Amazon Basin, with maxima of over 60 % at the northeastern coast. During the dust events, AOD over most of the Amazon Basin is dominated by dust. Based on dust deposition, we further estimate annual inputs of 52±8.7, 0.97±0.16, and 21±3.6 mg m−2 yr−1 for iron, phosphorus, and magnesium, respectively, into the Amazon rainforest, which may to some extent compensate for the hydrologic losses of nutrients in the forest ecosystem.
- Published
- 2023