Knippertz, P and Todd, MC (2012) Mineral dust aerosols over the Sahara: Meteorological controls on emission and transport and implications for modeling. Reviews of Geophysics, 50 (1). RG1007. ISSN 8755-1209
Abstract
Atmospheric mineral dust has recently become an important research field in Earth system science because of its impacts on radiation, clouds, atmospheric dynamics and chemistry, air quality, and biogeochemical cycles. Studying and modeling dust emission and transport over the world's largest source region, the Sahara, is particularly challenging because of the complex meteorology and a very sparse observational network. Recent advances in satellite retrievals together with ground-and aircraft-based field campaigns have fostered our understanding of the spatiotemporal variability of the dust aerosol and its atmospheric drivers. We now have a more complete picture of the key processes in the atmosphere associated with dust emission. These cover a range of scales from (1) synoptic scale cyclones in the northern sector of the Sahara, harmattan surges and African easterly waves, through (2) low-level jets and cold pools of mesoscale convective systems (particularly over the Sahel), to (3) microscale dust devils and dusty plumes, each with its own pronounced diurnal and seasonal characteristics. This paper summarizes recent progress on monitoring and analyzing the dust distribution over the Sahara and discusses implications for numerical modeling. Among the key challenges for the future are a better quantification of the relative importance of single processes and a more realistic representation of the effects of the smaller-scale meteorological features in dust models. In particular, moist convection has been recognized as a major limitation to our understanding because of the inability of satellites to observe dust under clouds and the difficulties of numerical models to capture convective organization.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2012, American Geophysical Union. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | African easterly waves; Atmospheric dynamics; Atmospheric mineral dust; Biogeochemical cycle; Cold pool; Dust aerosols; Dust devils; Dust emission; Dust models; Earth system science; Field campaign; Key process; Low level jet; Mesoscale Convective System; Micro-scales; Mineral dust aerosol; Moist convection; Numerical modeling; Recent progress; Relative importance; Research fields; Satellite retrieval; Seasonal characteristics; Single process; Source region; Spatiotemporal variability |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 16 Oct 2013 10:01 |
Last Modified: | 15 Sep 2014 02:56 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011RG000362 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2011RG000362 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:76597 |