Identifying new sources of dust emissions from high latitudes
Channel: BSC CNS
Date: 2023-09-19

🗣Presented by James King (University of Montréal)

🌍Mineral aerosols emitted in high latitude regions can significantly impact radiative forcing, biogeochemical cycling of metals, and local air quality, due to otherwise low concentrations of mineral aerosols and mostly hydrologically isolated frozen landscapes. These mineral dust emissions produce some of the largest dust fluxes represented by a deposition feature that can be several hundred meters thick (loess) as a relic of past climatic change. In the present climate, pro-glacial processes are globally reduced compared to the last glacial maximum and concentrated at higher latitudes but contribute a non-negligible proportion of the global dust budget albeit with large uncertainty. The onset of new sources of emissions from high latitudes are directly a function of climate change, providing increased sediment availability, more extreme conditions, and increased human activities. The estimates of dust production from high-latitudes is from a combination of few field studies (remote locations), poor satellite retrieval (high cloud cover and non-coincident acquisition), and limited knowledge on the processes that augment the timing and production of dust emissions in these regions.

Further information here: https://dust.aemet.es/news-events/events/high-latitude-dust

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