A44C-03:
Global trends in mineral dust aerosol: determining causes and attributing uncertainty with the GEOS-Chem model
Thursday, 18 December 2014: 4:35 PM
David A Ridley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States, Colette L Heald, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cambridge, MA, United States and Joseph M Prospero, University of Miami, Miami, FL, United States
Abstract:
Mineral dust aerosol constitutes a large fraction of the total aerosol burden, which presents health risks, alters atmospheric chemistry, and strongly perturbs the radiative balance over large regions. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand what controls the observed trends and changes in variability of dust emissions. Recently, we have shown that the observed reduction in African dust loading over the Atlantic in recent decades is likely driven by large-scale wind changes over source regions rather than changes in vegetation cover. Using an updated dust emission scheme and information from high resolution (0.25 degree) simulations from the NASA GEOS model, we attribute the uncertainty in modeled dust AOD and expand the analysis to other regions of the world, including Asia and the Middle East.
