Saharan dust transport

Prospero JM, Saharan dust transport over the North Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean An overview, in Guerzoni S, Chester R. (eds.). The Impact of Desert Dust Across the Mediterranean, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Amsterdam, pp. 133— 151, 1996. 

Remoundaki E, Bourliva A, Kokkalis P, Mamouri RE, Papayannis A, Grigoratos T, Samara C, Tsezos M (2011) Composition of PM10 during a Saharan dust transport event over Athens, Greece. Sci Total Environ 409 4361 -372... 

Dentener FJ, Carmichael GR, Zhang Y, Leheveld J, CratzenPJ (1996) Role of mineral aerosol as a reactive surface in the global atmosphere. J Geophys Res 101 22869-22889 Desboeufs KV, Losno R, Vimeux F, Cholbi S (1999) The pH-dependent dissolution of wind-transported Saharan dust. J Geophys Res 104 21287-21299... 

Individual dust storms from the Sahara desert have been shown to transfer material from the northwest coast of Africa, across the Atlantic, to the east coast of the United States (Ott et al. 1991). For example, Prospero et al. (1987) suggested that enough Saharan dust is carried into the Miami area to significantly reduce visibility during the summer months. Similar dust transport occurs from the deserts of Asia across the Pacific Ocean... 

Ganor, E. and Y. Mamane (1982), "Transport of Saharan dust across the Eastern Mediterranean", Atmos. Environ., 16, 581-587. 

Mineral dust is the constituent of the marine aerosol with the highest variability. It is transported to the marine environment from semiarid and desert regions and is part of the coarse mode even under clean marine conditions. The mean dust concentrations vary between 0.05 and 0.5 pg m" (41). However, very high dust concentrations can occur over regions, such as the tropical and equatorial North Atlantic Ocean and northwest Indian Ocean. Saharan dust concentrations up to 27 pg m have been reported (17) at Barbados during the summer months. 

The long-range transport of Saharan and Asian dust has been identified as the dominant source of mineralic particles over the Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Pacific (SCOPE 1979 Rahn et al. 1979 Duce et al. 1980 Uematsu etal. 1983 Parrington and Zoller 1984). Other important sources of naturally emitted metal compounds are volcanoes (Zoller 1983), forest fires which may be of natural occurrence as well as originate from anthropogenic activities and exudations from vegetation (Pacyna 1986a, b). 

Dust storms originating from the Saharan desert occur in autumn, winter and spring lead to the increase in coarse particles. In the summer, levels of fine particles are enhanced as a result of increased humidity, photochemically and induced secondary PM, and long-range transport of sulfur. 

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