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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The transatlantic dust transport from North Africa to the Americas-Its characteristics and source regions

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Transport of Saharan dust over the Atlantic to the Americas is a relevant process since dust is a nutrient for marine and terrestrial ecosystems. It is therefore important to better quantify the frequency and amount of transatlantic dust transport, its preferred altitude and duration, and the regions of dust origin. This study uses a novel combination of Eulerian and Lagrangian diagnostics, applied to a previously validated 5 year simulation of the fifth generation European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast-Hamburg-model (ECHAM5)/Modular Earth Submodel System (MEESy) Atmospheric Chemistry model, to quantify these dust transport characteristics and their seasonal variations. Results confirm the previously found preferred transatlantic dust pathways: in boreal winter and spring, African dust is mainly transported below 800 hPa toward South America, whereas in summer and autumn the preferred pathway is to the Caribbean and occurs in a layer up to 500 hPa. The averaged transport duration from dust emission to deposition is 10 days in winter for deposition in the Amazon region and almost 12 days in summer for deposition in the Caribbean. These estimates were obtained by combining correlation analyses of Eulerian dust fluxes and trajectory calculations. The latter were also essential to identify the main source regions of transatlantic dust transport, which were found in all seasons in northwestern Africa (Algeria, Mali, and Mauritania) but not farther east, e.g., in the Bodele Depression. A specific Lagrangian analysis for this dust emission hot spot suggests that wet deposition associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone in winter and the African monsoon in summer inhibits Bodele dust to leave the African continent.