Search results for "Desert dust"

Contribution of airborne desert dust to air quality and cardiopulmonary disease

2019

The June 2007 Saharan dust event in the central Mediterranean: Observations and radiative effects in marine, urban, and sub-urban environments

2011

Abstract A desert dust episode in June 2007 and its radiative effects on the energy budget have been studied at three Italian stations (Rome, Lecce and Lampedusa) with the aim of investigating the interactions with different conditions and aerosol types over the Mediterranean. The three sites are representative for urban (Rome), sub-urban/rural (Lecce), and marine (Lampedusa) environment, respectively in the central Mediterranean region. Measured ground-based column-averaged aerosol optical properties and aerosol extinction profiles were used to initialize the MODTRAN4 radiative transfer model. The radiative transfer model was used to estimate the shortwave aerosol radiative forcing ( ARF )…

Définition d’un événement de poussières désertiques au Sahel : apport de nouvelles mesures de PM10 au Burkina Faso.

2015

This study isdedicated to the desert dust of the dry season in an inhabited Sahelian rural area whose populations are widely exposed tosanitary risks such as meningitis outbreaks (Martiny & Chiapello, 2013). Here, the objective is to give a definition of a dust“event”, a concept describing the dustiest moments in a dusty environment, but that remains rather unclear, notably becauseof the lack of ground-truth measurements. The analysis of new PM10 measurements in Burkina Faso has enabled us to definethe dust events as episodes which experience concentrations greater than 189μg/m3 for at least 10h. Five types of dust eventshave been defined depending on the concentrations measured. On the fir…

Particle chemical properties in the vertical column based on aircraft observations in the vicinity of Cape Verde Islands

2011

During the second Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment (SAMUM-2) field campaign, particles with geometric diameters (d) between ∼0.1 and 25 μm were collected on board of the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center, DLR) Falcon aircraft. Size, chemical composition and mixing state of aerosols sampled (spatially and vertically resolved) along the West African coastline and in the Cape Verde Islands region were determined by electron microscopy. A pronounced layer structure of biomass-burning aerosol and desert dust was present for all days during the sampling period from 23 January to 6 February. The aerosol composition of the small particles (d < 0.5 μm) was highly v…

Airborne measurements of dust layer properties, particle size distribution and mixing state of Saharan dust during SAMUM 2006

2009

The Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment (SAMUM) was conducted in May/June 2006 in southern Morocco. As part of SAMUM, airborne in situ measurements of the particle size distribution in the diameter range 4 nm < Dp < 100 μm were conducted. The aerosol mixing state was determined below Dp < 2.5 μm. Furthermore, the vertical structure of the dust layers was investigated with a nadir-looking high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL). The desert dust aerosol exhibited two size regimes of different mixing states: below 0.5 μm, the particles had a non-volatile core and a volatile coating; larger particles above 0.5 μm consisted of non-volatile components and contained light absorbing material. In…

Small ice particles at slightly supercooled temperatures in tropical maritime convection

2020

In this paper we show that the origin of the ice phase in tropical cumulus clouds over the sea may occur by primary ice nucleation of small crystals at temperatures just between 0 and −5 ∘C. This was made possible through use of a holographic instrument able to image cloud particles at very high resolution and small size (6 µm). The environment in which the observations were conducted was notable for the presence of desert dust advected over the ocean from the Sahara. However, there is no laboratory evidence to suggest that these dust particles can act as ice nuclei at temperatures warmer than about −10 ∘C, the zone in which the first ice was observed in these clouds. T…