Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers
We introduce and apply to dust aerosols an efficient method to track tracer age (time since emission) as a function of space and time in large-scale geophysical models. Our mass-age tracking (MAT) method follows the full tracer lifecycles directly and does not depend on proxy, ensemble, or Green...
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ftcdlib:qt1n90s2r6 2023-05-15T13:52:22+02:00 Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers Han, Qin Zender, Charles S 2010-11-16 application/pdf http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1n90s2r6 english eng eScholarship, University of California qt1n90s2r6 http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1n90s2r6 Attribution (CC BY): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ CC-BY Han, Qin; & Zender, Charles S. (2010). Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115(D22). doi:10.1029/2010JD014155. UC Irvine: Department of Earth System Science, UCI. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1n90s2r6 Physical Sciences and Mathematics tracer age dust aerosol article 2010 ftcdlib https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD014155 2016-04-02T18:51:45Z We introduce and apply to dust aerosols an efficient method to track tracer age (time since emission) as a function of space and time in large-scale geophysical models. Our mass-age tracking (MAT) method follows the full tracer lifecycles directly and does not depend on proxy, ensemble, or Green's function techniques. MAT sends a mass-age tracer through the same algorithms that the host models use to predict tracer mass processes and then estimates age as the ratio of mass-age to mass. We apply MAT to size-resolved dust aerosol tracers to study the age of dust that remains in the atmosphere and the age of dust at deposition. The results include the first global distribution maps of aerosol age. Dust age varies with location, time, and particle size and is strongly sensitive to climate, wind and precipitation in particular. The global average age of dust at deposition agrees with residence time at ∼2.7 days, while dust in the atmosphere is, on average, twice as old. As expected, older dust prevails far from sources, at higher altitudes and in smaller sizes. Dust age exhibits a seasonal cycle, stronger for larger dust particles, that peaks in April–June, the period of maximum Asian and North African emissions. The oldest dust at deposition falls in the Antarctic and South Pacific Convergence Zone about 1 month after emission. The mass-weighted ages provided by MAT are useful for investigating and parameterizing the evolution of aerosol physical and chemical properties. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic University of California: eScholarship Antarctic Pacific The Antarctic Journal of Geophysical Research 115 D22 |
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University of California: eScholarship |
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language |
English |
topic |
Physical Sciences and Mathematics tracer age dust aerosol |
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Physical Sciences and Mathematics tracer age dust aerosol Han, Qin Zender, Charles S Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers |
topic_facet |
Physical Sciences and Mathematics tracer age dust aerosol |
description |
We introduce and apply to dust aerosols an efficient method to track tracer age (time since emission) as a function of space and time in large-scale geophysical models. Our mass-age tracking (MAT) method follows the full tracer lifecycles directly and does not depend on proxy, ensemble, or Green's function techniques. MAT sends a mass-age tracer through the same algorithms that the host models use to predict tracer mass processes and then estimates age as the ratio of mass-age to mass. We apply MAT to size-resolved dust aerosol tracers to study the age of dust that remains in the atmosphere and the age of dust at deposition. The results include the first global distribution maps of aerosol age. Dust age varies with location, time, and particle size and is strongly sensitive to climate, wind and precipitation in particular. The global average age of dust at deposition agrees with residence time at ∼2.7 days, while dust in the atmosphere is, on average, twice as old. As expected, older dust prevails far from sources, at higher altitudes and in smaller sizes. Dust age exhibits a seasonal cycle, stronger for larger dust particles, that peaks in April–June, the period of maximum Asian and North African emissions. The oldest dust at deposition falls in the Antarctic and South Pacific Convergence Zone about 1 month after emission. The mass-weighted ages provided by MAT are useful for investigating and parameterizing the evolution of aerosol physical and chemical properties. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Han, Qin Zender, Charles S |
author_facet |
Han, Qin Zender, Charles S |
author_sort |
Han, Qin |
title |
Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers |
title_short |
Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers |
title_full |
Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers |
title_fullStr |
Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers |
title_sort |
desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2010 |
url |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1n90s2r6 |
geographic |
Antarctic Pacific The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Pacific The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_source |
Han, Qin; & Zender, Charles S. (2010). Desert dust aerosol age characterized by mass-age tracking of tracers. Journal of Geophysical Research, 115(D22). doi:10.1029/2010JD014155. UC Irvine: Department of Earth System Science, UCI. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1n90s2r6 |
op_relation |
qt1n90s2r6 http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1n90s2r6 |
op_rights |
Attribution (CC BY): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD014155 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research |
container_volume |
115 |
container_issue |
D22 |
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1766256649343860736 |