The transport history of two Saharan dust events archived in an Alpine ice core ...

• Main Authors: Sodemann, Harald, Palmer, A.S., Schwierz, Conny, Schwikowski, Margit, Wernli, Heini
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2005
• Subjects: ice core
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000039846; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/39846

Mineral dust from the Saharan desert can be transported across the Mediterraneantowards the Alpine region several times a year. Occasionally, the dust is depositedwith snowfall on Alpine glaciers and appears then as yellow or red layers in ice cores.Two such significant dust events were identified in an ice core drilled at the high-accumulation site Piz Zup ́o in the Swiss Alps (46◦22′N, 9◦55′E, 3850m a.s.l.). Fromstable oxygen isotopes and major ion concentrations, the events were approximatelydated as October and March 2000. In order to link the dust record in the ice core tothe meteorological situation that led to the dust events, a novel methodology basedon back-trajectory analysis was developed. It allowed for the identification of source regions, the atmospheric transport pathways, and wet deposition periods for both dustevents. Furthermore, differences in the chemical signature of the two dust events couldbe interpreted with respect to contributions from the dust sources and aerosol scaveng-ing during ... : Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 5 (4) ...