Variations in atmospheric dust loading since AD 1951 recorded in an ice core from the northern Tibetan Plateau

• Published in: Annals of Glaciology
• Main Authors: Wangbin Zhang, Shugui Hou, Wenling An, Liya Zhou, Hongxi Pang
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2016
• Subjects: ice core; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Arctic; Annals of Glaciology
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3189/2016AoG71A559; https://doaj.org/article/e0bd3be5d3ed41768f1268424e74b825

An ice core was extracted from the Zangser Kangri (ZK) ice field in the northern Tibetan Plateau (NTP), a location with limited instrumental and proxy records. In this paper, we present a continuous high–resolution dust concentration time series spanning the period AD 1951-2008 to investigate variations in atmospheric dust loading over the NTP. The results show that atmospheric dust loading exhibited significant decadal variations, with two periods of high dust loading (AD 1959–67 and AD 1979–89) and three periods of relatively low loading (AD 1951-58, AD 1968–78 and AD 1990–2008). The variability of atmospheric dust loading was related to wind speed at 500 hPa over the dust source regions. The winter Arctic Oscillation (AO) index showed a significant negative correlation with the annual dust concentration, implying a possible connection between the winter AO and the atmospheric dust loading over the NTP.