Loughborough University
Browse
BullardAAAR18.pdf (4.26 MB)

Seasonal and decadal variability of dust observations in the Kangerlussuaq area, West Greenland

Download (4.26 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2017-06-26, 10:30 authored by Joanna BullardJoanna Bullard, Thomas Mockford
Dust emissions from high-latitude, cold climate environments have started receiving more attention in the past decade. This is because emission frequency and magnitudes are expected to increase with rising global temperatures leading to a reduction in terrestrial ice masses and increases in suitable sediment for the aeolian system. Of the identified high-latitude dust source regions, Greenland has received relatively little attention. Using World Meteorological Organization (WMO) dust code analysis, this study presents a 70-year record of dust events and preferential dust transport pathways from Kangerlussuaq, west Greenland. A clear seasonal pattern of dust emissions shows increases in dust events in spring and autumn driven by effective winds and sediment supply. The decadal record suggests an increase in the magnitude, but not frequency, of dust events since the early 1990s. Pathways analysis suggests that dust is preferentially transported away from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) towards the Davis Strait and Labrador Sea. When dust is transported towards the GrIS, it is more likely to be deposited in the ice-marginal ablation zone than on the higher altitude areas of the ice sheet. The impact of dust deposition on terrestrial, cryospheric and aquatic environments is also discussed.

Funding

This work was partially-funded by The Leverhulme Trust (IN-2013-036) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NE/P011578/1).

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Geography and Environment

Published in

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

Citation

BULLARD, J.E. and MOCKFORD, T., 2017. Seasonal and decadal variability of dust observations in the Kangerlussuaq area, West Greenland. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 50(1): e1415854.

Publisher

© The Authors. Published by Taylor and Francis

Version

  • NA (Not Applicable or Unknown)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-06-15

Publication date

2018-03-26

Copyright date

2018

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Taylor and Francis under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

ISSN

1938-4246

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC