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Seasonal and decadal variability of dust observations in the Kangerlussuaq area, West Greenland
journal contribution
posted on 2017-06-26, 10:30 authored by Joanna BullardJoanna Bullard, Thomas MockfordDust 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 ResearchCitation
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 FrancisVersion
- 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
2017-06-15Publication date
2018-03-26Copyright date
2018Notes
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
1938-4246Publisher version
Language
- en