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.
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/