Thomas E. Gill

Asian dust events of April 1998

On April 15 and 19, 1998, two intense dust storms were generated over the Gobi desert by springtime low-pressure systems descending from the northwest. The windblown dust was detected and its evolution followed by its yellow color on SeaWiFS satellite images, routine surface-based monitoring, and through serendipitous observations. The April 15 dust cloud was recirculating, and it was removed by a precipitating weather system over east Asia. The April 19 dust cloud crossed the Pacific Ocean in 5 days, subsided to the surface along the mountain ranges between British Columbia and California, and impacted severely the optical and the concentration environments of the region. In east Asia the dust clouds increased the albedo over the cloudless ocean and land by up to 10–20%, but it reduced the near-UV cloud reflectance, causing a yellow coloration of all surfaces. The yellow colored backscattering by the dust eludes a plausible explanation using simple Mie theory with constant refractive index. Over the West Coast the dust layer has increased the spectrally uniform optical depth to about 0.4, reduced the direct solar radiation by 30–40%, doubled the diffuse radiation, and caused a whitish discoloration of the blue sky. On April 29 the average excess surface-level dust aerosol concentration over the valleys of the West Coast was about 20–50 μg/m3 with local peaks >100 μg/m3. The dust mass mean diameter was 2–3 μm, and the dust chemical fingerprints were evident throughout the West Coast and extended to Minnesota. The April 1998 dust event has impacted the surface aerosol concentration 2–4 times more than any other dust event since 1988. The dust events were observed and interpreted by an ad hoc international web-based virtual community. It would be useful to set up a community-supported web-based infrastructure to monitor the global aerosol pattern for such extreme aerosol events, to alert and to inform the interested communities, and to facilitate collaborative analysis for improved air quality and disaster management.

Long-range transport of North African dust to the eastern United States

The long-range transport of North African dust to the Middle East, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean has been well documented during the past 25 years. With the advent of routine collection and analysis of fine aerosols at national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas in the continental United States, these North African dust incursions can now be tracked, characterized, and quantified across much of the eastern half of the United States. Identification of the North African source of these dust episodes is confirmed by mass distribution measurements, a characteristic Al/Ca ratio, isentropic backward air mass trajectories, and sequential plots of the spatial distribution of the dust plumes. North African dust incursions into the continental United States persist for ∼10 days and occurred, on average, 3 times per year from 1992 to 1995. Fine soil mass usually exceeds 10 μg m−3 during these dust episodes and dominates local fine soil dust by an order of magnitude or more, even in the so-called “dust bowl” states of the central United States. Size-resolved measurements of elemental composition taken during July 1995 indicate that the mass mean diameter of the transported North African dust is <1 μm. The high mass scattering efficiency and abundant particle surface area associated with these submicron soil aerosols could have important consequences for both the radiative balance of the region and the chemistry of the local aerosols during summer when the long-range transport of North African dust to the United States is most common.

Eolian sediments generated by anthropogenic disturbance of playas: human impacts on the geomorphic system and geomorphic impacts on the human system

Abstract In many of the Earths arid and semiarid lands, saline lakes, playas, and similar landforms are disturbed as a result of human activity. Diversion and/or consumptive use of surface or groundwaters has created the effect of a climate change in numerous drainage basins, resulting in the desiccation of lakes and reactivation of eolian processes at many locations. Playas are natural sites for extensive eolian activity because of the deposition of clastic and chemical sediments in basins by surface water (via fluvial transport) and groundwater (via efflorescence). Wind erosion and deposition of playa sediments has had a major role in the development of landforms and sedimentary units in the present (lunette fields worldwide; Simpson Desert, Australia) and geological past, from the Triassic (Mercia Mudstone, England) to the Quaternary (Lahontan Basin and Cima Volcanic Field, USA). Anthropogenic disturbance or desiccation of playa systems has resulted in the eolian transport of sand (e.g. Lop Nor, China; Konya Basin, Turkey; Rajasthan, India; Kappakoola, Australia; several sites in West Africa) and/or dust (e.g. Aral Sea, Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan; Old Wives Lake, Canada; Kara Bogaz Gol, (ex-)USSR; Lake Texcoco, Mexico; Owens (dry) Lake, Mono Lake and other playas, USA). Typically, this is accomplished by abstraction of water and/or removal of vegetation from terminal lake basins. An extensive review of the literature documents many examples and/or potential examples of such phenomena in numerous nations. The reactivation of eolian processes from closed basins produces air pollution in the form of fugitive dust (naturally occurring compounds released into the atmosphere by human actions), and has significant environmental and economic impacts on human activities in the surrounding areas. Restoration or mitigation of degraded land on or surrounding playas has been accomplished at Lake Texcoco, Kara Bogaz Gol and the Konya Basin, and is being actively implemented at Mono Lake, Owens (dry) Lake and the Aral Sea.

Relation of vertical flux of particles smaller than 10 μm to total aeolian horizontal mass flux at Owens Lake

The vertical flux of particles smaller than 10 μm for a saline playa surface, the particle size composition of which was classified as loam-textured, was estimated for a highly wind-erodible site on the playa of Owens (dry) Lake in California. The ratio of this vertical flux to the horizontal flux of total airborne material through a surface perpendicular to the soil and to the wind, Fa/qtot, is 2.75×10−4 m−1. This is consistent with that ratio for sand-textured soils and suggests that the binding energy and size of saltating particles for the tested surface material at Owens Lake is of the same order as that for sandier soils. The horizontal mass flux of saltating grains, q, in the reported wind erosion event is 51.3% of the total horizontal mass flux qtot. Therefore the ratio of Fa/q is 5.4×10−4 m−1.

Saltating particles, playa crusts and dust aerosols at Owens (dry) Lake, California

As part of the multinational Lake Owens Dust Experiment (LODE), we have studied the generation of dust storms on the south sand sheet of Owens (dry) Lake, California, an anthropogenically desiccated playa reported to be the single greatest source of particulate matter in North America. During March 1993, we performed an intensive field study including eight significant dust storms, building on our prior work (1978–1984) and preliminary studies (1991–1992). We studied sources and magnitude of coarse saltating particles, the meteorological conditions that allow them to become mobile across the flat playa of Owens (dry) Lake, and how the motion of saltating particles across different types of playa surfaces results in the generation of PM10 dusts (aerosol particles smaller than 10 μm aerodynamic diameter). Saltating grains of lacustrine sand and broken crust abrade and disaggregate the playa surface into fine aerosols, and the resulting PM10 concentrations recorded during major dust storms are among the highest ever recorded in North America. On 23 March 1993, we measured a 2 h concentration on the playa of 40 620 μg m−3, as far as we can determine the highest ambient PM10 value ever recorded in the U.S.A. Abrasion of salt-silt-clay crusts by saltation is shown to be responsible for all but a small part of one dust storm. The quantity ‘sand run’, saltating particle transport multiplied by wind run, is shown to be very closely correlated with dust aerosol concentration. Finally, we have established that on-lake bed studies are essential for quantitative prediction of dust events on the Owens (dry) Lake bed, despite the difficult conditions encountered.

Preferential dust sources: A geomorphological classification designed for use in global dust-cycle models

Received 11 April 2011; revised 28 September 2011; accepted 4 October 2011; published 24 December 2011. [1] We present a simple theoretical land-surface classification that can be used to determine the location and temporal behavior of preferential sources of terrestrial dust emissions. The classification also provides information about the likely nature of the sediments, their erodibility and the likelihood that they will generate emissions under given conditions. The scheme is based on the dual notions of geomorphic type and connectivity between geomorphic units. We demonstrate that the scheme can be used to map potential modern-day dust sources in the Chihuahuan Desert, the Lake Eyre Basin and the Taklamakan. Through comparison with observed dust emissions, we show that the scheme provides a reasonable prediction of areas of emission in the Chihuahuan Desert and in the Lake Eyre Basin. The classification is also applied to point source data from the Western Sahara to enable comparison of the relative importance of different land surfaces for dust emissions. We indicate how the scheme could be used to provide an improved characterization of preferential dust sources in global dust-cycle models.

Large-scale variability of wind erosion mass flux rates at Owens Lake. 1. Vertical profiles of horizontal mass fluxes of wind-eroded particles with diameter greater than 50 μm

A field experiment at Owens (dry) Lake, California, tested whether and how the relative profiles of airborne horizontal mass fluxes for >50-μm wind-eroded particles changed with friction velocity. The horizontal mass flux at almost all measured heights increased proportionally to the cube of friction velocity above an apparent threshold friction velocity for all sediment tested and increased with height except at one coarse-sand site where the relative horizontal mass flux profile did not change with friction velocity. Size distributions for long-time-averaged horizontal mass flux samples showed a saltation layer from the surface to a height between 30 and 50 cm, above which suspended particles dominate. Measurements from a large dust source area on a line parallel to the wind showed that even though the saltation flux reached equilibrium ∼650 m downwind of the starting point of erosion, weakly suspended particles were still input into the atmosphere 1567 m downwind of the starting point; thus the saltating fraction of the total mass flux decreased after 650 m. The scale length difference and ratio of 70/30 suspended mass flux to saltation mass flux at the farthest down wind sampling site confirm that suspended particles are very important for mass budgets in large source areas and that saltation mass flux can be a variable fraction of total horizontal mass flux for soils with a substantial fraction of <100-μm particles.

A two-parameter Weibull function to describe airborne dust particle size distributions

A number of mathematical distributions have been proposed for the description of the particle size distribution of unconsolidated sediments. However, few studies have mathematically described aeolian dust particle size distributions. RecentworkhasshownmathematicallyhowthesequentialfragmentationofmaterialsleadstoaWeibulldistribution.Since the breakage of aggregates by saltating grains is a primary mode of aeolian dust production, we test the hypothesis that the Weibull distribution may be used to describe airborne soil grains. Surface samples were collected from 52 sites including soils,dirtroadsandroadsideditchesintheSouthernHighPlainsofwestTexas.ThesamplesweretumbledintheLubbock dust generation, sampling and analysis system to generate a dust cloud. The particle size distribution of the dust was measuredinsitubylaserdiffractionandPM10concentrationwasdeterminedgravimetrically(PM10 = airborneparticulate matter with diameter10 m). This study demonstrated that the Weibull cumulative distribution function (c.d.f.) is an excellentchoicetodescribetheparticlesizedistributionofdustsuspendedfrommineralsediment.AWeibullc.d.f.usedto describethedustcloudsizedistribution,accountedfor94percentofthevariationinestimatesofparticles50mdiameter. The fraction of dust particles10 m diameter, as estimated using the Weibull, was not correlated to suspended PM10 concentration. However, the fraction of particles10m was correlated with properties of the sediment from which the airborne dust was derived. As clay content increased, the total amount of suspended dust increased and the fraction of suspendedparticles10minthedustclouddecreased.Analysesofvarianceshowednosignificantdifferences(P< 005)

Dust: Small‐scale processes with global consequences

Desert dust, both modern and ancient, is a critical component of the Earth system. Atmospheric dust has important effects on climate by changing the atmospheric radiation budget, while deposited dust influences biogeochemical cycles in the oceans and on land. Dust deposited on snow and ice decreases its albedo, allowing more light to be trapped at the surface, thus increasing the rate of melt and influencing energy budgets and river discharge. In the human realm, dust contributes to the transport of allergens and pathogens and when inhaled can cause or aggravate respiratory diseases. Dust storms also represent a significant hazard to road and air travel. Because it affects so many Earth processes, dust is studied from a variety of perspectives and at multiple scales, with various disciplines examining emissions for different purposes using disparate strategies. Thus, the range of objectives in studying dust, as well as experimental approaches and results, has not yet been systematically integrated. Key research questions surrounding the production and sources of dust could benefit from improved collaboration among different research communities. These questions involve the origins of dust, factors that influence dust production and emission, and methods through which dust can be monitored.

Dating Rock Varnishes by the Cation Ratio Method with PIXE, ICP, and the Electron Microprobe

The measurement of rock varnish cation-ratios [(K+Ca)/Ti] and barium is evaluated by analyzing the same varnish scrapings with PIXE, inductively coupled plasma, neutron activation and wavelength dispersive electron microprobe. Results among these different methods are generally similar for ratios, but absolute concentrations differ in part due to uncertainties associated with weighing small samples. Barium concentrations are typically less than 1 % by weight; higher concentrations can be found in varnishes with depressions eroded into the varnish by fungi and lichens, and later infilled with aeolian detritus often including barium sulfate. Since these infilled hollows are known to produce anomalous varnish cation ratios, high barium values can, therefore, be used as an indicator that a sample is inappropriate for cation-ratio dating. The glacial chronology at Pine Creek, California, is revised in light of new data and a better understanding of variables influencing varnish chemistry.