Photochemistry of atmospheric dust: ozone decomposition on illuminated titanium dioxide

The ozone decomposition onto mineral surfaces prepared with traces of solid TiO2 in a matrix of SiO2 in order to mimic mineral dust particles has been investigated using a coated-wall flow-tube system at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The ozone uptake coefficients were measured both under dark conditions and irradiation using near UV-light. While uptake in the dark was negligible, a large photoenhanced ozone uptake was observed. For TiO2/SiO2 mixtures under irradiation, the uptake coefficients increased with increasing TiO2 mass fraction (from 1 to 3 wt %), and the corresponding uptake coefficient based on the geometric surfaces ranged from 3 x 10(-6) to 3 x 10(-5). The uptake kinetics was also observed to increase with decreasing ozone concentration between 290 and 50 ppbv. Relative humidity influenced the ozone uptake on the film, and a reduced ozone loss was observed for relative humidity above 30%. The experimental results suggest that under atmospherically relevant conditions the photochemistry of dust can represent an important sink of ozone inside the dust plume.

Chemistry and Microphysics of Atmospheric Aerosol Surfaces: Laboratory Techniques and Applications

A number of current techniques are presented by which the chemistry of interaction of selected gas phase species with atmospheric surfaces as well as the microphysical behaviour of such surfaces can be investigated. The techniques discussed include (i) the coated wall flow tube reactor, (ii) the Knudsen-cell / DRIFT spectroscopy, (iii) the surface aerosol microscopy and (iv) the molecular beam scattering technique. In each of these methods specific and robust information is deduced on the kinetics and thermodynamics of gas adsorption and reaction on surfaces. Specific examples include the adsorption of acetone on ice surfaces, the adsorption and reaction of SO2 on iron oxides, the hygroscopic and phase behaviour of binary and ternary salt solution droplets (ammonium sulphate and ammonium sulphate / dicarboxylic acids solutions) as well as on the dynamics of inelastic collisions of noble gases on super-cooled sulphuric acid surfaces. In addition we also show how quantum chemistry can be utilized to assist in interpreting absorption energies on structurally different ice surfaces. Whilst each example represents different aspects of heterogenous atmospheric interactions, they jointly represent significant progress in laboratory investigations of multi-phase atmospheric chemistry with substantial potential for application to other systems and/or problems.

Amplification of the North American "Dust Bowl" drought through human-induced land degradation

The "Dust Bowl" drought of the 1930s was highly unusual for North America, deviating from the typical pattern forced by "La Nina" with the maximum drying in the central and northern Plains, warm temperature anomalies across almost the entire continent, and widespread dust storms. General circulation models (GCMs), forced by sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from the 1930s, produce a drought, but one that is centered in southwestern North America and without the warming centered in the middle of the continent. Here, we show that the inclusion of forcing from human land degradation during the period, in addition to the anomalous SSTs, is necessary to reproduce the anomalous features of the Dust Bowl drought. The degradation over the Great Plains is represented in the GCM as a reduction in vegetation cover and the addition of a soil dust aerosol source, both consequences of crop failure. As a result of land surface feedbacks, the simulation of the drought is much improved when the new dust aerosol and vegetation boundary conditions are included. Vegetation reductions explain the high temperature anomaly over the northern U.S., and the dust aerosols intensify the drought and move it northward of the purely ocean-forced drought pattern. When both factors are included in the model simulations, the precipitation and temperature anomalies are of similar magnitude and in a similar location compared with the observations. Human-induced land degradation is likely to have not only contributed to the dust storms of the 1930s but also amplified the drought, and these together turned a modest SST-forced drought into one of the worst environmental disasters the U.S. has experienced.

Atmospheric iron deposition: global distribution, variability, and human perturbations

Atmospheric inputs of iron to the open ocean are hypothesized to modulate ocean biogeochemistry. This review presents an integration of available observations of atmospheric iron and iron deposition, and also covers bioavailable iron distributions. Methods for estimating temporal variability in ocean deposition over the recent past are reviewed. Desert dust iron is estimated to represent 95% of the global atmospheric iron cycle, and combustion sources of iron are responsible for the remaining 5%. Humans may be significantly perturbing desert dust (up to 50%). The sources of bioavailable iron are less well understood than those of iron, partly because we do not know what speciation of the iron is bioavailable. Bioavailable iron can derive from atmospheric processing of relatively insoluble desert dust iron or from direct emissions of soluble iron from combustion sources. These results imply that humans could be substantially impacting iron and bioavailable iron deposition to ocean regions, but there are large uncertainties in our understanding.

Record of winter monsoon strength

The Asian summer monsoon has been precisely reconstructed from the high-resolution record from the speleothem, but reconstruction of the Asian winter monsoon is less satisfactory. Yancheva et al. provide such a reconstruction for the last 16,000 years from the titanium (Ti) content of the sediments of Lake Huguang Maar in coastal South China. However, we argue that the Ti is likely to have come mainly from the catchment and so the Ti content may instead be related to the hydrology of the lake.