Modulation of saharan dust export by the North African dipole
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Abstract. We have studied the relationship between the long-term interannual variability in large-scale meteorology in western North Africa – the largest and most active dust source worldwide – and Saharan dust export in summer, when enhanced dust mobilization in the hyper-arid Sahara results in maximum dust impacts throughout the North Atlantic. We address this issue by analyzing 28 years (1987–2014) of summer averaged dust concentrations at the high-altitude Izaña observatory (~ 2400 m a.s.l.) on Tenerife, and satellite and meteorological reanalysis data. The summer meteorological scenario in North Africa (aloft 850 hPa) is characterized by a high over the the subtropical Sahara and a low over the tropics linked to the monsoon. We measured the variability of this high–low dipole-like pattern in terms of the North African dipole intensity (NAFDI): the difference of geopotential height anomalies averaged over the subtropics (30–32° N, Morocco) and the tropics (10–13° N, Bamako region) close to the Atlantic coast (at 5–8° W). We focused on the 700 hPa standard level due to dust export off the coast of North Africa tending to occur between 1 and 5 km a.s.l. Variability in the NAFDI is associated with displacements of the North African anticyclone over the Sahara and this has implications for wind and dust export. The correlations we found between the 1987–2014 summer mean of NAFDI with dust at Izaña, satellite dust observations and meteorological re-analysis data indicate that increases in the NAFDI (i) result in higher wind speeds at the north of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone that are associated with enhanced dust export over the subtropical North Atlantic, (ii) influence the long-term variability of the size distribution of exported dust particles (increasing the load of coarse dust) and (iii) are associated with enhanced rains in the tropical and northern shifts of the tropical rain band that may affect the southern Sahel. Interannual variability in NAFDI is also connected to spatial distribution of dust over the North Atlantic; high NAFDI summers are associated with major dust export (linked to winds) in the subtropics and minor dust loads in the tropics (linked to higher rainfall), and vice versa. The evolution of the summer NAFDI values since 1950 to the present day shows connections to climatic variability (through the Sahelian drought, ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation) and winds) that have implications for dust export paths. Efforts to anticipate how dust export may evolve in future decades will require a better understanding of how the large-scale meteorological systems represented by the NAFD will evolve.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The NE Atlantic region off NW Africa is almost permanently affected by the dusty Saharan Air Layer (SAL) airstream.
“In-situ measurements (Prospero and Lamb, 2003;Rodríguez et al., 2015;Rodríguez and López-Darias, 2021), satellite observations (Huang et al., 2010;Tsamalis et al., 2013) and models (Fig. 1B) show that this region is almost permanently affected by the dusty Saharan Air Layer (SAL) airstream (Prospero et al., 2021).”
From African desert dust influences migrations and fisheries of the Atlantic skipjack-tuna (2023) · cites this paper as Rodríguez et al., 2015
The paper describes the dusty SAL over the North Atlantic and reports that Izaña, off northwest Africa, is frequently within it in summer (study description; page unavailable). It does not support the stronger claim of almost permanent exposure: the Additional information passage says the SAL dust season at Izaña typically runs from late July to early September, with dust events on an average of 52% of August days. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
No references could be resolved yet.
Research works printed but not linked: 26
- Ashpole, I. and Washington, R.: Intraseasonal variability and atmospheric controls on daily dust occurrence frequency over the central and western Sahara during the boreal summer, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 118, 12915-12926, doi:10.1002/2013JD020267, 2013. 26692, 26698 · DOI
- Baker, A. R. and Jickells, T. D.: Mineral particle size as a control on aerosol iron solubility, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L17608, doi:10.1029/2006GL026557, 2006. 26691 · DOI
- Ben-Ami, Y., Koren, I., and Altaratz, O.: Patterns of North African dust transport over the At- lantic: winter vs. summer, based on CALIPSO first year data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 7867- 7875, doi:10.5194/acp-9-7867-2009, 2009. 26699 tica during the last climatic transition, Clim. Dynam., 23, 427-438, doi:10.1007/s00382-004- 0450-9, 2004. 26691 · DOI
- Díaz, J., Tobías, A., and Linares, C.: Saharan dust and association between particulate matter and case-specific mortality: a case-crossover analysis in Madrid (Spain), Environ. Health, 11, 11, doi:10.1186/1476-069X-11-11, 2012. 26691 · DOI
- Boucher, O., Chin, M., Dentener, F., Diehl, T., Easter, R., Fillmore, D., Ghan, S., Ginoux, P., Grini, A., Horowitz, L., Koch, D., Krol, M. C., Landing, W., Liu, X., Mahowald, N., Miller, R., Morcrette, J.-J., Myhre, G., Penner, J., Perlwitz, J., Stier, P., Takemura, T., and Zender, C. S.: Global dust model intercomparison in AeroCom phase I, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 7781- 7816, doi:10.5194/acp-11-7781-2011, 2011. 26691 · DOI · Paper page
- Immler, F. and Schrems, O.: Vertical profiles, optical and microphysical properties of Sa- haran dust layers determined by a ship-borne lidar, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3, 1353-1364, doi:10.5194/acp-3-1353-2003, 2003. 26698, 26699 · DOI
- Jickells, T. D., An, Z. S., Andersen, K. K., Baker, A. R., Bergametti, G., Brooks, N., Cao, J. J., Boyd, P. W., Duce, R. A., Hunter, K. A., Kawahata, H., Kubilay, N., laRoche, J., Liss, P. S., Mahowald, N., Prospero, J. M., Ridgwell, A. J., Tegen, I., and Torres, R.: Global iron con- nections between desert dust, ocean biogeochemistry and climate, Science, 308, 67-71, doi:10.1126/science.1105959, 2005. 26691 · DOI
- Knippertz, P. and Todd, M. C.: The central west Saharan dust hot spot and its relation to African easterly waves and extratropical disturbances, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D12117, doi:10.1029/2009JD012819, 2010. 26692, 26697, 26698 · DOI
- Knippertz, P. and Todd, M. C.: Mineral dust aerosols over the Sahara: meteorological con- trols on emission and transport and implications for modeling, Rev. Geophys., 50, RG1007, doi:10.1029/2011RG000362, 2012. 26692, 26698 · DOI
- Lafore, J. P., Flamant, C., Giraud, V., Guichard, F., Knippertz, P., Mahfouf, J. F., Mascart, P., and Williams, E. R.: Introduction to the AMMA Special Issue on "Advances in understanding Li, J., Carlson, B. E., and Lacis, A. A.: A study on the temporal and spatial variability of absorb- ing aerosols using Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer and Ozone Monitoring Instrument Aerosol Index data, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D09213, doi:10.1029/2008JD011278, 2009. 26696 · DOI
- Lavaysse, C., Flamant, C., Janicot, S., Parker, D. J., Lafore, J.-P., Sultan, B., and Pelon, J.: Seasonal evolution of the West African heat low: a climatological perspective, Clim. Dynam., 33, 313-330, doi:10.1007/s00382-009-0553-4, 2009. 26697 · DOI
- Lavaysse, C., Flamant, C., and Janicot, S.: Regional-scale convection patterns during strong and weak phases of the Saharan heat low, Atmos. Sci. Lett., 11, 255-264, doi:10.1002/asl.284, 2010a. 26698 · DOI
- Mulitza, S., Heslop, D., Pittauerova, D., Fischer, H. W., Meyer, I., Stuut, J. B., Zabel, M., Mollenhauer, G., Collins, J. A., Kuhnert, H., and Schulz, M.: Increase in African dust flux at the onset of commercial agriculture in the Sahel region, Nature, 466, 226-228, doi:10.1038/nature09213, 2010. 26692 · DOI
- Nicholson, S. E.: A revised picture of the structure of the "monsoon" and land ITCZ over West 25 Africa, Clim. Dyn., 32, 1155-1171, doi:10.1007/s00382-008-0514-3, 2009. 26696, 26697, 26698 · DOI
- Nicholson, S. E.: The West African Sahel: A Review of Recent Studies on the Rainfall Regime and Its Interannual Variability, ISRN-Meteorology, 2013, 453521, 32, doi:10.1155/2013/453521, 2013. 26693, 26697, 26698, 26699 · DOI · Paper page
- Prospero, J. M. and Lamb, P. J.: African droughts and dust transport to the Caribbean: climate change implications, Science, 302, 1024-1027, doi:10.1126/science.1089915, 2003. 26692, 15 26699, 26703, 26704 · DOI · Paper page
- Prospero, J. M., Ginoux, P., Torres, O., Nicholson, S. E., and Gill, T. E.: Environmental charac- terization of global sources of atmospheric soil dust identified with the Nimbus 7 Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) absorbing aerosol product, Rev. Geophys., 40, 2-1-2-31, doi:10.1029/2000RG000095, 2002. 26695, 26701, 26716 · DOI
- Prospero, J. M., Collard, F. X., Molinié, J., and Jeannot, A.: Characterizing the annual cycle of African dust transport to the Caribbean Basin and South America and its impact on the envi- ronment and air quality, Global Biogeochem. Cy., 29, 757-773, doi:10.1002/2013GB004802, 2014. 26691 · DOI
- Ridley, D. A., Heald, C. L., and Prospero, J. M.: What controls the recent changes in African mineral dust aerosol across the Atlantic?, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 5735-5747, doi:10.5194/acp-14-5735-2014, 2014. 26692 · DOI
- Rodríguez, S., Querol, X., Alastuey, A., Kallos, G., and Kakaliagou, O.: Saharan dust contribu- tions to PM 10 and TSP levels in Southern and Eastern Spain, Atmos. Environ., 35, 2433- 2447, doi:10.1016/S1352-2310(00)00496-9, 2001. 26691 · DOI
- Rodríguez, S., González, Y., Cuevas, E., Ramos, R., Romero, P. M., Abreu-Afonso, J., and Redondas, A.: Atmospheric nanoparticle observations in the low free troposphere during 11, 6663-6685, doi:10.5194/acp-11-6663-2011, 2011. 26694, 26701 · DOI
- Rodríguez, S., Alastuey, A., and Querol, X.: A review of methods for long term in situ charac- terization of aerosol dust, Aeolian Res., 6, 55-74, doi:10.1016/j.aeolia.2012.07.004, 2012. 26694, 26695 · DOI
- Ryder, C. L., Highwood, E. J., Lai, T. M., Sodemann, H., and Marsham, J. H.: Impact of atmo- D10201, doi:10.1029/2008JD010325, 2009. 26701 · DOI
- Tesche, M., Ansmann, A., Muller, D., Althausen, D., Mattis, I., Heese, B., Freudenthaler, V., Wiegner, M., Esselborn, M., Pisani, G., and Knippertz, P.: Vertical profiling of saharan dust with Raman lidars and airborne HSRL in southern Morocco during SAMUM, Tellus B, 61, 144-164, doi:10.1111/j.1600-0889.2008.00390.x, 2009. 26699 · DOI
- Tsamalis, C., Chédin, A., Pelon, J., and Capelle, V.: The seasonal vertical distribution of the Saharan Air Layer and its modulation by the wind, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 11235-11257, doi:10.5194/acp-13-11235-2013, 2013. 26693, 26696, 26698, 26699 · DOI · Paper page
- Welti, A., Lüönd, F., Stetzer, O. and Lohmann, U.: Influence of particle size on the ice nucleating ability of mineral dusts, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 6705-6715, doi:10.5194/acp-9-6705-2009, 2009. 26691 · DOI
Cited by
Sorted by citations
African desert dust influences migrations and fisheries of the Atlantic skipjack-tuna
Rodríguez, S., Riera, R., Fonteneau, A., Alonso-Pérez, S., & López-Darias, J. (2023) · Atmospheric Environment · doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.120022 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
“In-situ measurements (Prospero and Lamb, 2003; Rodríguez et al., 2015; Rodríguez and L ´ opez-Darias, 2021), satellite observations (Huang et al., 2010; Tsamalis et al., 2013) and models (Fig.”
Self-citation
- Authors
- Rodríguez, S., Cuevas, E., Prospero, J. M., Alastuey, A., Querol, X., López-Solano, J., García, M. I., & Alonso-Pérez, S.
- Affiliations
- Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (ES)
- University of Miami (US)
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Cuevas, E.
- Prospero, J. M.
- Querol, X.
- López-Solano, J.
- García, M. I.
- Alonso-Pérez, S.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
- Publisher
- Copernicus GmbH
- Published
- 2015-07-10
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 7471-7486
- ISSN
- 1680-7316 (ISSN-L)
- 1680-7324
- OpenAlex
- W2166631082
- Cited by
- 155
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 5
- FWCI
- 13.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Atmospheric chemistry and physics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Arcimis (State Meteorological Agency) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- ABACUS. Repositorio de Producción Científica (Universidad Europea) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion)
- LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0962256)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Agencia Canaria de Investigación, Innovación y Sociedad de la Información
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- European Social Fund
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Earth-Surface Processes › Aeolian processes and effects
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Keywords
- interannual variability, dust size distribution, Intertropical Convergence Zone, Sahelian drought, ENSO, Izaña Observatory, geopotential height anomalies
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
