cover image: “Constraining High Latitude Dust activity in Greenland using the Sentinel constellation” (ESA-2022-02)

20.500.12592/wh70zrd

“Constraining High Latitude Dust activity in Greenland using the Sentinel constellation” (ESA-2022-02)

27 Mar 2024

From the original proposal, there were two planned aims for the project; A1) determine, at high resolution, the locations of active dust emission for a four-year period (2018-2021) for Alaska and Greenland, A2) assess the potential for quantifying mineral dust atmospheric loads in the regions immediately downwind of identified source areas, for a series of case study dust events. [...] This systematic imagery analysis provided both the dates of dust events and their origins so that a record of the temporal and spatial variability of dust from high latitude sources neighbouring the Gulf of Alaska was developed. [...] To quantify the potential for dust observation based on cloud-free days, for the dominant dust source that borders the Gulf of Alaska (the delta/mouth of the Copper River), each day for the study period was inspected to produce a record of imagery condition and one of the following specific categories was ascribed; cloud-impacted, clear but dust free, clear with dust, polar night, or missing data. [...] Findings WP1 Alaska: While the Copper River is a recognised dust source in the Gulf of Alaska region, this study’s results of dust observations a) indicate for the first time the frequency the Copper River delta behaves as a dust source based on systematic multi-year monitoring, and b) the relative activity of similar glacially-connected fluvial systems bordering the gulf, thus identifying all the. [...] While the UK members of the project team had maintained weekly contact with the work, the wrap-up also saw the final presentation to the SOLAS element of the work through the SOLAS steering member of the team, Santiago Gassó, alongside invited external European high latitude researchers; Christian Junger Jorgensen (Aarhus University, Denmark) and Throstur Thorsetinsson (University of Iceland).

Authors

Matthew Baddock

Pages
16
Published in
United States of America