Identification

Title

Does the size distribution of emitted dust aerosols depend on the wind speed at emission?

Abstract

The size distribution of mineral dust aerosols greatly affects their interactions with clouds, radiation, ecosystems, and other components of the Earth system. Several theoretical dust emission models predict that the dust size distribution depends on the wind speed at emission, with larger wind speeds predicted to produce smaller aerosols. The present study investigates this prediction using a compilation of published measurements of the size-resolved vertical dust flux emitted by eroding soils. Surprisingly, these measurements indicate that the size distribution of naturally emitted dust aerosols is independent of the wind speed. This finding is consistent with the recently formulated brittle fragmentation theory of dust emission, but inconsistent with other theoretical dust emission models. The independence of the emitted dust size distribution with wind speed simplifies both the parameterization of dust emission in atmospheric circulation models as well as the interpretation of geological records of dust deposition.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d71v5g9s

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2011-10-07T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact