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Mass concentration and mineralogical characteristics of aerosol particles collected at Dunhuang during ACE-Asia

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Abstract

Measurements were performed in spring 2001 and 2002 to determine the characteristics of soil dust in the Chinese desert region of Dunhuang, one of the ground sites of the Asia-Pacific Regional Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE-Asia). The mean mass concentrations of total suspended particle matter during the spring of 2001 and 2002 were 317 µg m−3 and 307 µg m−3, respectively. Eleven dust storm events were observed with a mean aerosol concentration of 1095 µg m−3, while the non-dusty days with calm or weak wind speed had a background aerosol loading of 196 µg m−3 on average in the springtime. The main minerals detected in the aerosol samples by X-ray diffraction were illite, kaolinite, chlorite, quartz, feldspar, calcite and dolomite. Gypsum, halite and amphibole were also detected in a few samples. The mineralogical data also show that Asian dust is characterized by a kaolinite to chlorite (K/C) ratio lower than 1 whereas Saharan dust exhibits a K/C ratio larger than 2. Air mass back-trajectory analysis show that three families of pathways are associated with the aerosol particle transport to Dunhuang, but these have similar K/C ratios, which further demonstrates that the mineralogical characteristics of Asian dust are different from African dust.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Shen Zhenxing  (沈振兴) & Li Xuxiang  (李旭祥)

  2. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, China

    Shen Zhenxing  (沈振兴) & Cao Junji  (曹军骥)

  3. Department of Applied Chemistry, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, 223-8522, Japan

    Tomoaki Okuda

  4. Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Wang Yaqiang  (王亚强) & Zhang Xiaoye  (张小曳)

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  1. Shen Zhenxing  (沈振兴)
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Shen, Z., Cao, J., Li, X. et al. Mass concentration and mineralogical characteristics of aerosol particles collected at Dunhuang during ACE-Asia. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 23, 291–298 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-006-0291-z

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