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Characteristics of atmospheric dust deposition in snow on Glacier No. 4, Mt Bogeda, China

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Abstract

Wind-blown mineral dust derived from the crustal surface is an important atmospheric component affecting the Earth’s radiation budget. Deposition of dust particles was measured in snow on the Glacier No. 4, Mt Bogeda, in the eastern Tian Shan, China. The mean number concentration of dust particles with 0.57 < d < 26 μm in the snowpack is 279 × 103 mL−1, with a mean mass concentration of 1,480 μg kg−1. Dust number size distribution showed the dominant particles with d < 2 μm, while volume size distribution showed single-modal structures having volume median diameters from 3 to 25 μm. Results were compared with the data from other sites in the Tian Shan and various northern hemisphere sites. A backward trajectory model was also employed to examine the transport process of dust particles in this region. Most of the air mass originated from the southern and northwestern regions, e.g., the Taklimakan and Gurbantunggut deserts in springtime, during the Asian dust period, which may bring plentiful aerosol dust particles from the sandy deserts. Transport of dust from western Chinese deserts to adjacent mountains is in agreement with a growing body of evidence on the importance of dust inputs to alpine regions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the staff and the students of Tian Shan Glaciological Station of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for their valuable logistical supports of the field work. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41121001, 41171053, and 1141001040) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2012M512049). The authors also thank two anonymous reviewers and the chief editor, James W. LaMoreaux, for helpful comments and suggestions that very much improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Zhiwen Dong, Zhongqin Li, Wenbin Wang & Ping Zhou

  2. Tianshan Glaciological Station, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Zhongqin Li, Wenbin Wang & Ping Zhou

  3. Lanzhou City University, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Kaiming Li

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  1. Zhiwen Dong
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  2. Zhongqin Li
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Correspondence to Zhiwen Dong.

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Dong, Z., Li, Z., Wang, W. et al. Characteristics of atmospheric dust deposition in snow on Glacier No. 4, Mt Bogeda, China. Environ Earth Sci 70, 1423–1433 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2228-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-013-2228-z

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