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Quantitative Remote Sensing of African Dust Transport to the Mediterranean

  • Chapter
The Impact of Desert Dust Across the Mediterranean

Part of the book series: Environmental Science and Technology Library ((ENST,volume 11))

Abstract

We present here an overview of our quantitative studies of African dust transport to the Mediterranean, based on Meteosat and CZCS spaceborne images of the reflected sunlight, and coincident exogeneous meteorological and chemical atmospheric or marine data. Investigations include the retrieval of the desert dust aerosol optical thickness and mass column density over seawater, of the dust deposition flux and its fate in surface seawater. The comparison between measured and Meteosat-derived dust deposition fluxes indicates that cloud cover limits short-term Meteosat survey, but that long-term averaged dust fluxes to seawater can be approximated from Meteosat data. Results from our analysis of multi-year series of Meteosat ISCCP-B2 data indicate a marked seasonal cycle of dust transport in the Mediterranean, with a high dust load in spring and summer, and a strong year to year variability. A case study of the apparent velocity and altitude of dust transport shows a primary transport of dust particles above the atmospheric boundary layer. Finally, a combined survey of desert aerosol and phytoplankton in summertime seems to provide a first observation of the impact of strong dust inputs on the phytoplankton growth.

This paper consists of three paper and two poster presentations at the conference.

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Author notes

  1. C. R. Quetel

    Present address: Hydrospheric Environmental Protection Department, National Institute for Resources and Environment, 16-3 Onogawa, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, CNRS-CEA, 1 Avenue de la Terrasse, F-91198, Gif-Sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    F. Dulac, C. E. Lambert, W. Guelle, C. R. Quetel & U. Ezat

  2. Laboratoire de Modélisation du Climat et de l’Environnement, CEA/DSM/LMCE, C.E. Saclay 709, F-91191, Gif-Sur-Yvette Cedex, France

    C. Moulin, F. Guillard, J. Poitou, W. Guelle & X. Schneider

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  1. Istituto di Geologia Marina, CNR, Bologna, Italy

    Stefano Guerzoni

  2. International Marine Centre, Oristano, Italy

    Stefano Guerzoni

  3. Oceanography Laboratories, Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Roy Chester

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Dulac, F. et al. (1996). Quantitative Remote Sensing of African Dust Transport to the Mediterranean. In: Guerzoni, S., Chester, R. (eds) The Impact of Desert Dust Across the Mediterranean. Environmental Science and Technology Library, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3354-0_3

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