Glacially sourced dust as a potentially significant source of ice nucleating particles
Aeolian dusts serve as ice nucleating particles in mixed-phase clouds, and thereby alter the cloud properties and lifetime. Glacial outwash plains are thought to be a major dust source in cold, high latitudes. Due to the recent rapid and widespread retreat of glaciers, high-latitude dust emissions a...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Nature geoscience 2019-04, Vol.12 (4), p.253-258 |
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Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | Aeolian dusts serve as ice nucleating particles in mixed-phase clouds, and thereby alter the cloud properties and lifetime. Glacial outwash plains are thought to be a major dust source in cold, high latitudes. Due to the recent rapid and widespread retreat of glaciers, high-latitude dust emissions are projected to increase, especially in the Arctic region, which is highly sensitive to climate change. However, the potential contribution of high-latitude dusts to ice nucleation in Arctic low-level clouds is not well acknowledged. Here we show that glacial outwash sediments in Svalbard (a proxy for glacially sourced dusts) have a remarkably high ice nucleating ability under conditions relevant for mixed-phase cloud formation, as compared with typical mineral dusts. The high ice nucleating ability of the sediments is probably governed by the presence of small amounts of organic matter ( |
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ISSN: | 1752-0894 1752-0908 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41561-019-0314-x |