| Volumes and Issues Contents of Issue 11/12 |
www.atmos-chem-phys.net/4/2465/2004/
© Author(s) 2004. This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.
Saharan dust events at the Jungfraujoch: detection by wavelength dependence of the single scattering albedo and first climatology analysis
1MeteoSwiss, Aerological Station, Les Invuardes, CH-1530 Payerne, Switzerland
2Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
3Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Überlandstrasse 129, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
4University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0221, La Jolla, CA 92093-0221, USA
5Chemical Institute, Copenhagen University, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
6Laboratory of Radio- and Environmental Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
Abstract. Scattering and absorption coefficients have been measured continuously at several wavelengths since March 2001 at the high altitude site Jungfraujoch (3580ma.s.l.). From these data, the wavelength dependences of the Ångström exponent and particularly of the single scattering albedo are determined. While the exponent of the single scattering albedo usually increases with wavelength, it decreases with wavelength during Saharan dust events (SDE) due to the greater size of the mineral aerosol particles and their different chemical composition. This change in the sign of the single scattering exponent turns out to be a sensitive means for detecting Saharan dust events. The occurrence of SDE detected by this new method was confirmed by visual inspection of filter colors and by studying long-range back-trajectories. An examination of SDE over a 22-month period shows that SDE are more frequent during the March-June period as well as during October and November. The trajectory analysis indicated a mean traveling time of 96.5h, with the most important source countries situated in the northern and north-western part of the Saharan desert. Most of the SDE do not lead to a detectable increase of the 48-h total suspended particulate matter (TSP) concentration at the Jungfraujoch. During Saharan dust events, the average contribution of this dust to hourly TSP at the Jungfraujoch is 16µg/m3, which corresponds to an annual mean of 0.8µg/m3 or 24% of TSP.
Final Revised Paper (PDF, 1866 KB) Discussion Paper (ACPD)
Citation: Collaud Coen, M., Weingartner, E., Schaub, D., Hueglin, C., Corrigan, C., Henning, S., Schwikowski, M., and Baltensperger, U.: Saharan dust events at the Jungfraujoch: detection by wavelength dependence of the single scattering albedo and first climatology analysis, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 2465-2480, 2004. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
