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August 31, 2011

From Dust In Asia To Snow In California

ACS Meeting News: Field study may herald changes in weather and climate forecasting

Jyllian Kemsley

Prather and colleagues measured cloud ice composition using DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility's G-1 research aircraft. ARM Climate Research Facility
Prather and colleagues measured cloud ice composition using DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility's G-1 research aircraft.
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Atmospheric dust may play a key role in precipitation, according to researchers who flew aircraft and used ground monitoring stations to study these particles carried over the Pacific Ocean from Asia. They presented their results on Aug. 30 in a Division of Environmental Chemistry symposium at the American Chemical Society national meeting in Denver.

University of California, San Diego, chemistry professor Kimberly A. Prather and colleagues established correlation between the dust from Asia and the quantity of ice in clouds over California and snowfall amounts in the Sierra Nevada mountains. They did so by examining the properties of such atmospheric aerosols as well as the composition of precipitation samples, and tracking dust transport using satellite measurements. The researchers even traced one dust transport event in 2009 that added 16 inches to the snowpack (J. Geophys. Res., DOI: 10.1029/2010JD015351).

The work is part of a multiyear study of cloud properties and precipitation in California known as CalWater.

Because clouds and snowpack also affect climate, the new analysis may influence regional and worldwide climate modeling, commented atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon, adjunct professor at the University of Colorado department of atmospheric and oceanic sciences and who was not involved in the work.

Solomon said human activity stirs up dust in a lot places so the results may be applicable beyond dust from Asia affecting California.

Chemical & Engineering News
ISSN 0009-2347
Copyright © 2011 American Chemical Society
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