Extreme events and impacts of High Latitude Dust

Sand and dust storms, including High Latitude Dust (HLD), were identified as a natural hazard that affects 11 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. HLD is a significant contributor to land degradation, severe erosion and ecosystem collapse, as documented for example in Iceland. HLD contributes to Arctic Amplification, and it was recognized as an important climate driver in Polar Regions (IPCC SROCC, 2019; AMAP, 2021). HLD has impacts on climate, such as effects on cryosphere, cloud properties, atmospheric chemistry and radiation, and marine and terrestrial environment. Main socio-economic sectors such as health protection, road safety, energy production, aviation, and land degradation, are negatively impacted by HLD (eg. severe air pollution, mortality on roads due to reduced visibility).

Many extreme events causing severe air pollution were observed and measured in Iceland, Svalbard and Antarctica. In Iceland, we measured i. tens of severe dust storms at multiple locations annually as well as long-range transport from Iceland to Scandinavia, Faroe and British Isle, and Svalbard; ii. Snow-dust storms; iii. Saharan dust plumes causing air pollution in Iceland; iv. Extreme wind erosion events of volcanic ash mixed with dust; v. dust storms during high precipitation/low wind periods; vi. Dust storms during glacial outburst floods, vii. Arctic winter dust storms during Polar Vortex conditions, and viii. Black/Organic Carbon haze from burning mosses around the eruption in Reykjanes Peninsula, transported > 300 km to Northeast Iceland. Several dust storms were measured also in Antarctic Peninsula. In Svalbard, aerosol measurements revealed high concentrations of both dust, coal dust and Black Carbon, while dirty snow evidenced the occurrences of Snow-Dust Storms, similarly to Iceland.    

In-situ particulate matter data and observations from these extreme events will be presented. It is crucial to provide long-term daily aerosol measurements and dust forecasts from the remote high latitude dust regions. Additional in-situ observations around HLD sources would confirm that the background air quality is not as good as expected, and in some cases, it is worse than industrial or some urban stations, such as in Iceland during the CAMS NCP Iceland projects.

More information and activities of HLD networks can be found at the Icelandic Aerosol and Dust Association (IceDust) websites (https://ice-dust.com/, https://icedustblog.wordpress.com/publications/), UArctic Network on High Latitude Dust (https://www.uarctic.org/activities/thematic-networks/high-latitude-dust/), NORDDUST (https://ice-dust.com/projects/norddust/), and CAMS NCP Iceland (https://ice-dust.com/projects/cams-ncp-iceland/, https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/iceland).