Atmospherically produced cosmogenic nuclides provide unique tracers connecting processes in the atmosphere with those operating at Earth’s surface. Their application requires understanding not only cosmogenic production but also how these nuclides are transported through the atmosphere and delivered to terrestrial and marine environments. Atmospheric circulation, aerosol transport, precipitation, and scavenging can modify depositional fluxes and thereby influence signals recorded in soils, sediments, ice, and other environmental archives. Recent advances in atmospheric modelling increasingly allow this chain from production to deposition to be quantified for cosmogenic nuclides such as ¹⁰Be and ³⁶Cl. Physics-based production functions can be coupled with atmospheric transport and deposition models to predict spatially and temporally resolved fluxes, which can be tested against observational records. Multi-nuclide approaches may further help distinguish variations in production from those arising during atmospheric transport and deposition.
Improved constraints on cosmogenic-nuclide deposition are particularly important for quantitative applications at Earth’s surface. Meteoric ¹⁰Be and ¹⁰Be/⁹Be, for example, are used to quantify soil residence times, sediment transport, weathering, erosion, and catchment-wide denudation, while other cosmogenic nuclides provide complementary constraints on surface processes. Linking atmospheric models to such applications can provide spatially resolved depositional flux estimates and improve the interpretation of cosmogenic-nuclide inventories and ratios in landscapes.
This session aims to bring together communities working on cosmogenic-nuclide production, atmospheric transport and deposition, environmental archives, and Earth-surface applications. We welcome contributions on production and transport models, aerosol interactions and scavenging, deposition, model downscaling and validation, as well as studies linking atmospheric modelling with soil and sediment dynamics, weathering and denudation, landscape evolution, and landform dating. Contributions from ice-core, lacustrine, and marine archives and multi-nuclide studies are equally welcome. By connecting these perspectives, the session seeks to advance our understanding of how cosmogenic signals are transferred from the atmosphere to Earth’s surface and used quantitatively to investigate Earth-surface processes.