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Minor effect of physical size sorting on iron solubility of transported mineral dust

  • Z. B. Shi
  • , M. T. Woodhouse
  • , K. S. Carslaw
  • , M. D. Krom
  • , G. W. Mann
  • , A. R. Baker
  • , I. Savov
  • , G. R. Fones
  • , B. Brooks
  • , N. Drake
  • , T. D. Jickells
  • , L. G. Benning

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Observations show that the fractional solubility of Fe (FS-Fe, percentage of dissolved to total Fe) in dust aerosol increases considerably from 0.1 % in regions of high dust mass concentration to 80 % in remote regions where concentrations are low. Here, we combined laboratory geochemical measurements with global aerosol model simulations to test the hypothesis that the increase in FS-Fe is due to physical size sorting during transport. We determined the FS-Fe and fractional solubility of Al (FS-Al) in size-fractionated dust generated from two representative soil samples collected from known Saharan dust source regions using a customized dust re-suspension and collection system. The results show that the FS-Fe is size-dependent and ranges from 0.1-0.3 % in the coarse size fractions (>1 µm) to ~0.2-0.8 % in the fine size fractions (
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8459-8469
Number of pages11
JournalAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Volume11
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 19 Aug 2011

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