A Climatology of Atmospheric Iron Inputs to the Atlantic Ocean

大西洋大气铁输入的气候学

基本信息

批准号：
NE/G000239/1
负责人：
Alexander Baker
金额：
$ 6.31万
依托单位：
University of East Anglia
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2008
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2008 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FG000239%2F1
关键词：
Climatology Atmospheric Iron Inputs Atlantic

项目摘要

Desert dust can be picked up by strong winds and transported great distances, sometimes thousands of kilometres, through the atmosphere. This process has some interesting effects on the climate of our planet. Iron makes up a small portion of the dust and this element is often in short supply for the plants (phytoplankton) that live in the ocean. Wind-blown dust can be an important source of iron to these organisms in some ocean regions and so dust supply can be linked to phytoplankton growth and the uptake of carbon from the atmosphere that this causes. While in the atmosphere, dust also alters the way that radiation is absorbed or reflect by the planet. It is therefore important to include dust transport in models of the Earth's climate system, but our current understanding of this transport is rather poor. One particular difficulty is the lack of measurements available to help constrain and develop such models. Some long-term monitoring sites provide information on changes in dust transport over time, but they are too few and too widely spaced to give adequate information on spatial variability. The UEA group has recently carried out 10 long-transect crossings of the Atlantic Ocean, sampling the atmosphere for the iron content of aerosol and rain. This is a unique dataset and will allow us to assess the atmospheric input of iron to the Atlantic directly, based on field data, for the first time. The results of our study will be shared directly with modellers at the Hadley Centre and the QUEST Earth System Science programme, so that we can ensure that the benefit of this extra information is passed directly to the modelling community.

沙漠灰尘可以通过强风和距离很大的距离，有时是数千公里的大气层来捡起。这个过程对我们星球的气候产生了一些有趣的影响。铁构成了一小部分灰尘，而这种元素通常是居住在海洋中的植物（植物浮游生物）的供应。风吹尘可能是某些海洋地区这些生物的重要来源，因此粉尘供应可以与浮游植物的生长以及从这引起的大气中吸收碳的吸收。在大气中，灰尘也改变了辐射被行星吸收或反射的方式。因此，重要的是要在地球气候系统的模型中包括尘埃运输，但是我们目前对这种运输的理解却很差。一个特别的困难是缺乏可用来约束和开发此类模型的测量值。一些长期监测站点提供了有关随时间变化的信息，但是它们太少，太多了，无法提供有关空间可变性的足够信息。 UEA集团最近进行了10个大西洋的长期横流，为气溶胶和雨水的铁含量进行了抽样。这是一个独特的数据集，将使我们能够首次根据现场数据直接评估铁的大气输入。我们的研究结果将直接与Hadley Center和Quest Earth System Science计划的建模者直接共享，以便我们可以确保直接将这些额外信息的好处传递给建模社区。