The Earth's atmosphere contains countless tiny particles (aerosols), which come from many sources, including land surfaces, volcanoes, the oceans, plants and industrial activities. These play an important role in the climate system by modifying the radiation budget, cloud properties, the atmospheric circulation, and global bio-geochemical cycles. Mineral dust aerosols are the dominant aerosol type globally. These are mostly emitted from the world's deserts and are transported in great plumes many thousands of km from their sources (Fig 1).
Fig 1. Dust plumes from the Sahara transported over the Atlantic
However, our understanding of how these aerosols are emitted and transported and how they affect climate remains relatively poor and so dust remains a major source of uncertainty in climate simulations. Work at Sussex seeks to understand the dust cycle and the associated climate impact. The aim is to improve the representation of dust aerosol processes in global and regional climate models. Our emphasis is on the Sahara desert, the world's greatest source region of dust.
Research highlights include
- Research in 'The Dustiest Place the World': The Bodele depression, Chad
- Dust and the West African Monsoon
- The Fennec project: Dust processes and the western Sahara 'heat low'
Publications on dust and climate
2009
1. Bou Karam, D., C. Flamant, P. Tulet, J. Chaboureau, A. Dabas, and M. C. Todd, 2009, Estimate of Sahelian dust emissions in the intertropical discontinuity region of the West African Monsoon, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D13106, doi:10.1029/2008JD011444.
2. Bou Karam, D., Flamant, C., Tulet, P., Todd, M.C., Pelon, J., and Williams, E., 2009. Dry cyclogenesis and dust mobilization in the Inter Tropical Discontinuity of the West African Monsoon: a case study. Journal of Geophysical Research, 114, D05115, doi:10.1029/2008JD010952.
3. Cavazos, C., M. C. Todd, and K. Schepanski (2009), Numerical model simulation of the Saharan dust event of 6-11 March 2006 using the Regional Climate Model version 3 (RegCM3), J. Geophys. Res., 114, D12109, doi:10.1029/2008JD011078
4. Flamant, C., Lavaysse, C., Todd, M.C., Cahaboureau, J-P, and Pelon, J., 2009. Multi-platform observations of a representative springtime case of Bodélé and Sudan dust emission, transport and scavenging over West Africa. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, DOI: 10.1002/qj.376
5. Knippertz, P and Todd, M.C., The Role of African Easterly Waves in dust emission over the Western Sahara. Geophysical Research Letters.(in review)
6. Schepanski, K., I. Tegen, M. C. Todd, B. Heinold, G. Boenisch, B. Laurent, and A. Macke (2009), Meteorological processes forcing Saharan dust emission inferred from MSG-SEVIRI observations of subdaily dust source activation and numerical models, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D10201, doi:10.1029/2008JD010325.
2008
7. Todd, M.C., Washington, R., Lizcano, G., Ragvahan, S and Knippertz, P., 2008. Regional model simulations of the Bodélé low-level jet of Northern Chad during BoDEx 2005. Journal of Climate, 21, 995-1012
8. Todd, M.C. and co-authors, 2008. Quantifying uncertainty in estimates of mineral dust flux: an inter-comparison of model performance over the Bodélé Depression, Northern Chad, Journal of Geophysical Research 113, D24107, doi:10.1029/2008JD010476
2007
9. Bouet, C., Cautenet, G., Washington, R, Todd., M.C., Laurent, B., Marticorena, B, and Bergametti, G., 2007. Mesoscale modeling of aeolian dust emission during the BoDEx 2005 experiment. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, 34, L07812, doi:10.1029/2006GL029184.2007
10. Warren, A., Todd, M.C., Bristow, C., Chappell, A., Engelstaedter, S., M'Bainayell, S, Martins, V. and Washington, R., 2007. The Bodele depression, Chad: Observations form the dustiest place on earth. Geomorphology, doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2007.02.007
11. Todd, M.C., Martins, V., Washington, R., Lizcano, G, Dubovik, O., M'Bainayel, S., and Engelstaedter, S., 2007. Mineral dust emission from the Bodele Depression, Chad during BoDEx. 2005. Journal of Geophysical Research 112, D06207, doi:10.1029/2006JD007170
2006
12. Koren, I., Kaufman, Y.J., Washington, R., Todd, M.C., Rudich, Y., Martins, V. J. and Rosenfeld, D., 2006. The Bodélé depression-a single spot in the Sahara that provides most of the mineral dust to the Amazon forest. Env. Res. Lett., 1, 1-5
13. Tegen, I., Heinold, B., Todd, M.C., Helmert, J., Washington, R. and Dubovik, O., 2006. Modelling soil dust aerosol in the Bodélé depression during the BoDEx campaign. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 6, 4345-4359
14. Washington, R., Todd, M.C., Engelstaedter, S., Mbainayel, S., and Mitchell, F., 2006. Dust and the low-level circulation over the Bodele Depression, Chad: Observations from BoDEx 2005, Journal of Geophysical Research, 111, D03201, doi:10.1029/2005JD006502.
15. Washington, R., Todd, M.C., Lizcano, G., Tegen, I., Flamant, C., Koren, I., Ginoux, P., Engelstaedter, S., Bristow, C., Zender, C.S., Goudie, A., Warren A., and Prospero, J.M., 2006. Links between topography, wind, deflation, lakes and dust: The case of the Bodele depression, Chad. Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L09401, doi 10/1029 2006GL025827
2005
16. Washington, R. and Todd, M.C., 2005. Atmospheric controls on mineral dust emission from the Bodele depression, Chad: The role of the low level jet. Geophysical Research Letters 32, (17), L17701 10.1029/2005GL023597.
2003
17. Goudie, A., Washington, R., Todd, M and Swann, M., 2003. North African dust production: Source areas and variability. CLIVAR Exchanges, 27
18. Washington, R., Todd, M.C., Goudie, A.S and Middleton, N, 2003. Global dust storm source areas determined by the total ozone monitoring spectrometer and ground observations. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 93, 297-313