Impacts of Asian dust storm associated with the stratosphere-to-troposphere transport in the spring of 2001 and 2002 on dust and tritium variations in Mount Wrangell ice core, Alaska

Abstract

The relation of interannual connection between Asian dust outbreaks and stratosphere-to-troposphere transport (STT) in spring was suggested by the dust and tritium variations in the Mount Wrangell ice core, Alaska in [Yasunari, T.J., Shiraiwa, T., Kanamori, S., Fujii, Y., Igarashi, M., Yamazaki, K., Benson, C.S., Hondoh, T., 2007. Intra-annual variations in atmospheric dust and tritium in the North Pacific region detected from an ice core from Mount Wrangell, Alaska. J. Geophys. Res., 112, D10208. doi: 10.1029/2006JD008121]. However, these impacts on the ice core site in each event scale have not been investigated. Hence, the present paper focuses on the material transport and deposition processes for further understanding these impacts on the ice core. The variations in dust and tritium concentrations in spring in an ice core taken at Mt. Wrangell, Alaska are explained by meteorological analysis and simulation of trajectories associated with Asian dust outbreaks and STT. Material transport and deposition at Mt. Wrangell are examined in two contrasting years (2001 and 2002). Dust and tritium concentrations both reached peak values in the early spring of 2002, while the dust peak occurred in early spring and the tritium peak occurred in late spring in 2001. Six severe East Asian transpacific dust storms over this period are modeled by forward trajectory and meteorologically analyzed. It is found that 5 of 6 events contributed to the ice core record in Alaska. Stratospheric air is also transported to the ice core site in most cases. Tritium deposition is found to have been suppressed in the cases of the 2001 dust storms due to lack of snowfall at appropriate times. Taken the detailed transport and deposition processes after the severe dust storms with atmospheric circulations into account, we can well explain spring dust and tritium variations in the Mount Wrangell ice core.