Supplementary material to “Quantifying mineral dust mass budgets: Systematic terminology, constraints, and current estimates”

C. S. Zender, University of California, Irvine; R. L. Miller, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, New York; I. Tegen, Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany.

Citation:
Zender, C. S., R. L. Miller, and I. Tegen (2004), Quantifying mineral dust mass budgets: Systematic terminology, constraints, and current estimates, Eos Trans. AGU, 85(48), 509. [Full Article (pdf)]

Mineral dust mass budget estimates in the current literature exist in sufficient numbers to summarize only for anthropogenic and natural sources in combination. The wide range of current estimates of global dust emission and loading highlights the disparity between models and observations, and among models. Table A1 surveys recent models estimates of mineral dust mass budgets. Few studies provide quantitative estimates of uncertainties such as natural variability and model error. Including these would more completely represent, and further widen, the estimated range of mass budgets. Since 2001, published dust emission estimates for the present climate range from 1000 to 2150 Tg yr¹.

Table A1. Present Climate Dust Budget Estimates.^α

Reference

Tg yr¹

τ
Days

M
Tg

Duce et al. [1991]

Tegen and Fung [1994]

Tegen and Fung [1995]

Andreae [1996]

Prospero [1996]

Mahowald et al. [1999]

Penner et al. [2001]

Ginoux et al. [2001]

Chin et al. [2002]

Werner et al. [2002]

Tegen et al. [2002]

Zender et al. [2003]

Luo et al. [2003]

Mahowald and Luo [2003]

Miller et al. [2004]

Tegen et al. [2004]


(910)
3000
1222
1500
(358)
3000
2150
(478) 1814
1650
1060 ± 194
1100
(314)1490 ± 160
1654
1654
1018
1921





5.6
4


7.1
6.3
2.8 ± 0.5
7.4
4.3 ± 1.0
5.1
5.1
5.2





18.8
8.4


35.9
28.7
8 ± 3
22.2
17.4 ± 2
23
23
14.6

^α Shown are annual emissions E [Tg yr¹], atmospheric turnover time τ [d], and atmospheric burden M [Tg]. Estimates of deposition to oceans are parenthesized. Order is chronological.

Atmospheric burden estimates range from 8 to 36 Tg, however, an uncertainty factor exceeding 4. The surprising discrepancy calls into question whether observations could be better used to constrain dust mass budgets.

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge all authors of cited studies. N. Mahowald provided insightful comments. C.S.Z. was supported by NASA grants NAG5-10147 and NAG5-10546. R.L.M. was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Climate Dynamics Program ATM-01-24258.

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