Iceland plays a key role: with its volcanic sediments, melting glaciers, and strong winds, the country is one of the largest dust sources in the Arctic. The released dust affects air quality, the melting of ice surfaces, and even the global climate. To better understand these processes, the Iceand Dust Project was launched as part of the international FRAGMENT initiative (doi: 10.3030/773051). It was also part of HiLDA project (https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/ projekt/417012665)

Dyngjusandur – Iceland’s Dust Hotspot

Field campaigns took place in 2021 in the Dyngjusandur region of northern Iceland, one of Europe’s most active dust hotspots. Here, meltwater rivers from the Vatnajökull glacier transport vast amounts of sediment, which is mobilized by strong winds once dried. The project’s goal was to precisely characterize the properties of these dust sources: from particle size distribution and mineralogy to the role of dust in altering the albedo of ice and snow surfaces. The project was initiated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and coordinated together with the Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-TRO) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

Advanced Measurement Technology in Action

A range of methods and instruments was used during the campaign. Palas devices played a key role: Fidas® 200S delivered high-resolution real-time data on particle size distribution and PM concentrations (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) down to the submicrometer range. As an EN 16450-certified reference instrument, the Fidas® 200S is used worldwide in official monitoring networks and provides validated, regulatory-grade data. Additionally three Promo® 2000 equipped with the aerosol sensor welas® 2300 were installed at three different heights to measure airborne dust concentration per size class at 1 Hz.

Impacts on Glaciers and Climate

The results show that dust emissions in Iceland are spatially variable, in contrast to those in hot deserts. In the Dyngjusandur region, dust concentrations of more than 10,000 μg/m³ PM10 were measured during several events. The particles exhibited a wide size distribution, with mass median diameters of about 12 μm for freshly emitted dust plumes. Particularly significant are the effects on glaciers: the dust settles on ice and snow surfaces, darkening them and lowering their albedo. As a result, the surfaces absorb more solar radiation, accelerating ice melt and ultimately contributing to sea level rise. Beyond climate effects, Arctic dust also impacts regional air quality and infrastructure. Deposits on solar panels and sensors in Iceland and northern Scandinavia can significantly reduce performance. Thanks to the project’s precise measurements, these effects can now be better quantified and integrated into maintenance strategies. The datasets collected are already feeding into international climate models, improving forecasts of Arctic warming and the global radiation budget. Future campaigns aim to investigate additional dust sources in Iceland to more accurately determine their contribution to climate change and air quality impacts.

Figure 1: Comparison of ensemble-averaged size distributions of the dust concentration (a) and fluxes (b) in number between different height above the surface, for the 01 and 04 September events in Iceland and 29 September event in Jordan. Ensemble-averages were performed over all 15-min periods during the erosion event. ©Dupont, S., et. al.

Literature

• González-Romero, A., González- Flórez, C., Panta, A., Yus-Díez, J., Córdoba, P., Alastuey, A., Moreno, N., Kandler, K., Klose, M., Clark, R. N., Ehlmann, B. L., Greenberger, R. N., Keebler, A. M., Brodrick, P., Green, R. O., Querol, X., and Pérez García-Pando, C.: Probing Iceland's dustemitting sediments: particle size distribution, mineralogy, cohesion, Fe mode of occurrence, and reflectance spectra signatures, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6883–6910, https://doi. org/10.5194/acp-24-6883-2024, 2024.
• Dupont, S., Klose, M., Irvine, M. R., González- Flórez, C., Alastuey, A., Bonnefond, J.-M., et al. (2024). Impact of dust source patchiness on the existence of a constant dust flux layer during Aeolian erosion events. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129, e2023JD040657. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JD040657