Mineral dust originating from the world's desert regions is one of the most important types of aerosol in the atmosphere as it is a major contributor to the atmospheric aerosol burden. In this project, we investigate the transport of mineral dust from North African deserts towards the eastern Mediterranean basin.

Mineral dust originating from the world's desert regions is one of the most important types of aerosol in the atmosphere as it is the larges contributor to the atmospheric aerosol burden. It influences the energy balance of the atmosphere in many ways and thus has an impact on global temperature. Although most dust emissions are associated with hot deserts such as the Sahara, dust emissions from cold deserts at high latitudes have also recently become the focus of research: dust at high latitudes contributes to changes in the albedo of nearby glaciers and influences the productivity of the oceans and the composition of the atmosphere in the Arctic and thus the radiation budget. As part of HiLDA, we are investigating dust emissions from cold deserts such as Iceland, which is an important source of dust for the Arctic.