PROGRAM NEWS 61

DICE: Dust impact on climate and environment Gisela Winckler1,2 and Natalie Mahowald3

Natural and human contributions of aerosols from paleoscience to projections of future aims to meet the demands created by recent and dust are critically important components climate. developments in Earth system models, which of climate and Earth system dynamics. Mineral are now able to run transient simulations and dust aerosols, emitted through wind erosion, Building on the success of PAGES‘ Atmospheric to include more complex interactions between affect the radiative budget of the planet, pre- Dust: Observations and Modeling (ADOM) dust and climate. Datasets with high tempo- cipitation patterns, biogeochemical cycles, the working group, the new DICE working group ral resolution and grain size information will chemistry of the atmosphere, air pollution and seeks to provide a collaborative platform to serve as a reference for time-transient studies, human health. Emission patterns, transport and build a tight and well coordinated link from e.g. of millennial scale variability or variability impact of aerosols on societies are almost cer- paleo-data observations to paleoclimate mod- associated with abrupt climate change, such as tain to change under ongoing climate and en- eling. This will be achieved by fostering direct Dansgaard/Oeschger and Heinrich events, or vironmental change, and it is thus increasingly interaction between observationalists and the last glacial transition. important to improve our understanding of the theorists, between climatologists and the dust impact of dust on climate and environment. modeling community, and between paleocli- The DICE working group will interact with matologists and geochemists. other paleoscience working groups, such Dust influences the radiative balance of the as the International Partnerships in Ice Core planet in two different ways: either directly DICE will convene workshops providing inter- Sciences (IPICS), and seek interaction with Earth by reflecting and absorbing solar radiation, actions between these communities, drawing system science projects rooted in modern or indirectly by affecting cloud formation and input from observationalists and modelers, observations, such as the International Global precipitation patterns (Fig. 1). Mineral dust con- as well as from scientists focusing on modern Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Project, with taining iron can impact marine biological pro- times and paleo-perspectives. The goal of this the goal of strengthening the links between the ductivity and ecosystem structure by supplying working group will be to develop new data- paleo community and the modern atmosphere micronutrients to regions of the ocean where bases of dust fluctuations, including deriving community. iron-scarcity limits primary productivity, and more detail from existing data, and to assist in thereby affect the efficiency of the biological the assessment and development of new prox- Visit the DICE working group webpage at: pump, a mechanism that could be important in ies for desert dust in paleo-environments. www.pages-igbp.org/workinggroups/dice driving ice age cycles. Specifically, DICE aims to facilitate the compila- AFFILIATIONS Dust not only affects climate, but is also influ- tion of a next-generation global observational 1Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia enced by it: its production, atmospheric trans- dataset for dust deposition from sedimentary University, Palisades, USA port and deposition are sensitive to climatic archives for the Late Quaternary, synthesiz- 2Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, conditions. Therefore, dust aerosols can act as ing spatially and temporally resolved proxy Columbia University, New York, USA a tracer of continental conditions and atmos- datasets from marine sediments, sediment 3Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Cornell pheric circulation. traps, corals, ice cores, terrestrial deposits and University, Ithaca, USA lake sediments. The new compilation will build CONTACT Since aerosol interactions with climate are a ma- and extend on the success of DIRTMAP (Dust Gisela Winckler: [email protected] jor uncertainty in climate model simulations and Indicators and Records of Terrestrial and Marine REFERENCES predictions (e.g. Myhre et al. 2013), improved Paleoenvironments; Kohfeld and Harrison 2001, understanding of the role of aerosols in past and Maher and Leedal, this issue) by provid- Kohfeld KE, Harrison SP (2001) Earth Sci Rev 54: 81-114 climates represents an important contribution ing time-series data. The DICE database thus Myhre G et al. (2013) In: Stocker TF et al. (Eds) Cambridge University Press, 659-740

Figure 1: Schematic showing the interactions between mineral aerosols and climate.

PAGES MAGAZINE ∙ VOLUME 22 ∙ NO 2 ∙ October 2014