Articles | Volume 14, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-657-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-657-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
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14 Feb 2020
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 14 Feb 2020
| 14 Feb 2020
Cryoconite: an efficient accumulator of radioactive fallout in glacial environments
Giovanni Baccolo
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Environmental and Earth Sciences Department, University of
Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126, Italy
INFN section of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126, Italy
Edyta Łokas
Department of Nuclear Physical Chemistry, Institute of Nuclear
Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, 31-342, Poland
Paweł Gaca
Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton, National
Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, UK
Dario Massabò
Physics Department, University of Genoa, Genoa, 16146, Italy
INFN section of Genoa, Genoa, 16146, Italy
Roberto Ambrosini
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan,
Milan, 20133, Italy
Roberto S. Azzoni
Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milan,
Milan, 20133, Italy
Caroline Clason
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of
Plymouth, Plymouth, PL48AA, UK
Biagio Di Mauro
Environmental and Earth Sciences Department, University of
Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126, Italy
Andrea Franzetti
Massimiliano Nastasi
Environmental and Earth Sciences Department, University of
Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126, Italy
Physics Department, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126,
Italy
Michele Prata
Laboratory of Applied Nuclear Energy, University of Pavia, Pavia,
27100, Italy
Paolo Prati
Physics Department, University of Genoa, Genoa, 16146, Italy
INFN section of Genoa, Genoa, 16146, Italy
Ezio Previtali
Environmental and Earth Sciences Department, University of
Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126, Italy
Physics Department, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126,
Italy
Barbara Delmonte
Environmental and Earth Sciences Department, University of
Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126, Italy
Valter Maggi
Environmental and Earth Sciences Department, University of
Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126, Italy
INFN section of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, 20126, Italy
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Manuscript not accepted for further review
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We present findings from a summertime field campaign at the remote island of Lampedusa in the central Mediterranean Sea. We show that the aerosol loading is similar to coastal sites around the Mediterranean. We observe higher loadings of sulfate and aged organic aerosol from air masses transported over the central and eastern Mediterranean in comparison to those from the western Mediterranean. These results highlight the rarity of pristine air masses, even in remote marine environments.
Edyta Łokas, Agata Zaborska, Ireneusz Sobota, Paweł Gaca, J. Andrew Milton, Paweł Kocurek, and Anna Cwanek
The Cryosphere, 13, 2075–2086, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2075-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-2075-2019, 2019
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Cryoconite granules built of mineral particles, organic substances and living organisms significantly influence fluxes of energy and matter at glacier surfaces. They contribute to ice melting, give rise to an exceptional ecosystem, and effectively trap contaminants. This study evaluates contamination levels of radionuclides in cryoconite from Arctic glaciers and identifies sources of this contamination, proving that cryoconite is an excellent indicator of atmospheric contamination.
Dario Massabò, Alessandro Altomari, Virginia Vernocchi, and Paolo Prati
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3173–3182, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3173-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3173-2019, 2019
V. Yordanov, D. Fugazza, R. S. Azzoni, M. Cernuschi, M. Scaioni, and G. A. Diolaiuti
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-2-W13, 1803–1810, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W13-1803-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-2-W13-1803-2019, 2019
Biagio Di Mauro, Roberto Garzonio, Micol Rossini, Gianluca Filippa, Paolo Pogliotti, Marta Galvagno, Umberto Morra di Cella, Mirco Migliavacca, Giovanni Baccolo, Massimiliano Clemenza, Barbara Delmonte, Valter Maggi, Marie Dumont, François Tuzet, Matthieu Lafaysse, Samuel Morin, Edoardo Cremonese, and Roberto Colombo
The Cryosphere, 13, 1147–1165, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1147-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-1147-2019, 2019
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The snow albedo reduction due to dust from arid regions alters the melting dynamics of the snowpack, resulting in earlier snowmelt. We estimate up to 38 days of anticipated snow disappearance for a season that was characterized by a strong dust deposition event. This process has a series of further impacts. For example, earlier snowmelts may alter the hydrological cycle in the Alps, induce higher sensitivity to late summer drought, and finally impact vegetation and animal phenology.
Nivedita K. Kumar, Joel C. Corbin, Emily A. Bruns, Dario Massabó, Jay G. Slowik, Luka Drinovec, Griša Močnik, Paolo Prati, Athanasia Vlachou, Urs Baltensperger, Martin Gysel, Imad El-Haddad, and André S. H. Prévôt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17843–17861, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17843-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17843-2018, 2018
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It is clear that considerable uncertainties still exist in understanding the magnitude of aerosol absorption on a global scale and its contribution to global warming. This manuscript provides a comprehensive assessment of the optical absorption by organic aerosols (brown carbon) from residential wood combustion as a function of atmospheric aging.
Dario Massabò, Silvia Giulia Danelli, Paolo Brotto, Antonio Comite, Camilla Costa, Andrea Di Cesare, Jean François Doussin, Federico Ferraro, Paola Formenti, Elena Gatta, Laura Negretti, Maddalena Oliva, Franco Parodi, Luigi Vezzulli, and Paolo Prati
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5885–5900, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5885-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5885-2018, 2018
Alexander Kokhanovsky, Maxim Lamare, Biagio Di Mauro, Ghislain Picard, Laurent Arnaud, Marie Dumont, François Tuzet, Carsten Brockmann, and Jason E. Box
The Cryosphere, 12, 2371–2382, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2371-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-2371-2018, 2018
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This work presents a new technique with which to derive the snow microphysical and optical properties from snow spectral reflectance measurements. The technique is robust and easy to use, and it does not require the extraction of snow samples from a given snowpack. It can be used in processing satellite imagery over extended fresh dry, wet and polluted snowfields.
Marius Folden Simonsen, Llorenç Cremonesi, Giovanni Baccolo, Samuel Bosch, Barbara Delmonte, Tobias Erhardt, Helle Astrid Kjær, Marco Potenza, Anders Svensson, and Paul Vallelonga
Clim. Past, 14, 601–608, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-601-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-601-2018, 2018
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Ice core dust size distributions are more often measured today by an Abakus laser sensor than by the more technically demanding but also very accurate Coulter counter. However, Abakus measurements consistently give larger particle sizes. We show here that this bias exists because the particles are flat and elongated. Correcting for this gives more accurate Abakus measurements. Furthermore, the shape of the particles can be extracted from a combination of Coulter counter and Abakus measurements.
Antonella Senese, Maurizio Maugeri, Eraldo Meraldi, Gian Pietro Verza, Roberto Sergio Azzoni, Chiara Compostella, and Guglielmina Diolaiuti
The Cryosphere, 12, 1293–1306, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1293-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-1293-2018, 2018
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We present and compare 11 years of snow data measured by an automatic weather station and corroborated by data from field campaigns on the Forni Glacier in Italy. The methodology we present is interesting for remote locations such as glaciers or high alpine regions, as it makes it possible to estimate the total snow water equivalent (SWE) using a relatively inexpensive, low-power, low-maintenance, and reliable instrument such as the sonic ranger.
Davide Fugazza, Marco Scaioni, Manuel Corti, Carlo D'Agata, Roberto Sergio Azzoni, Massimo Cernuschi, Claudio Smiraglia, and Guglielmina Adele Diolaiuti
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 18, 1055–1071, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-1055-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-1055-2018, 2018
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This paper describes the surveys we performed in 2014 and 2016 by means of UAVs and terrestrial photogrammetry to monitor the Forni Glacier, one of the largest glaciers in the Italian Alps. We investigated the hazards related to the glacier collapse, which have been increasing recently due to the high ice melting rate. Our approach is feasible and low cost and we will repeatedly monitor the glacier to provide rapid hazard detection services to help the tourism sector.
M. Scaioni, L. Barazzetti, M. Corti, J. Crippa, R. S. Azzoni, D. Fugazza, M. Cernuschi, and G. A. Diolaiuti
Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLII-3-W4, 445–452, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W4-445-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLII-3-W4-445-2018, 2018
Nancy A. N. Bertler, Howard Conway, Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Daniel B. Emanuelsson, Mai Winstrup, Paul T. Vallelonga, James E. Lee, Ed J. Brook, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Taylor J. Fudge, Elizabeth D. Keller, W. Troy Baisden, Richard C. A. Hindmarsh, Peter D. Neff, Thomas Blunier, Ross Edwards, Paul A. Mayewski, Sepp Kipfstuhl, Christo Buizert, Silvia Canessa, Ruzica Dadic, Helle A. Kjær, Andrei Kurbatov, Dongqi Zhang, Edwin D. Waddington, Giovanni Baccolo, Thomas Beers, Hannah J. Brightley, Lionel Carter, David Clemens-Sewall, Viorela G. Ciobanu, Barbara Delmonte, Lukas Eling, Aja Ellis, Shruthi Ganesh, Nicholas R. Golledge, Skylar Haines, Michael Handley, Robert L. Hawley, Chad M. Hogan, Katelyn M. Johnson, Elena Korotkikh, Daniel P. Lowry, Darcy Mandeno, Robert M. McKay, James A. Menking, Timothy R. Naish, Caroline Noerling, Agathe Ollive, Anaïs Orsi, Bernadette C. Proemse, Alexander R. Pyne, Rebecca L. Pyne, James Renwick, Reed P. Scherer, Stefanie Semper, Marius Simonsen, Sharon B. Sneed, Eric J. Steig, Andrea Tuohy, Abhijith Ulayottil Venugopal, Fernando Valero-Delgado, Janani Venkatesh, Feitang Wang, Shimeng Wang, Dominic A. Winski, V. Holly L. Winton, Arran Whiteford, Cunde Xiao, Jiao Yang, and Xin Zhang
Clim. Past, 14, 193–214, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-193-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-193-2018, 2018
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Temperature and snow accumulation records from the annually dated Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice core show that for the past 2 700 years, the eastern Ross Sea warmed, while the western Ross Sea showed no trend and West Antarctica cooled. From the 17th century onwards, this dipole relationship changed. Now all three regions show concurrent warming, with snow accumulation declining in West Antarctica and the eastern Ross Sea.
Giovanni Leonelli, Anna Coppola, Maria Cristina Salvatore, Carlo Baroni, Giovanna Battipaglia, Tiziana Gentilesca, Francesco Ripullone, Marco Borghetti, Emanuele Conte, Roberto Tognetti, Marco Marchetti, Fabio Lombardi, Michele Brunetti, Maurizio Maugeri, Manuela Pelfini, Paolo Cherubini, Antonello Provenzale, and Valter Maggi
Clim. Past, 13, 1451–1471, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1451-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-1451-2017, 2017
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We analyze a tree-ring network from several sites distributed along the Italian Peninsula with the aims of detecting common climate drivers of tree growth and of reconstructing the past climate. We detect the main climatic drivers modulating tree-ring width (RW) and tree-ring maximum latewood density (MXD) and we reconstruct late summer temperatures since the early 1700s using a MXD chronology: this reconstruction is representative of a wide area around the Italian Peninsula.
Biagio Di Mauro, Giovanni Baccolo, Roberto Garzonio, Claudia Giardino, Dario Massabò, Andrea Piazzalunga, Micol Rossini, and Roberto Colombo
The Cryosphere, 11, 2393–2409, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2393-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-2393-2017, 2017
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In the paper, we demonstrate the potential of field and satellite hyperspectral reflectance data in characterizing the spatial distribution of impurities on the Morteratsch Glacier. In situ reflectance spectra showed that impurities reduced ice reflectance in visible wavelengths by 80–90 %. Satellite data also showed the outcropping of dust during the melting season in the upper parts of the glacier. Laboratory measurements of cryoconite showed the presence of elemental and organic carbon.
Jorge Saturno, Christopher Pöhlker, Dario Massabò, Joel Brito, Samara Carbone, Yafang Cheng, Xuguang Chi, Florian Ditas, Isabella Hrabě de Angelis, Daniel Morán-Zuloaga, Mira L. Pöhlker, Luciana V. Rizzo, David Walter, Qiaoqiao Wang, Paulo Artaxo, Paolo Prati, and Meinrat O. Andreae
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2837–2850, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2837-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2837-2017, 2017
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Different Aethalometer correction schemes were compared to a multi-wavelength absorption reference measurement. One of the correction schemes was found to artificially increase the short-wavelength absorption coefficients. It was found that accounting for aerosol scattering properties in the correction is crucial to retrieve the proper absorption Ångström exponent (AAE). We found that the raw AAE of uncompensated Aethalometer attenuation significantly correlates with a measured reference AAE.
Lorenzo Caponi, Paola Formenti, Dario Massabó, Claudia Di Biagio, Mathieu Cazaunau, Edouard Pangui, Servanne Chevaillier, Gautier Landrot, Meinrat O. Andreae, Konrad Kandler, Stuart Piketh, Thuraya Saeed, Dave Seibert, Earle Williams, Yves Balkanski, Paolo Prati, and Jean-François Doussin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 7175–7191, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7175-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7175-2017, 2017
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This paper presents new laboratory measurements of the shortwave mass absorption efficiency (MAE) used by climate models for mineral dust of different origin and at different sizes. We found that small particles are more efficient, by given mass, in absorbing radiation, particularly at shorter wavelength. Because dust has high concentrations in the atmosphere, light absorption by mineral dust can be competitive to other absorbing atmospheric aerosols such as black and brown carbon.
Christiane Meyer, Ulrich Meyer, Andreas Pflitsch, and Valter Maggi
The Cryosphere, 10, 879–894, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-879-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-10-879-2016, 2016
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In the paper a new method to calculate airflow speeds in static ice caves by using air temperature data is presented. As most study sites are in very remote places, where it is often not possible to use sonic anemometers and other devices for the analysis of the cave climate, we show how one can use the given database for calculating airflow speeds. Understanding/quantifying all elements of the specific cave climate is indispensable for understanding the evolution of the ice body in ice caves.
B. Di Mauro, F. Fava, P. Frattini, A. Camia, R. Colombo, and M. Migliavacca
Nonlin. Processes Geophys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/npgd-2-1553-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/npgd-2-1553-2015, 2015
Preprint withdrawn
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In this paper, we analyse the probability distribution of wildfires burned area at European scale. We evaluate the performance of a land surface model using power law scaling as a benchmark. Our analysis suggests that only high latitude biomes are described by a power law distribution, and we relate this feature with the less impact of antrhopogenic activity. The benchmarking analysis showed that some refinements are needed in the model structure for reproducing emerging properties of wildfires
J.-L. Tison, M. de Angelis, G. Littot, E. Wolff, H. Fischer, M. Hansson, M. Bigler, R. Udisti, A. Wegner, J. Jouzel, B. Stenni, S. Johnsen, V. Masson-Delmotte, A. Landais, V. Lipenkov, L. Loulergue, J.-M. Barnola, J.-R. Petit, B. Delmonte, G. Dreyfus, D. Dahl-Jensen, G. Durand, B. Bereiter, A. Schilt, R. Spahni, K. Pol, R. Lorrain, R. Souchez, and D. Samyn
The Cryosphere, 9, 1633–1648, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1633-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-1633-2015, 2015
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The oldest paleoclimatic information is buried within the lowermost layers of deep ice cores. It is therefore essential to judge how deep these records remain unaltered. We study the bottom 60 meters of the EPICA Dome C ice core from central Antarctica to show that the paleoclimatic signal is only affected at the small scale (decimeters) in terms of some of the global ice properties. However our data suggest that the time scale has been considerably distorted by mechanical stretching.
C. C. Clason, C. Coch, J. Jarsjö, K. Brugger, P. Jansson, and G. Rosqvist
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 2701–2715, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2701-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-19-2701-2015, 2015
S. Albani, N. M. Mahowald, G. Winckler, R. F. Anderson, L. I. Bradtmiller, B. Delmonte, R. François, M. Goman, N. G. Heavens, P. P. Hesse, S. A. Hovan, S. G. Kang, K. E. Kohfeld, H. Lu, V. Maggi, J. A. Mason, P. A. Mayewski, D. McGee, X. Miao, B. L. Otto-Bliesner, A. T. Perry, A. Pourmand, H. M. Roberts, N. Rosenbloom, T. Stevens, and J. Sun
Clim. Past, 11, 869–903, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-869-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-11-869-2015, 2015
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We propose an innovative framework to organize paleodust records, formalized in a publicly accessible database, and discuss the emerging properties of the global dust cycle during the Holocene by integrating our analysis with simulations performed with the Community Earth System Model. We show how the size distribution of dust is intrinsically related to the dust mass accumulation rates and that only considering a consistent size range allows for a consistent analysis of the global dust cycle.
C. C. Clason, D. W. F. Mair, P. W. Nienow, I. D. Bartholomew, A. Sole, S. Palmer, and W. Schwanghart
The Cryosphere, 9, 123–138, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-123-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-9-123-2015, 2015
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Short summary
Cryoconite is the sediment found on the surface of glaciers. The paper presents cryoconite as an environmental matrix able to accumulate natural and artificial radioactivity with unprecedented efficiency. Only samples from sites where nuclear accidents and explosions occurred present a stronger radioactive contamination. The peculiarities of glacial environments are responsible for this extreme feature, making cryoconite a useful tool tool for the monitoring of environmental radioactivity.
Cryoconite is the sediment found on the surface of glaciers. The paper presents cryoconite as an...
