This proposal outlines a program of scientific research and educational development focused on mineral dust aerosol, atmospheric chemistry, and curricular use of satellite data. Mineral dust impacts the chemical composition of the atmosphere by providing a surface for heterogeneous chemistry, and for light scattering and absorption at photolytic wavelengths. We propose to assess the current and...

The long-term frequency of atmospheric dust observations was investigated for the southern part of Iceland and interpreted together with earlier results obtained from northeastern (NE) Iceland (Dagsson-Waldhauserova et al., 2013). In total, over 34 dust days per year on average occurred in Iceland based on conventionally used synoptic codes for dust observations. However, frequent volcanic erup...

Smooth rock surfaces in arid environments are often covered with a thin coating of Fe–Mn oxyhydroxides known as desert varnish. It is debated whether such varnish is formed (a) by slow diagenesis of dust particles deposited on rock surfaces, (b) by leaching from the underlying rock substrate, or (c) by direct deposition of dissolved constituents in the atmosphere. Varnishes collected from smoot...

A laboratory study was carried out to investigate the single particle soil dust using aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The presence of crustal elements is observed in the mass spectra of individual particles. Potassium and iron constitute the two most commonly detected cations. Other common cations observed in the mass spectra of soil particles include sodium and magnesium. According t...