Global Model Estimates of Atmospheric Al, Ca, Fe, Si, and Ti From Dust and Non-Dust Aerosols Informed by EMIT Surface Mineralogy and Evaluated Against Observations

Mahowald, Natalie M., Li, Longlei, Goncalves Ageitos, Maria, Miller, Ronald L., Peres Garcia-Pando, Carlos, Ginoux, Paul, Obiso, Vincent, Brodrick, Philip G., Clark, Roger N., Desboeufs, Karine, Green, Robert O., Okin, Gregory S., Thompson, David R., Rathod, Sagar, Gazel, Esteban, Hornby, Adrian, Journet, Emile, Grazia Alaimo, Maria, Alves, Celia, Alastuey, Andres, Artaxo, Paolo, Baker, Alex ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8365-8953, Barraza, Francisco, Becagli, Silvia, Buck, Clifton S., Calzolai, Giulia, Chellam, Shankaraman, Chen, Ying, Chuang, Patrick Y., Cohen, David D., Colombi, Cristina, Diapouli, Evangelia, Dongarra, Gaetano, Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos, Engelbrecht, Johann P., Galy-Lacaux, Corinne, Gaston, Cassandra, Gomez, Dario, Gonzales Ramos, Yenny, Hand, Jenny, Harrison, Roy M., Herut, Barak, Hopke, Philip K., Kertesz, Zsofia, Kyllonen, Katriina, Lambert, Fabrice, Landing, William M., Losno, Remi, Lucarelli, Franco, Maenhaut, Willy, Marsay, Christopher, Matsui, Hitoshi, Martin, Randall V., Morera-Gomez, Yasser, Paytan, Adina, Prospero, Joseph, Rodriguez, Sergio, Sarthou, Geraldine, Shelley, Rachel, Seifert, Ronald L., Smichowski, Patricia and Varrica, Daniela (2026) Global Model Estimates of Atmospheric Al, Ca, Fe, Si, and Ti From Dust and Non-Dust Aerosols Informed by EMIT Surface Mineralogy and Evaluated Against Observations. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 40 (5). ISSN 0886-6236

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Abstract

Atmospheric deposition of micro-nutrients like Fe has been shown to be important for ocean biogeochemistry. The largest source of atmospheric Fe and other elements (e.g., Ca, Al, Si, and Ti) is desert dust, although there are significant non-dust sources in some regions (e.g., combustion, sea salts, volcanoes). However, past estimates of these elements have been substantially uncertain due to limited information about the composition of the desert source regions. Here we use elemental distributions estimated from new Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) observations, which provide mineralogical composition at the surface of the Earth based on imaging spectroscopy measurements from the International Space Station. We focus on total elemental amounts, not on the soluble fraction. We add in other sources of these elements (anthropogenic and natural) and compare to a compilation of available surface concentration data from stations over land and from shipborne observations. The combined observational and model synthesis provides new information about the distribution and deposition of these elements. Our results suggest that the modeled distribution is similar to available observations, but discrepancies still exist in both natural desert dust regions as well as regions dominated by anthropogenic sources. Comparisons between the model estimated Ca/Al ratios and observations in some dust dominated regions suggest an underestimate of Ca/Al ratios. Global budgets for Ca, Al, Fe, Si, and Ti suggest that desert dust remains the dominant source, although volcanic and anthropogenic contributions are important in some regions. Changes in elemental distributions since preindustrial times were also estimated.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Publisher Copyright: © 2026. The Author(s). This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	aerosols,biogeochemistry,global and planetary change,environmental chemistry,general environmental science,atmospheric science ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2306
Faculty \ School:	University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2026 09:06
Last Modified:	18 Jun 2026 21:01
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103333
DOI:	10.1029/2025GB009033

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