Composition of airborne material from yellow snow fallen in the Russian North

Large amounts of dust responsible for bright colors of atmospheric precipitation in the temperate, subpolar and polar zones of the northern hemisphere have been rarely observed. In the twentieth century and in the beginning of the twenty first century in the Northern European Russia such events were not registered up to March 25-26, 2008. At that time in some parts of the Arkhangel'sk region, Komi Republic, and Nenets Autonomous Area atmospheric precipitation as sleet and rain responsible for sand- and saffron colors of ice crust formation on the snow surface was observed. During detailed mineralogical, geochemical, pollen, diatom and meteorological investigations it was established that semidesert and steppe regions of the Northwest Kazakhstan, Volgograd and Astrakhan' regions, and Kalmykia are the main sources of the yellow dust

First data on the composition of atmospheric dust responsible for yellow snow in Northern European Russia in March 2008

The descent of a large quantity of dust responsible for bright colors of atmospheric precipitation in the temperate, subpolar, and polar zones of the northern hemisphere is rarely observed [1–5]. In the twentieth century and in the beginning of the twenty-first century in the northern part of European Russia, such events had not been registered right up to March 25–26, 2008. At that time in some parts of the Arkhangelsk region, Komi Republic, and Nenets Autonomous Area, atmospheric precipitation as moist snow and rain responsible for sand and saffron colors of ice crust formation on the snow surface was observed. Thus, due to detailed mineralogical, geochemical, pollen, diatom, and meteorological investigations, it was established that the main source of the yellow dust is the semidesert and steppe regions of the Northwest Kazakhstan, and the Volgograd and Astrakhan regions, Kalmykia