Polluted dust derived from long-range transport as a major end memberof urban aerosols and its implication of non-point pollution innorthern China

The contribution of polluted dust transported from local and distal sources remains poorly constrained due to their similar geophysical and geochemical properties. We sampled aerosols in three cities in northern China (Xi'an, Beijing, Xifeng) during the spring of 2009 to determine dust flux, magnetic susceptibility and elemental concentrations. Combining dust fluxes with wind speed and regional visibility records enabled to differentiate between dust transported from long range and derived from local sources, while the combination of magnetic susceptibility and enrichment factors (EF) of heavy metals (Pb, Zn) allowed to distinguish natural aerosols from polluted ones. Our results indicate that polluted dust from long-range transport became a major end member of urban dust aerosols. Human settlements as its potential sources were confirmed by a pollutant enriched regional dust event originating from populated areas to the south as inferred by back trajectory modeling, implying their non-point source nature of dust pollution

ESR signal intensity and crystallinity of quartzfrom Gobi and sandy deserts in East Asia andimplication for tracing Asian dust provenance

Electron spin resonance (ESR) signal intensity and crystallinity index (CI) of fine- (&lt;16 mm) and coarse-grained (&gt;16 mm) quartz were measured in surface samples from the Taklimakan desert in western China, the Badain Juran, Tengger and Mu Us deserts in northern China, and the Gobi desert in southern Mongolia to evaluate whether these geophysical parameters can serve as reliable provenance tracers of Asian dust. The results indicate that spatial variability of both ESR signal intensity and CI is evident within the Taklimakan deserts and the Mongolian Gobi, but less significant in the three deserts of northern China. Coarse-grained quartz from the Mongolian Gobi and northern China deserts can be differentiated from the Taklimakan desert using the ESR signal intensity. Fine-grained quartz originating from three major Asian dust sources, i.e., the Gobi-sandy deserts in western China, northern China and southern Mongolia, can be distinguished effectively using the combination of ESR and CI signals. Our results suggest that ESR signal intensity and CI can discriminate the sources of fine-grained quartz better than coarse-grained quartz, providing an effective approach to trace the provenance of fine-grained dust deposition on the land and in the ocean.</p