Mineral dust can have a strong radiative forcing impact in the Arctic, including its effect on snow albedo, which has seen relatively little attention compared to black carbon, despite its probably much larger importance. Global dust models focus on the main dust source regions in other parts of the world and largely ignore high-latitude dust sources. Groot Zwaaftink et al. (2016, 2017) have recently shown that local Arctic or near-Arctic dust sources dominate dust deposition in the Arctic, whereas lower-latitude sources are more important for the Arctic dust total atmospheric column loading. We review their findings and those of other recent studies, many of which focussed on Iceland. The review will discuss source areas, compare lower vs. higher latitude source regions, quantify dust deposition, radiative impacts and discuss uncertainties. Groot Zwaaftink, C. D, H. Grythe, H. Skov, and A. Stohl (2016): Substantial contribution of northern high-latitude sources to mineral dust in the Arctic. J. Geophys. Res. 121, 13678-13697, doi:10.1002/2016JD025482. Groot Zwaaftink, C. D, Ó. Arnalds, P. Dagsson-Waldhauserova, S. Eckhardt, T. Johannsson, J. M. Prospero, and A. Stohl (2017): Interannual variability of Icelandic mineral dust emission and atmospheric transport. Submitted to Atmos. Chem. Phys.
Air Pollution in the Arctic: Climate, Environment and Societies