RT Journal Article
T1 Transport and deposition of radionuclides from northern Africa to the southern Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands during the intense dust intrusions of March 2022
A1 Liger-Pérez, Esperanza
A1 Hernández, Francisco
A1 Expósito, Francisco Javier
A1 Díaz, Juan Pedro
A1 Salazar-Carballo, Pedro A.
A1 Gordo, Elisa
A1 González, Cristina
A1 López-Pérez, María
K1 Deposición atmosférica
K1 Física atmosférica
AB The present study focuses on the two consecutive and markedly intense Saharan dust intrusion episodes that greatly affected southern Spain (Málaga) and, to a lesser extent, the Canary Islands (Tenerife), in March 2022. These two episodes were the result of atypical meteorological conditions in the region and resulted in record levels of aerosols in the air at the Málaga location. The activity levels of various natural and artificial radionuclides (7Be, 210Pb, 40K, 137Cs, 239Pu, 240Pu, 239+240Pu) and radioactive indicators (gross alpha and gross beta) were impacted by these events and the results are described herein. These episodes caused, for example, the activities of 137Cs in aerosol samples at the Málaga monitoring station to reach the highest concentrations ever recorded since high-volume aerosol monitoring started at this site in 2009. A link between the activity levels of 137Cs, 40K and gross alpha in the atmospheric aerosols and daily PM10 concentrations during the episodes is also reported. In addition, isotopic ratios are discussed in the context of the source and destination of the various anthropogenic radionuclides measured. The atmospheric residence time of aerosols during these episodes is also evaluated because it concerns how intrusions to the Canary Islands should be analysed. Finally, for the first time, the concentrations of 137Cs deposition by rainwater during a Saharan dust intrusion are reported and the deposition rate of these radionuclides during these episodes is discussed.
PB Elsevier
YR 2024
FD 2024-01-25
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10630/29751
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10630/29751
LA eng
NO Esperanza Liger, Francisco Hernández, Francisco Javier Expósito, Juan Pedro Díaz, Pedro A. Salazar-Carballo, Elisa Gordo, Cristina González, María López-Pérez, Transport and deposition of radionuclides from northern Africa to the southern Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands during the intense dust intrusions of March 2022, Chemosphere, Volume 352, 2024, 141303, ISSN 0045-6535, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141303
NO Funding for open Access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Nuclear Safety Council (CSN). The authors would like to thank Gabriel Castell´o Ortega from the Central Research Facilities at the University of Malaga for his technical assistance. The authors gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and/or READY website (https://www.ready.noaa. gov) used in this publication. The authors gratefully acknowledge theuse of imagery from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (https://ads.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/). The authors also acknowledge the use of imagery from the Worldview Snapshots application https://wvs.earthdata.nasa.gov), part of the Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). The authors also appreciate the support of the Government of the Canary Islands, the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and TerritorialPlanning (agreement published: B.O.C. no. 238, November 20, 2020) and the PLANCLIMAC Project (MAC/3.5b/244). This Project has been funded by the INTERREG MAC 2014–2020 Program of the European Union.
DS RIUMA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Málaga
RD 19 ene 2026