ABSTRACT Recent strides have been made developing dust evolution models for galaxy formation simulations but these approaches vary in their assumptions and degree of complexity. Here, we introduce and compare two separate dust evolution models (labelled ‘Elemental’ and ‘Species’), based on recent approaches, incorporated into the gizmo code and coupled with fire-2 stellar feedback and interstellar medium physics. Both models account for turbulent dust diffusion, stellar production of dust, dust growth via gas-dust accretion, and dust destruction from time-resolved supernovae, thermal sputtering in hot gas, and astration. The ‘Elemental’ model tracks the evolution of generalized dust species and utilizes a simple, ‘tunable’ dust growth routine, while the ‘Species’ model tracks the evolution of specific dust species with set chemical compositions and incorporates a physically motivated, two-phase dust growth routine. We test and compare these models in an idealized Milky Way-mass galaxy and find that while both produce reasonable galaxy-integrated dust-to-metals (D/Z) ratios and predict gas-dust accretion as the main dust growth mechanism, a chemically motivated model is needed to reproduce the observed scaling relation between individual element depletions and D/Z with column density and local gas density. We also find the inclusion of theoretical metallic iron and O-bearing dust species are needed in the case of specific dust species in order to match observations of O and Fe depletions, and the integration of a sub-resolution dense molecular gas/CO scheme is needed to both match observed C depletions and ensure carbonaceous dust is not overproduced in dense environments.
more »
« less
DYNAMICS OF DUST IN THE SAN LUIS VALLEY: ANALYZING STORM TRACKS, DUST COMPOSITION AND SOURCE IN THE FACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE
- Award ID(s):
- 2050697
- PAR ID:
- 10597829
- Publisher / Repository:
- Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs
- Date Published:
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Wind-blown dust plays a critical role in numerous geophysical and biological systems, yet current models fail to explain the transport of coarse-mode particles (>5 μm) to great distances from their sources. For particles larger than a few microns, electrostatic effects have been invoked to account for longer-than-predicted atmospheric residence times. Although much effort has focused on elucidating the charging processes, comparatively little effort has been expended understanding the stability of charge on particles once electrified. Overall, electrostatic-driven transport requires that charge remain present on particles for days to weeks. Here, we present a set of experiments designed to explore the longevity of electrostatic charge on levitated airborne particles after a single charging event. Using an acoustic levitator, we measured the charge on particles of different material compositions suspended in atmospheric conditions for long periods of time. In dry environments, the total charge on particles decayed in over 1 week. The decay timescale decreased to days in humid environments. These results were independent of particle material and charge polarity. However, exposure to UV radiation could both increase and decrease the decay time depending on polarity. Our work suggests that the rate of charge decay on airborne particles is solely determined by ion capture from the air. Furthermore, using a one-dimensional sedimentation model, we predict that atmospheric dust of order 10 μm will experience the largest change in residence time due to electrostatic forces.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Understanding the properties of dust attenuation curves in galaxies and the physical mechanisms that shape them are among the fundamental questions of extragalactic astrophysics, with great practical significance for deriving the physical properties of galaxies. Attenuation curves result from a combination of dust grain properties, dust content, and the spatial arrangement of dust and different populations of stars. In this review, we assess the state of the field, paying particular attention to extinction curves as the building blocks of attenuation laws. We introduce a quantitative framework to characterize extinction and attenuation curves, present a theoretical foundation for interpreting empirical results, overview an array of observational methods, and review observational results at low and high redshifts. Our main conclusions include the following: ▪ Attenuation curves exhibit a wide range of UV-through-optical slopes, from curves with shallow (Milky Way–like) slopes to those exceeding the slope of the Small Magellanic Cloud extinction curve. ▪ The slopes of the curves correlate strongly with the effective optical opacities, in the sense that galaxies with lower dust column density (lower visual attenuation) tend to have steeper slopes, whereas the galaxies with higher dust column density have shallower (grayer) slopes. ▪ Galaxies exhibit a range of 2175-Å UV bump strengths, including no bump, but, on average, are suppressed compared with the average Milky Way extinction curve. ▪ Theoretical studies indicate that both the correlation between the slope and the dust column as well as variations in bump strength may result from geometric and radiative transfer effects.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Abstract. Even though desert dust is the most abundant aerosol bymass in Earth's atmosphere, the relative contributions of the world's majorsource regions to the global dust cycle remain poorly constrained. Thisproblem hinders accounting for the potentially large impact of regionaldifferences in dust properties on clouds, the Earth's energy balance, andterrestrial and marine biogeochemical cycles. Here, we constrain thecontribution of each of the world's main dust source regions to the globaldust cycle. We use an analytical framework that integrates an ensemble ofglobal aerosol model simulations with observationally informed constraintson the dust size distribution, extinction efficiency, and regional dustaerosol optical depth (DAOD). We obtain a dataset that constrains therelative contribution of nine major source regions to size-resolveddust emission, atmospheric loading, DAOD, concentration, and depositionflux. We find that the 22–29 Tg (1 standard error range) global loading ofdust with a geometric diameter up to 20 µm is partitioned as follows:North African source regions contribute ∼ 50 % (11–15 Tg),Asian source regions contribute ∼ 40 % (8–13 Tg), and NorthAmerican and Southern Hemisphere regions contribute ∼ 10 %(1.8–3.2 Tg). These results suggest that current models on averageoverestimate the contribution of North African sources to atmospheric dustloading at ∼ 65 %, while underestimating the contribution ofAsian dust at ∼ 30 %. Our results further show that eachsource region's dust loading peaks in local spring and summer, which ispartially driven by increased dust lifetime in those seasons. We alsoquantify the dust deposition flux to the Amazon rainforest to be∼ 10 Tg yr−1, which is a factor of 2–3 less than inferred fromsatellite data by previous work that likely overestimated dust deposition byunderestimating the dust mass extinction efficiency. The data obtained inthis paper can be used to obtain improved constraints on dust impacts onclouds, climate, biogeochemical cycles, and other parts of the Earth system.more » « less
An official website of the United States government

