Saharan dust plume property and chemical composition data for: Source Mineralogy and Transport History Shape the Compositional Heterogeneity of Long-Range Transported Saharan Dust

This dataset contains atmospheric parameters measured during major Saharan dust plumes online in-situ and offline from High Volume (HiVol) PM10 filter samples collected at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch (JFJ, 3580 m above sea level, 46°32′ N 7°59′ E), between 2011 and 2021, as used in the manuscript Weng et al. (in preparation). Besides the data of Saharan dust plumes, selected reference data from backgroud conditions at the JFJ are included as well.

Furthermore, the dataset includes constrained geospatial parameters corresponding to the major Saharan dust plumes, such as coordinates of their emission source area and transport pathways to the JFJ.

Detailed descriptions of the data, methods, instruments (including data coverage periods) and results can be found in the manuscript Weng et al. (in preparation).

All mass concentrations are in $μg m^-3$.

 

Overview data files:

Data type	File
Saharan dust plume source region coordinates and assignments, transport times, transport trajectory coordinates	Weng_et_al._JFJ_dust_source_regions and trajectories.xlsx
Reconstructed PM10 under Saharan dust conditions	Weng_et_al._JFJ_dust_chemical_characterization.csv
Online PM2.5 and PM10 mass concentrations	Weng_et_al._JFJ_Saharan_dust_online_pm.csv
Bulk PM10 parameters like OA, WSOA, gravimetric PM10 for Dust and composite Non-Dust samples	Weng_et_al._JFJ_Saharan_dust_bulk.csv
Bulk gravimetric PM10 for Dust and daily resolution Non-Dust samples	Weng_et_al._JFJ_Saharan_dust_bulk_day_res.csv
Ion chromatography MS data for Dust and composite Non-Dust samples	Weng_et_al._JFJ_Saharan_dust_ic_ms.csv
Inductively coupled plasma MS data for Dust and composite Non-Dust samples (the latter is soft digestion)	Weng_et_al._JFJ_Saharan_dust_icp_ms.csv
Inductively coupled plasma MS data for Dust and daily resolution Non-Dust samples (both harsh digestion)	Weng_et_al._JFJ_Saharan_dust_icp_ms_day_res.csv
PBLi tracer NOy/CO and Titanium dust flag data for Dust and composite Non-Dust samples	Weng_et_al._JFJ_Saharan_dust_misc.csv
PBLi tracer NOy/CO and Titanium dust flag data for Dust and daily resolution Non-Dust samples	Weng_et_al._JFJ_Saharan_dust_misc_day_res.csv
GMINER30 mineral content in topsoil data for Saharan dessert region	physical_maps.zip
Etopo topographic map data	ETOPO_2022_v1_30s_N90W180_bed.nc

Mineralogical soil data for visualization was retrieved from the GMINER30 Global Mineral Database of potentially dust productive soils (Nickovic et al.) currently available at seevccc.rs. (last access: March 6, 2026).

Topography data for plotting of the physical maps was obtained from the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information ETOPO 2022 global relief model, available at doi.org (last access: June 19, 2026).

 

Structure of each measurement data file:

Variable / Column name	Description
sample	Sample ID
type	Sample type (Dust, Non-Dust, Day resolution Non-Dust)
Sampling Date 1	Sampling date of the 1st 24 h HiVol filter of the composite sample (corresponding to 'Sample ID')
Sampling Date 2	Sampling date of the 2nd 24 h HiVol filter of the composite sample
Sampling Date 3	Sampling date of the 3rd 24 h HiVol filter of the composite sample
Sampling Date 4	Sampling date of the 4th 24 h HiVol filter of the composite sample
...	Measured parameters, as explained above (cf. also units in square brackets)

 

For daily resolution samples, 'Sampling Date 1-4' are identical.

 

Project grants:

This work received funding support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF, project numbers: 200021_213071 and PZ00P2_202178) and from the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment, with further support from Digitel AG, Camfil GmbH and all the WeMakeIt ScienceBooster crowdfunding supporters.

The continuous online in-situ aerosol measurements at the JFJ receive financial support from MeteoSwiss in the framework of the Swiss contribution (GAW-CH) to the Global Atmosphere Watch program of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and from the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) in the framework of the Swiss contribution ACTRIS-CH to the ACTRIS ERIC. Measurements conducted by Empa are part of the Swiss National Air Pollution Monitoring Network (NABEL) which is jointly run by Empa and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment.

The AirOSol and PANDA analytical platforms at IGE were supported by different fundings: the IC-MS and ICP-MS were funded through a donation from Thermo Fisher to the UGA Foundation as part of the Ice Memory program; the LEFE CHAT program with PMOA project (Organic Acids in Atmospheric PM, AO 2022) provided financial support for method validation and part of JFJ PM10 analysis.

 

References:

Julian Weng, Yufang Hao, Benjamin T. Brem, Tianqu Cui, Sophie Darfeuil, Gaëlle Uzu, Jean-Luc Jaffrezo, Martin Steinbacher, Martine Collaud Coen, Thaleia Gkraikou, Konstantina Oikonomou, Jean Sciare, Claudia Mohr, Andre S. H. Prévôt, Martin Gysel-Beer, Imad El Haddad, and Patrik Winiger: Source Mineralogy and Transport History Shape the Compositional Heterogeneity of Long-Range Transported Saharan Dust, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, in preparation.

Nickovic, S., Vukovic, A., Vujadinovic, M., Djurdjevic, V., and Pejanovic, G.: Technical Note: High-resolution mineralogical database of dust-productive soils for atmospheric dust modeling, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 12, 845–855, doi.org, 2012.