Dark volcanic dust in the most northern Iceland
To capture windblown dust, passive dust traps were installed in the RIF Field Station in the northernmost part of Iceland, 3 km south from the Arctic Circle. The aim was to capture and investigate local and long-range tranported dust.
The installation included dust traps for wet and dry deposition and vertical flow.
The traps were installed during the visit of 3-7 June and will collect dust until end of September 2024. The station manager Pedro Rodrigues provided most needed help in planning and installing the setup by the visiting installation team of Outi Meinander from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), and Iida Kostamo and Katja Bohm from the University of Helsinki.
During the visit, snow samples were also collected and quartz filters for further laboratory analysis at FMI were prepared. At the time of the visit, there were severe snow storms in the north, while the ongoing volcanic eruption of Sundhnukagigar was visible at the Reykjanes peninsula in the southern Iceland.
The work belongs to the EU-INTERACT DUST-project, lead by Adjunct Professor Outi Meinander, vice-lead of the Thematic Network on High Latitude Dust, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI).