Monitoring present-day Saharan dust above and below the ocean surface

<p>Mineral dust plays an important role in the ocean&#8217;s carbon cycle through the input of nutrients</p> <p>and metals which potentially fertilise phytoplankton, and by ballasting organic matter from the surface ocean to the sea floor. However, time series and records of open-ocean dust deposition fluxes are sparse. Here, we present a series of Saharan dust collected between 2015 and 2022 by dust-collecting buoys that are monitoring dust in the equatorial North Atlantic Ocean, as well as by moored sediment traps at the buoys' positions at ~21&#176;N/21&#176;W and ~11&#176;N/23&#176;W directly below the major dust Saharan-dust plume offshore northwest Africa. We present dust-flux data as well as particle-size distribution data, and make a comparison of the dust collected from the atmosphere at the ocean surface with the dust settling through the ocean and intercepted by the submarine sediment traps.<br />See: www.nioz.nl/dust</p>