Regional distribution of monsoon and desert dust signals recorded in Asian glaciers

Abstract

Short‐term (6 months to 17 years) glaciochemical records have been collected from glacier basins throughout the mountains of central Asia. The spatial distribution of snow chemistry in central Asia is controlled predominantly by the influx of dust from the arid and semi‐arid regions in central Asia. The glaciochemical data suggests that glaciers which are removed from large source areas of mineral aerosol, such as those in the Himalaya, the Karakoram, and the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, are the ones most likely to contain longer‐term glaciochemical records which detail annual to decadal variation in the strength of the Asian monsoon and long‐range transport of Asian dust.