Author Correction: Enhanced tenacity of mycobacterial aerosols from necrotic neutrophils.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Enhanced tenacity of mycobacterial aerosols from necrotic neutrophils.

The tuberculosis agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis is primarily transmitted through air, but little is known about the tenacity of mycobacterium-containing aerosols derived from either suspensions or infected neutrophils. Analysis of mycobacterial aerosol particles generated from bacterial suspensions revealed an average aerodynamic diameter and mass density that may allow distant airborne transmission. The volume and mass of mycobacterial aerosol particles increased with elevated relative humidity. To more closely mimic aerosol formation that occurs in active TB patients, aerosols from mycobacterium-infected neutrophils were analysed. Mycobacterium-infected intact neutrophils showed a smaller particle size distribution and lower viability than free mycobacteria. In contrast, mycobacterium-infected necrotic neutrophils, predominant in M. tuberculosis infection, revealed particle sizes and viability rates similar to those found for free mycobacteria, but in addition, larger aggregates of viable mycobacteria were observed. Therefore, mycobacteria are shielded from environmental stresses in multibacillary aggregates generated from necrotic neutrophils, which allows improved tenacity but emphasizes short distance transmission between close contacts.

The role of deep convection and nocturnal low-level jets for dust emission in summertime West Africa: Estimates from convection-permitting simulations.

[1] Convective cold pools and the breakdown of nocturnal low-level jets (NLLJs) are key meteorological drivers of dust emission over summertime West Africa, the world's largest dust source. This study is the first to quantify their relative contributions and physical interrelations using objective detection algorithms and an off-line dust emission model applied to convection-permitting simulations from the Met Office Unified Model. The study period covers 25 July to 02 September 2006. All estimates may therefore vary on an interannual basis. The main conclusions are as follows: (a) approximately 40% of the dust emissions are from NLLJs, 40% from cold pools, and 20% from unidentified processes (dry convection, land-sea and mountain circulations); (b) more than half of the cold-pool emissions are linked to a newly identified mechanism where aged cold pools form a jet above the nocturnal stable layer; (c) 50% of the dust emissions occur from 1500 to 0200 LT with a minimum around sunrise and after midday, and 60% of the morning-to-noon emissions occur under clear skies, but only 10% of the afternoon-to-nighttime emissions, suggesting large biases in satellite retrievals; (d) considering precipitation and soil moisture effects, cold-pool emissions are reduced by 15%; and (e) models with parameterized convection show substantially less cold-pool emissions but have larger NLLJ contributions. The results are much more sensitive to whether convection is parameterized or explicit than to the choice of the land-surface characterization, which generally is a large source of uncertainty. This study demonstrates the need of realistically representing moist convection and stable nighttime conditions for dust modeling. Citation: Heinold, B., P. Knippertz, J. H. Marsham, S. Fiedler, N. S. Dixon, K. Schepanski, B. Laurent, and I. Tegen (2013), The role of deep convection and nocturnal low-level jets for dust emission in summertime West Africa: Estimates from convection-permitting simulations, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 118, 4385-4400, doi:10.1002/jgrd.50402.

Climatology of nocturnal low-level jets over North Africa and implications for modeling mineral dust emission.

[1] This study presents the first climatology for the dust emission amount associated with Nocturnal Low-Level Jets (NLLJs) in North Africa. These wind speed maxima near the top of the nocturnal boundary layer can generate near-surface peak winds due to shear-driven turbulence in the course of the night and the NLLJ breakdown during the following morning. The associated increase in the near-surface wind speed is a driver for mineral dust emission. A new detection algorithm for NLLJs is presented and used for a statistical assessment of NLLJs in 32 years of ERA-Interim reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. NLLJs occur in 29% of the nights in the annual and spatial mean. The NLLJ climatology shows a distinct annual cycle with marked regional differences. Maxima of up to 80% NLLJ frequency are found where low-level baroclinicity and orographic channels cause favorable conditions, e.g., over the Bodélé Depression, Chad, for November-February and along the West Saharan and Mauritanian coast for April-September. Downward mixing of NLLJ momentum to the surface causes 15% of mineral dust emission in the annual and spatial mean and can be associated with up to 60% of the total dust amount in specific areas, e.g., the Bodélé Depression and south of the Hoggar-Tibesti Channel. The sharp diurnal cycle underlines the importance of using wind speed information with high temporal resolution as driving fields for dust emission models. Citation: Fiedler, S., K. Schepanski, B. Heinold, P. Knippertz, and I. Tegen (2013), Climatology of nocturnal low-level jets over North Africa and implications for modeling mineral dust emission, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 118, 6100-6121, doi:10.1002/jgrd.50394.