Total deposition flux of insoluble atmospheric particles, M’Bour, Senegal

Total deposition flux of insoluble atmospheric particles was collected with a passive collector of an inverted “Frisbee” shape (Hall and Waters, 1986; Hall and Upton, 1988), equipped with a flow deflector ring, as tested by Wiggs et al. (2002) and full with marbles to limit dust resuspension and rain splashing. The “Frisbee” collector was installed on the roof of a building (i.e. at about 10 m above the ground level) of the geophysical station of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) installed in a nature reserve of 50 ha, and 80 m from the seaside. The samples were collected manually with a weekly time-step. In case of rainfall during the rainy season, water and deposited particles were collected in a 5-litter bottle connected to the bottom of the sampler. The collection procedure was decomposed into three main phases: (1) rinsing with a large volume of water, (2) decantation during more than 6 hours and siphoning of excess water; (3) drying in an oven at 70°C until complete water evaporation. The collected dust was finally weighed in a pre-weighted pillbox with a balance having a precision of 0.0001 g. Total deposition flux of insoluble atmospheric particles is expressed as g/m² per sampling period and as g/m²/day by dividing the collected mass by surface of collection and sampling duration (dates of start and end of sampling are given in the data files in UTC). Fluxes are given after subtracting blanks; the blank value is given in the header of each file.