Figure 6. Comparison of measured and modeled seasonally averaged dust surface concentrations at 15 Northern Hemisphere stations.

The inverse model results (blue line and squares) capture the measured seasonal variability (orange line and circles) at all stations, with lower error (see Fig. 8c) and on average higher correlation coefficients than MERRA-2 (red line and diamonds), models in the AeroCom ensemble (black dotted lines and letters), and (unmodified) models in our ensemble (brown dashed lines and numbers). Also shown are the mean correlation coefficients between measurements and the different AeroCom models (r_AeroCom) and the different models in our ensemble (r_models), and the correlation coefficients for MERRA-2 (r_R) and the inverse model results (r_IM). Uncertainty ranges on measurements and the inverse model results represent one standard error on the climatological seasonally averaged surface concentration. The legend for individual models is given in Fig. 3, and x-values are offset slightly for clarity.