Dust emission and transport in the Aral Sea region

Abstract

The rapid drying of the Aral Sea has led to a series of complex environmental changes and a large amount of aeolian dust have been swept up from the exposed bottom. This study used a wind erosion model and the Hysplit model to investigate emission and transport characteristics of the Aral Sea dust. The spatial pattern of dust emission was determined by quantifying the surface conditions. The total source area in the Aral Sea region exceeds 27,000 km2, with annual average dust emission of up to 87.6 Tg from 2010 to 2020. The main source of dust was found to be in the eastern Aral Sea basin. The spatial pattern of dust emission in a year was seasonal and the highest value and the widest spatial range occurred in spring. Modeling of a dust event on March 22, 2020 showed that PM10 dust emitted from the Aral Sea region can be transported over 4,000 km, and the area of land surface affected was more than 6.21 × 106 km2. The potential impact area of the Aral Sea dust was mapped by the numerical simulations for the past 24 severe dust storms, which indicates that the Aral Sea dust can reach the Arctic Ocean, Iran, the Atlantic Ocean through France, and the Pacific Ocean through Japan, covering a land area of more than 38.5 × 106 km2.