Integrated Analysis of Dust Transport and Budget in a Severe Asian Dust Event

Yingying Jing,Na Xu,Lin Chen,Peng Zhang

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2017.05.0170

Abstract

Asian dust storms markedly affect the ecosystem, environment, ocean biogeochemical cycle, and regional climate. Numerous measurements and model simulations have been performed to investigate the sources and transport of Asian dust. However, until now, few studies have performed a comprehensive quantification of the dust budget, resulting in significant uncertainty about the characterization of dust transport, emission, and deposition. In this study, a severe dust event in East Asia that occurred from April 28 till May 3, 2011, was analyzed in terms of dust transport characteristics based on multi-satellite observations and the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model. In particular, the dust budget of the event was quantitatively estimated using a new atmospheric reanalysis dataset, namely the second Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2). The multi-satellite observations and models indicated that dust events such as this are uncommon. A two-layered dust structure was found in southeast China, the lower (< 1.5 km) and elevated (> 3 km) layers of which mainly originated from the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts, respectively. The dust budget in East Asia, as estimated from MERRA-2, revealed a high dust mass loading (5.7–6.6 Tg) between 70°E and 140°E from April 29 till May 1, with the highest daily dust loading (approximately 6.6 Tg) reported on April 30. The total dust emission was 6.3 Tg over a 6-day period (April 28–May 3), and the maximum amount (nearly 5.9 Tg) of dust was deposited on the ground in the region. The dust flux amounts horizontally transported across the longitudinal boundary of 70°E and 140°E were 1.7 and 2.8 Tg, respectively.

Highlights

Asian deserts are crucial sources of mineral dust aerosols, which can affect the climate and environment by altering the radiative energy balance, cloud microphysical properties, and biogeochemical cycles (Wang et al, 2011; Narasimhan and Satheesh, 2013; Huang et al, 2014; Knippertz and Stuut, 2014)
This study focused on the following objectives: (1) presenting the dust formation process and long-range dust transport characteristics based on the dust event that occurred from April 28 to May 3, 2011, in East Asia by using multisatellite observations and model data; (2) analyzing the dust source and vertical structure of this event; and (3)
Long-Range Transport Characteristics of Asian Dust A severe dust storm event occurred from April 28 to

Summary

Introduction

Asian deserts are crucial sources of mineral dust aerosols, which can affect the climate and environment by altering the radiative energy balance, cloud microphysical properties, and biogeochemical cycles (Wang et al, 2011; Narasimhan and Satheesh, 2013; Huang et al, 2014; Knippertz and Stuut, 2014). Some studies have reported that Asian dust aerosols can be transported to vast downwind areas, including the coastal seas of China, Korea, Japan, and even North America (Fang et al, 1999; Mori et al, 2002; Zhao et al, 2011; Cottle et al, 2013; Li et al, 2015) These transported aerosols are often mixed with high concentrations of regional pollution aerosols that largely reduce visibility and worsen air quality in downwind areas of East Asia (Guo et al, 2013). Many studies have used satellites, ground-based measurements, and model data to investigate the long-range transport characteristics of the Asian dust event and their effects on air quality and the environment in East Asia (Liu et al, 2011; Chen et al, 2015; El-Askary et al, 2015; Li et al, 2015). Such estimates contain large uncertainties due to other uncertainties associated with the derived dust optical depth and mass extinction efficiency (MEE)

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Conclusion