Intensity of dust storms in China from 1980 to 2007: A new definition

Abstract

In the process of studying dust-storm events, we have to face an important scientific problem: How to define dust-storm intensity (DSI)? This study provides a comprehensive definition of DSI in terms of the frequency, duration, and visibility of dust storms, and uses it to measure the trend of annual changes in dust-storm activities. With dust-storm data from 186 meteorological observation stations in China, the trend in DSI was studied for the period 1980–2007. This trend differs from those based on the frequency of dust storms, which are often used in the literature. In this study, average DSIs after 2000 were underestimated using frequency alone to measure the dust activities, compared with those before 2000. According to the spatiotemporal distribution, there are four modes of change in DSI over the period, namely a significantly decreasing trend, an increasing trend, a mode in which dust storm activity remained constant, and a two-peak mode.