Abstract
Abstract. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is located at the juncture of several important natural and anthropogenic aerosol sources. Satellites have observed substantial dust and anthropogenic aerosols in the atmosphere during summer over the TP. These aerosols have distinct effects on the earth's energy balance, microphysical cloud properties, and precipitation rates. To investigate the transport of summer dust and anthropogenic aerosols over the TP, we combined the Spectral Radiation-Transport Model for Aerosol Species (SPRINTARS) with a non-hydrostatic regional model (NHM). The model simulation shows heavily loaded dust aerosols over the northern slope and anthropogenic aerosols over the southern slope and the east of the TP. The dust aerosols are primarily mobilized around the Taklimakan Desert, where a portion of the aerosols are transported eastward due to the northwesterly current; simultaneously, a portion of the particles are transported southward when a second northwesterly current becomes northeasterly because of the topographic blocking of the northern slope of the TP. Because of the strong upward current, dust plumes can extend upward to approximately 7–8 km a.s.l. over the northern slope of the TP. When a dust event occurs, anthropogenic aerosols that entrained into the southwesterly current via the Indian summer monsoon are transported from India to the southern slope of the TP. Simultaneously, a large amount of anthropogenic aerosol is also transported from eastern China to the east of the TP by easterly winds. An investigation on the transport of dust and anthropogenic aerosols over the plateau may provide the basis for determining aerosol impacts on summer monsoons and climate systems.
Highlights
Aerosols, which primarily comprise a mixture of soil dust, sulfate, carbonaceous material and sea salt, may have a large, direct effect on the energy balance by absorbing and scattering solar and thermal radiation (Liu et al, 2011, 2014; Miller and Tegen, 1998; Tegen, 2003) and an indirect effect on the microphysical properties of clouds (DeMott et al, 2003; Huang et al, 2010)
Considering the influence of the lateral boundary of the model domain, the analysis primarily focused on the inner domain of 20–50◦ N, 70–110◦ E, as indicated by the black rectangle in Fig. 1; this area encloses the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and most of the dust sources in East Asia
We first evaluated the SPRINTARS model coupled with an non-hydrostatic regional model (NHM) using Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO), ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) and multi-angle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR) observational data
Summary
Aerosols, which primarily comprise a mixture of soil dust, sulfate, carbonaceous material and sea salt, may have a large, direct effect on the energy balance by absorbing and scattering solar and thermal radiation (Liu et al, 2011, 2014; Miller and Tegen, 1998; Tegen, 2003) and an indirect effect on the microphysical properties of clouds (DeMott et al, 2003; Huang et al, 2010). As the major type of aerosol that affects the TP (Huang et al, 2007b; Zhang et al, 2001), dust aerosols accumulate on the northern slope of the plateau, where the Taklimakan and Gobi deserts intersect. From April to May, dust aerosols, which are transported from Pakistan/Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Sahara, and Taklimakan deserts, accumulate at high elevations on the southern and northern slopes of the TP (Lau et al, 2006). Dust aerosol particles are transported from nearby deserts, such as the Taklimakan Desert, and accumulate on the northern and southern slopes of the TP. Tibetan dust aerosol layers appear most frequently at approximately 4–7 km above the mean sea level, where the plumes likely originate from the nearby Taklimakan Desert and accumulate over the northern slopes of the TP during summer (Huang et al, 2007b). The transport of these aerosols is explored via combining the simulation results and reanalysis data
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