Abstract
In Central Asia, climate and air quality are largely affected by local and long-travelled mineral dust. For the last century, the area has experienced severe land-use changes and water exploitation producing new dust sources. Today global warming causes rapid shrinking of mountain glaciers with yet unknow consequences for dust and its climate effects. Despite the importance for a growing population, only little is known about sources, transport pathways and properties of Central Asian dust. A transport study with a global aerosol-climate model is undertaken to investigate the life cycle of mineral dust in Central Asia for the period of a remote-sensing campaign in Tajikistan in 2015–2016. An initial evaluation with sun photometer measurements shows reasonable agreement for the average amount of dust, but a significant weakness of the model in reproducing the seasonality of local dust with maximum activity in summer. Source apportionment reveals a major contribution from Arabia throughout the year in accordance with observations. In the model, local sources mainly contribute in spring and autumn while summer-time dust production is underestimated. The results underline the importance of considering long-range transport and, locally, a detailed representation of atmospheric dynamics and surface characteristics for modelling dust in Central Asia.
Highlights
Central Asia is a hot spot of climate change [1] and both source and receptor area for mineral dust aerosol
This study aims to enhance the understanding of mineral dust in Central Asia
Despite its potentially important role for climate and air quality in this region, only little is known about sources, transport pathways and effects
Summary
Central Asia is a hot spot of climate change [1] and both source and receptor area for mineral dust aerosol. After dramatic land-use changes forming new dust sources in the last century, Central Asia today is facing a dramatic shrinking of high mountain glaciers due to global warming with yet unclear impacts by and on mineral dust [2, 3]. Central Asia is covered by a mixture of different types of deserts and drylands, which represent important dust sources accounting for at least 10% of global dust emissions [4]. The deserts Karakum and Kyzylkum and the Caspian Sea coast are the most important natural sources of Central Asian dust [5]. As a result of man-made desertification, the Aral Sea is the largest single dust source in this area today [6]. Central Asia is influenced by considerable loadings of long-travelled dust from the Saharan and Arabian deserts
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