Abstract
This study characterized the profiles of particles collected during a dust-storm (DS) period in Beijing on 19-21 March 2002, which was one of the heaviest episodes in the previous decade. Several determinations of particle measurements were observed, including total mass concentrations, particle size distributions, dry deposition flux, and chemical ions concentrations. The TSP concentrations reached an extremely high peak value of 12 mg/m3 in DS period, and especially showed a characteristic increase in the size range of coarse particles (> 2.0 μm). The mass concentrations of coarse particles during DS period accounted for 91% of total particles, compared to 61% on non-DS days. The dry deposition mass flux of the dust storm reached 17.5 g/m2-d on 20 March in Beijing. Additionally, the transported pathway of the pollutants was investigated by using backward trajectory analysis. The result of analysis indicated that the high level of dust sand originated from the arid regions of southern Mongolia, passing through central Inner Mongolia, Shanxi Province, and then to Beijing. Concentrations of Cl−, NO3−, and SO42− in TSP were about 10 times higher in DS period than non-DS, probably because of some atmospheric processes enhancing chemical accumulation in the transported aerosols.
Highlights
In North and Northwest China, East Russia, and Mongolia there are a variety of environmental systems, such as hyper-arid, arid, and semi-arid areas where dust storms occur frequently
This paper reports on the mass concentration, size-segregated concentration, number concentration, dry deposition flux, and ion concentration of this dust storm, based on groundbased observation
The objective of this paper is to provide reliable dust storm observation data for estimating the flux of Asian dust transportation from source areas to downstream areas, and to validate dust transport and prediction models
Summary
In North and Northwest China, East Russia, and Mongolia there are a variety of environmental systems, such as hyper-arid, arid, and semi-arid areas where dust storms occur frequently. A great amount of dust is produced by wind storms and transported to the east and Pacific regions (Wang et al, 2000; Zhang et al, 2000). A main source of atmospheric aerosols, greatly influence ecosystems, environment, climate, and weather in the extended downstream areas (Iwasaka et al, 1983, 2003; Tegen and Fung, 1994; Sokolik et al, 2001; Zhang et al, 2004). In order to understand the effects of dust particles on the atmospheric environment and climate, it is important to investigate the concentrations and size distributions of dust particles when a dust storm occurs (Kanai et al, 2002; Shen et al, 2005)
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