Quantifying Mineral Dust Emissions on the Tibetan Plateau With a Modified Dust Source Map

Abstract

AbstractThe region surrounding the Tibetan Plateau (TP) is widely considered a primary global dust source, with mineral dust comprising a significant proportion of aerosols over the TP. Current research on TP dust has mainly focused on transport from the surrounding deserts, with little focus on dust emissions from the TP's interior. The erodibility factor used by the WRF‐Chem (ERODDEF) is 0 for the TP, so the model cannot simulate the dust emissions inside the plateau. Thus, we constructed a high‐resolution erodibility data set (ERODSDS) based on a reliable dust source distribution and intensity map. Based on the modified EROD map, the WRF‐Chem model was used to simulate dust emissions and direct radiative forcing on the TP in 2018. With the modified EROD map, WRF‐Chem can well simulate the temporal variation and spatial pattern of mineral dust on the plateau, which greatly improves the model's dust emissions simulation accuracy on the TP.