The utility of Hayashi's quantification theory for assessment of land surface indices in influence of dust storms: a case study in Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

Abstract It is difficult to conduct the assessment of dust storms under the influence of land surface indices with accurate statistical theory in the dust source region of China due to problems, especially those that emerge in the data of land surface that has no accurate data for soil moisture and hardness from meteorological records, no quantitative data for dust emission and a deficient proper theory using the capacity to combine quantitative data with qualitative data. This paper selected Erlianhaote of Inner Mongolia in northern China as a study example, and compiled the data of land surface condition of soil moisture and hardness as well as the data of dust storms and wind during 2001–2003. The authors determined the threshold value from the influences in different land patterns on dust emission processes by discrimination, quantitatively described the integrated influence of wind speed and soil moisture as well as soil hardness impact on dust storms using Hayashi's quantification theory type 2, and also discussed the related problems of potential errors in the data sets. This theorem could provide the obvious numeral materials about multi-factor cause–effect relationship for decision making and is useful in the quantificational assessment for factors impacting dust storms during the study period. Land surface condition diversity research had obvious scale effect characteristics. A clear evidence is that the combined contribution of soil moisture and hardness in dust emission is 48.79% of that of total contribution of wind speed, approximately the same as that of wind speed.