Abstract
Abstract. One or several aspects of the source, distribution, transport, and optical properties of airborne dust have been characterized using different types of satellite and ground measurements, each with unique advantages. In this study, a dust event that occurred over the East Asia area in May 2017 was exemplified to demonstrate how all the above-mentioned aspects of a dust event can be pictured by combining the advantages of different satellite and ground measurements. The data used included the Himawari-8 satellite Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) true-colour images, the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) aerosol vertical profiles, the Aura satellite Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aerosol index images, and the ground-based Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) aerosol properties and the ground station particulate matter (PM) measurements. From the multi-satellite/sensor (AHI, CALIOP, and OMI) time series observations, the dust storm was found to originate from the Gobi Desert on the morning of 3 May 2017 and transport north-eastward to the Bering Sea, eastward to the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and southward to south-central China. The air quality in China deteriorated drastically: the PM10 (PM < 10 µm in aerodynamic diameter) concentrations measured at some air quality stations located in northern China reached 4333 µg m−3. At the AOE_Baotou, Beijing, Xuzhou-CUMT, and Ussuriysk AERONET sites, the maximum aerosol optical depth values reached 2.96, 2.13, 2.87, and 0.65 and the extinction Ångström exponent dropped to 0.023, 0.068, 0.03, and 0.097, respectively. The dust storm also induced unusual aerosol spectral single-scattering albedo and volume size distribution.
Highlights
Large amounts of dust particles are emitted from the deserts in western/northern China and southern Mongolia every year, especially in spring (Shao et al, 2011)
The surface reflectance has no impact on the UV aerosol index (UV-AI), which makes it capable of detecting absorption by aerosols over highly reflective surfaces (Torres et al, 2007). Since this dust event occurred in May, a high UV-AI can be a good indicator of high dust aerosol loading when combined with Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) observations, as Aura and CALIPSO have similar equatorial crossing times
31.2659 37.7394 34.5814 43.6267 37.5325 34.9162 37.0172 strong west and south-west wind evident in Fig. 3, which shows the spatial distribution of the wind vectors and geopotential height field at 500 hPa level at 06:00 UTC during 3– 8 May
Summary
Large amounts of dust particles are emitted from the deserts in western/northern China and southern Mongolia every year, especially in spring (Shao et al, 2011). The annual dust emissions of East Asia reach approximately 25 % of the total global dust emissions (Ginoux et al, 2004) These massive emissions produce significant influences on the Earth’s radiation balance, climate, ambient air quality, and human health (Goudie, 2009; Shao et al, 2011; Rodríguez et al, 2012). Dust aerosols exert both direct and indirect effects on the climate system. Few studies have been carried out to fully examine the source, distribution, transport, and optical properties of dust storms This is possibly because each observation system can only characterize one or several of these aspects. The connections and correspondences among different observations are briefly analysed
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