Uncertainty in Dust Budget over East Asia Simulated by WRF/Chem with Six Different Dust Emission Schemes

Abstract

In this study, the dependence of dust budgets on dust emission schemes is investigated through the simulation of dust storm events, which occurred during 14–25 March 2002, over East Asia, by the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry(WRF/Chem) model coupled with six dust emission schemes. Generally, this model can reasonably reproduce the spatial distribution of surface dust concentration; however, the simulated total dust budget differs significantly with different emission schemes. Moreover, uncertainties in the simulated dust budget vary among regions. It is suggested that the dust emission scheme affects the regional dust budget directly through its impact on the total emitted dust amount; however, the inflow and outflow of dust aerosols simulated by different schemes within a region also depend on the geographical location of the dust emission region. Furthermore, the size distribution of dust particles for a specific dust emission scheme has proven to be important for dust budget calculation due to the dependence of dust deposition amount on dust size distribution.