Spatial and temporal characteristics of dust storms in China and its surrounding regions, 1960-1999 : Relations to source area and climate

Compilation and analysis of the past 40 years of dust storm reports from China allow estimation of the meteorological conditions of dust storms, dust transport routes, and eolian source regions. Our results indicate that dust storms in China are highly associated with the frontal systems and the Mongolian cyclonic depression. The spatial distribution of dust storms indicates that there are two dominant source regions of eolian dust raised from China and its surrounding regions. The major source is the gobi deserts in Mongolia and northern China. Another source region is the Taklimakan Desert in western China. However, dust entrained from the two sources makes different contributions to downwind deposition regions. In most cases, dust materials entrained from the gobi deserts of Mongolia and China can only be entrained to an elevation of 5000 m and then transported over long distances (∼5000 km) by the westerlies. These materials are not the main sources of the dust deposited in the proximal region, such as the Chinese Loess Plateau, but they are important sources of the eolian fraction of pelagic sediment in the remote North Pacific Ocean.

[1]  H. Fukushima,et al.  Asian dust aerosol: Optical effect on satellite ocean color signal and a scheme of its correction , 1997 .

[2]  Jimin Sun,et al.  Sources of heavy dust fall in Beijing, China on April 16, 1998 , 2000 .

[3]  N. Pisias,et al.  Late Pleistocene Continental Climate and Oceanic Variability Recorded in Northwest Pacific Sediments , 1991 .

[4]  W. Zoller,et al.  Asian Dust: Seasonal Transport to the Hawaiian Islands , 1983, Science.

[5]  M. Garstang,et al.  Temporal and spatial characteristics of Saharan dust outbreaks , 1996 .

[6]  N. Pisias,et al.  A direct link between the China loess and marine δ18O records: aeolian flux to the north Pacific , 1989, Nature.

[7]  Inez Y. Fung,et al.  Contribution to the atmospheric mineral aerosol load from land surface modification , 1995 .

[8]  Rainer Bleck,et al.  Meteorological analysis of long range transport of mineral aerosols over the North Pacific , 1989 .

[9]  I. Fung,et al.  Modeling of mineral dust in the atmosphere: Sources, transport, and optical thickness , 1994 .

[10]  D. Rea.  The paleoclimatic record provided by eolian deposition in the deep sea: The geologic history of wind , 1994 .

[11]  Joseph M. Prospero,et al.  Transport of mineral aerosol from Asia Over the North Pacific Ocean , 1983 .

[12]  T. Takashima,et al.  Aerosol optical thickness of yellow sand over the yellow sea derived from NOAA satellite data , 1986 .

[13]  Zhang Deer.  SYNOPTIC-CLIMATIC STUDIES OF DUST FALL IN CHINA SINCE HISTORIC TIMES , 1984 .

[14]  Glenn E. Shaw,et al.  Transport of Asian Desert Aerosol to the Hawaiian Islands , 1980 .

[15]  Hiroaki Minoura,et al.  The transport and spacial scale of Asian dust‐storm clouds: a case study of the dust‐storm event of April 1979 , 1983 .

[16]  A. Lacis,et al.  The influence on climate forcing of mineral aerosols from disturbed soils , 1996, Nature.

[17]  K. Voss,et al.  Dominance of mineral dust in aerosol light-scattering in the North Atlantic trade winds , 1996, Nature.

[18]  J. Prospero,et al.  Dust Concentration in the Atmosphere of the Equatorial North Atlantic: Possible Relationship to the Sahelian Drought , 1977, Science.

[19]  T. M. McClelland,et al.  Dust devils at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico: 1. Temporal and spatial distributions , 1990 .

[20]  Ranjit M. Passi,et al.  Modeling dust emission caused by wind erosion , 1988 .

[21]  J. Prospero,et al.  Long-Range Atmospheric Transport of Soil Dust from Asia to the Tropical North Pacific: Temporal Variability , 1980, Science.

[22]  An Zhi Sheng,et al.  The dust fall in Beijing, China on April 18, 1980 , 1981 .

[23]  J. Prospero,et al.  Mineralogy of aeolian dust reaching the North Pacific Ocean: 1. Sampling and analysis , 1994 .

[24]  J. Prospero,et al.  Deposition of atmospheric mineral particles in the North Pacific Ocean , 1985 .

[25]  J. Lelieveld,et al.  Role of mineral aerosol as a reactive surface in the global troposphere , 1996 .

[26]  Larry L. Stowe,et al.  Characterization of tropospheric aerosols over the oceans with the NOAA advanced very high resolution radiometer optical thickness operational product , 1997 .

[27]  Dongsheng Liu,et al.  Loess and the environment , 1985 .

[28]  B. Hicks,et al.  The atmospheric input of trace species to the world ocean , 1991 .

[29]  R. Duce,et al.  Relationships between the dust concentrations over eastern Asia and the remote North Pacific , 1992 .

[30]  Akira Ono,et al.  Transport of Asian dust (KOSA) particles; importance of weak KOSA events on the geochemical cycle of soil particles , 1988 .

[31]  Z. Li,et al.  Gobi dust storms and The Great Green Wall , 1994 .

[32]  R. Duce,et al.  Atmospheric trace elements at Enewetak Atoll : 1, Concentrations, sources and temporal variability , 1983 .

[33]  M. Andreae.  Raising dust in the greenhouse , 1996, Nature.

[34]  K. Hanson,et al.  Spatial and temporal variability of dust production caused by wind erosion in the United States , 1989 .

[35]  C. Weaver,et al.  Mineralogy of aeolian dust reaching the North Pacific Ocean: 2. Relationship of mineral assemblages to atmospheric transport patterns , 1994 .

[36]  R. Duce,et al.  Trace elements in the atmosphere of American Samoa: Concentrations and deposition to the tropical South Pacific , 1987 .

[37]  G. Shaw,et al.  Asian desert dust over Alaska: Anatomy of an Arctic haze episode , 1981 .

[38]  Michael Garstang,et al.  Saharan dust in the Amazon Basin , 1992 .