Multi-Satellite Observation of an Intense Dust Event over Southwestern China

This study presents the results of a large-scale examination into a dust event that took place over southwestern China, an area that has received relatively little attention in the literature. The sources, transport path, and vertical distribution, as well as formation process of an intense dust storm event that took place over the Sichuan Basin from March 9 to March 14, 2013, were investigated using combined multiple satellite observations and meteorological data. Widespread dust plumes appeared over the Taklimakan Desert, Gobi Desert, and Loess Plateau on March 9. Different from the usual dust storms, the dust plumes did not move downstream directly but settled over the Loess Plateau and Sichuan Basin for several days. Persistent southwestern winds prevailed over eastern China during this period, and could prevent the dust storms from moving directly downstream. Our results suggest that the dust plumes over southwestern China mainly originated from the Gobi Desert. Despite extensive dust plumes over all the Sichuan Basin, PM10 increased sharply to more than 1200 μg/m^3 in the western part of the basin, with only a slight increase in the eastern part. When there was a sharp increase in coarse particles in Chengdu on March 11 and 14, northeasterly winds appeared over northern China. The elevated dust can be blown to the eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau and deposited in the western Sichuan Basin. However, such intense dust events are not common in southwestern China. In addition, floating dust may not be observed near the surface, but can have an important impact on regional aerosol loading and properties.

[1]  Jinhua Tao,et al.  Air quality modeling for a strong dust event in East Asia in March 2010 , 2012 .

[2]  Michael D. King,et al.  Deep Blue Retrievals of Asian Aerosol Properties During ACE-Asia , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[3]  Yan-ju Liu,et al.  The Elemental Composition of Atmospheric Particles at Beijing during Asian Dust Events in Spring 2004 , 2010 .

[4]  Yuan Cheng,et al.  Dust storms come to Central and Southwestern China, too: implications from a major dust event in Chongqing , 2009, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

[5]  P. Levelt,et al.  Aerosols and surface UV products from Ozone Monitoring Instrument observations: An overview , 2007 .

[6]  David M. Winker,et al.  CALIPSO lidar observations of the optical properties of Saharan dust: A case study of long‐range transport , 2008 .

[7]  R. Draxler HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) Model access via NOAA ARL READY Website , 2010 .

[8]  Lei Zhang,et al.  A-Train satellite measurements of dust aerosol distributions over northern China , 2013 .

[9]  Liangfu Chen,et al.  Satellite observation of regional haze pollution over the North China Plain , 2012 .

[10]  R. Reynolds,et al.  The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project , 1996, Renewable Energy.

[11]  T. Eck,et al.  Global evaluation of the Collection 5 MODIS dark-target aerosol products over land , 2010 .

[12]  Jimin Sun,et al.  Spatial and temporal characteristics of dust storms in China and its surrounding regions, 1960-1999 : Relations to source area and climate , 2001 .

[13]  Junji Cao,et al.  Analysis of a severe dust storm event over China: Application of the WRF-Dust Model , 2011 .

[14]  Kan Huang,et al.  Mixing of Asian dust with pollution aerosol and the transformation of aerosol components during the dust storm over China in spring 2007 , 2010 .

[15]  G. Carmichael,et al.  Asian emissions in 2006 for the NASA INTEX-B mission , 2009 .

[16]  Ilan Koren,et al.  The effect of smoke, dust, and pollution aerosol on shallow cloud development over the Atlantic Ocean. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[17]  Patrick Minnis,et al.  Dusty cloud properties and radiative forcing over dust source and downwind regions derived from A‐Train data during the Pacific Dust Experiment , 2010 .

[18]  L. Ruby Leung,et al.  Radiative impact of mineral dust on monsoon precipitation variability over West Africa , 2010 .

[19]  S. Liu,et al.  Asian Dust Storms and Their Impact on the Air Quality of Taiwan , 2001 .

[20]  K. Strawbridge,et al.  A pervasive and persistent Asian dust event over North America during spring 2010: lidar and sunphotometer observations , 2012 .