A Study of a Severe Spring Dust Event in 2021 over East Asia with WRF-Chem and Multiple Platforms of Observations

Abstract

In this study, we investigate the most severe East Asian dust storm in the past decade that occurred on 14–16 March 2021 based on the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF-Chem) and a variety of site measurements and satellite retrievals. The dust emissions from the Gobi Desert, especially over Mongolia on March 14, are the dominant sources of this intense dust event. The maximal hourly accumulated dust emissions over Mongolian and Chinese areas reached 1490.18 kt at 07:00 UTC on 14 March and 821.70 kt at 2:00 UTC on 15 March, respectively. During this dust event, the accumulated dust emissions in coarse modes (i.e., bin 4 and bin 5) account for 64.1% of the total dust emission mass, and the accumulated dust emissions in fine modes (i.e., bin 1) are the least, accounting for 7.6% of the total dust emission mass. Because the coarse mode bins of dust dominate the emissions, the downwind transported coarse mode particles can affect the North China Plain, while the fine particles can only affect the desert source and its surrounding regions such as the Gansu and Ningxia provinces. Due to the dust emissions and the dust transport path, the high AOD areas are located in the Gobi Desert and Northwest China and the vertical spatial distributions of aerosol extinction coefficients have the same characteristics. We also found the model drawback of overestimating simulated wind speeds, which leads to the overestimations of dust emissions and concentrations, indicating the urgency of improving the simulated wind field.

Phytoplankton community structure in the Western Subarctic Gyre of the Pacific Ocean during summer determined by a combined approach of HPLC-pigment CHEMTAX and metabarcoding sequencing

“…For example, between 6 and 24 May (during the early stage of this investigation), three dust storms in Central Asia seriously affected the eastern coastal provinces of China, although no data are available in the sea (China Meteorological Administration, 2022). Tang et al (2022) showed that the center of the spring dust storm reached the northwest Pacific at latitudes between 30°and 40°, which was south of our study area. The atmospheric deposition of nutrients, especially Fe, might be the main factor for the high phytoplankton biomass (i.e., Chl a) in the southern region of the study area (Figure S1).…”

The Lower Atmospheric Characteristics of Dust Storms Using Ground-Based Sensor Data: A Comparative Analysis of Two Cases in Jinan, China

“…Detailed studies of the lower atmospheric conditions using various observation methods have been performed to understand the formation and transmission mechanism of dust storms [2][3][4]. The impacts of dust storm (DS) events on the physical and chemical processes show that the particles in the DS could affect the chemical reaction and energy balance in the boundary layer, further causing harm to the environment and ecosystem [5,6]. Researchers also identified key factors that contribute to the occurrence and severity of DS, such as climate change, land use change, and anthropogenic activities [7,8].…”