Quantifying dust emissions from desert landforms, eastern Mojave Desert, USA

Sweeney, Mark R.; McDonald, Eric V.; Etyemezian, Vicken

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2011.07.022

Cited by 121 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…Depth ( results are consistent with supply-limited surfaces, typical for siltclay or salt-crusted playas or alluvial surfaces with a protective gravel lag Nickling and Gillies, 1989;Sweeney et al, 2011). Salt-dust emissions were limited by the growth rate of efflorescent salts during the study period, so fluxes calculated over the time of the test mask short-lived, high-magnitude pulses of dust.…”

Section: Sitesupporting

confidence: 56%

“…Other areas of the Owens Lake playa are almost always covered with hard crusts, limiting dust emission potential, however, direct entrainment of dust occurs seasonally in the late winter and spring in areas influenced by shallow groundwater (Cahill et al, 1996;Gillette et al, 2001). Dust emissions measured in this field study are comparatively lower, but otherwise similar, to emissions described at Owens, Mesquite, and Soda lakes, and demonstrates heterogeneity of dust emissions of playa systems is common and in need of additional study (Bryant, 2013;Sweeney et al, 2011). The comparatively low emissions at Yellow Lake appear to be the result of specific conditions at the time of our study: 1) exceptional drought and below normal precipitation (Nielsen-Gammon, 2012), 2) extensive, stabilizing crust cover on the playa surface, 3) a seasonally lower water table, and 4) lack of efflorescent salt growth.…”

Section: Controls On Salt-dust Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Dust emissions from playas vary widely depending on surface moisture, surface roughness, the strength of surficial sediment or salt crusts, and the availability of saltating grains Gillette et al, 2004;King et al, 2011;Nield et al, 2015;Sweeney et al, 2011;Tollerud and Fantle, 2014). Furthermore, the impact of drought duration, the depletion of groundwater, and other factors influencing water table dynamics exert significant control on the timing of deflation and the composition of the emitted dust (Elmore et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geomorphic and hydrologic controls of dust emissions during drought from Yellow Lake playa, West Texas, USA

Sweeney

Zlotnik

Joeckel

et al. 2016

Journal of Arid Environments

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a b s t r a c tNumerous complex geomorphic and hydrologic factors have been identified that control dust emissions from playas, yet there are few measurements of dust emissions from playas during drought, which is assumed to enhance emissions, or during low-emission seasons. We used the PI-SWERL (Portable in situ Wind Erosion Laboratory) to measure dust emission potential at Yellow Lake, a saline playa in West Texas, USA, during the drought of 2011. Direct aeolian entrainment of dust occurred primarily on supplylimited surfaces consisting of mud-cracked surfaces as well as crusts containing halite, thenardite, and gypsum. High-magnitude, low duration peaks in dust emissions occurred over parts of the playa underlain by shallow groundwater (<1 m) where conditions encouraged the crystallization of efflorescent salts. In contrast, surfaces characterized by loose sand-sized aggregates produced sustained dust emissions two to three orders of magnitude higher than the playa surface because aggregates broke apart during saltation. Prolonged drought at Yellow Lake will significantly change the frequency and type of dust emissions. We propose that a similar scenario characterizes dust production at many hydrologically similar playas. More research is needed to assess the impacts of changing groundwater levels on dust emissions in the context of extended drought and anthropogenic climate change.

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Section: Sitesupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Controls On Salt-dust Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Geomorphic and hydrologic controls of dust emissions during drought from Yellow Lake playa, West Texas, USA

Sweeney

Zlotnik

Joeckel

et al. 2016

Journal of Arid Environments

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“…Although a number of studies about the origin, transport, and deposition of desert dust are available [19,23,28,33,34], a detailed understanding of the climatological and meteorological characteristics that influence dust event frequency and magnitude for sub-regions of the southwestern region of the U.S. are still lacking. This type of knowledge is needed to understand the regional and local dust climatology.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dust Climatology of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in Lancaster, California, USA

Pokharel

Kaplan

2017

Climate

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A 15-year (1997-2011) climatology of dust events at the NASA DFRC in Lancaster, California, USA, was performed to evaluate how the extratropical systems were associated with dust storms over this region. For this study, we collected meteorological data for Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB) in Lancaster, California, which is very close to NASA DFRC, from wunderground.com, National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), NCEP/Hydro-meteorological Prediction Center/National Weather Service (NWS), and Unisys analyses. We find that the dust events were associated with the development of a deep convective boundary layer, turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) ≥3 J/kg, a deep unstable lapse rate layer, a wind speed above the frictional threshold wind speed necessary to ablate dust from the surface (≥7.3 m/s), a presence of a cold trough above the deep planetary boundary layer (PBL), a strong cyclonic jet, an influx of vertical sensible heat from the surrounding area, and a low volumetric soil moisture fraction <0.3. The annual mean number of dust events, their mean duration, and the unit duration per number of event for each visibility range, when binned as <11.2 km, <8 km, <4.8 km, <1.6 km, and <1 km were calculated. The visibility range values were positively correlated with the annual mean number of dust events, duration of dust events, and the ratio of duration of dust events. The percentage of the dust events by season shows that most of the dust events occurred in autumn (44.7%), followed by spring (38.3%), and equally in summer and winter with these seasons each accounting for 8.5% of events. This study also shows that the summer had the highest percentage (10%) of the lowest visibility condition (<1 km) followed by autumn (2%). Neither of the other two seasons-winter and spring-experienced such a low visibility condition during the entire dust events over 15 years. Winter had the highest visibility (<11.2 km) percentage, which was 67% followed by spring (55%). Wind speed increasing to a value within the range of 3.6-11 m/s was typically associated with the dust events.

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“…S-1 and S-2) and applied in this study, is more amenable to sampling in remote or confined areas typical of many mining operations. PI-SWERL measurements have shown comparability with larger wind tunnels (Sweeney et al, 2008) and are being used in a growing number of fugitive dust evaluation and control applications (Bacon et al, 2011;Buck et al, 2011;China and James, 2012;Etyemezian et al, 2014;Goossens and Buck, 2009;Kavouras et al, 2009;King et al, 2011;Kuhns et al, 2010;Neuman et al, 2009;Sweeney et al, 2011). This study examines fugitive dust suspension potential and emission rates (fluxes) within and around mining operations in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) of northeastern Alberta, Canada.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind erosion potential for fugitive dust sources in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region

et al. 2015

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Quantifying dust emissions from desert landforms, eastern Mojave Desert, USA

Cited by 121 publications

References 85 publications

Geomorphic and hydrologic controls of dust emissions during drought from Yellow Lake playa, West Texas, USA

Geomorphic and hydrologic controls of dust emissions during drought from Yellow Lake playa, West Texas, USA

Dust Climatology of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) in Lancaster, California, USA

Wind erosion potential for fugitive dust sources in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region

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