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Regional characteristics of dust storms in China
Abstract
Regional characteristics of dust storms in northern China are analyzed using a rotated empirical orthogonal function (REOF), based on the annual days of dust storms from 1954 to 1998. The relationships between regional dust storms corresponding to other factors such as precipitation and temperature are explored.The results show that five leading modes of dust storms exist in the following areas: the Taklamakan Desert (Tarim Basin) over the Xinjiang region (far northwestern China), the eastern part of Inner Mongolia (North China), the Tsaidam Basin, the Tibetan Plateau, and the upper reaches of the Yellow River (Gobi Desert). These areas are associated with an arid climate and frequent winds. For the first mode in the Tarim Basin, most dust storms appear in the 1980s, while dust storms become less frequent in the 1990s. The second mode (North China) shows the highest frequency of dust storms in the mid-1960s but the frequency decreases afterward. The third mode indicates a decreasing trend of annual dust storms after the mid-1960s but with a high interannual variability. The fourth mode also shows a decreasing trend but with a low interannual variability. The fifth mode displays a high frequency of dust storms in the 1970s followed by a decreasing trend.For the five modes of dust storm distribution, four of the centers are located in desert regions. The annual dust storms of a selected station in each mode region are shown to compare the coefficient time series of these modes. The negative correlation between the prior winter temperature and dust storm frequency is identified for most stations. There is no consistency in the correlation between the dust storm frequency and the annual rainfall as well as the prior winter rainfall at these stations. The activity of dust storms in northern China are directly linked to the cyclone activity, especially for the interdecadal variability.
... In addition, most of the stations with high values of ASDSImax were distributed around Gobi or deserts, such as the Taklimakan Desert, Badain Jaran Desert, Tengger Desert, and Mu Us Desert. These deserts have been recognized as important sources of sand and dust storms in China, and even East Asia [24][25][26]47]. SDS intensity was usually not severe at stations in northern Xinjiang, southern Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, and the three northeast provinces. ...
... Compared to ASDSI max , FREQ also underestimated SDS intensity in inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia is not just a source of sand and dust storms in China, as the region is also significantly affected by SDS events [41,47,48]. ...
... Compared to ASDSImax, FREQ also underestimated SDS intensity in inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia is not just a source of sand and dust storms in China, as the region is also significantly affected by SDS events [41,47,48]. Additionally, the annual trends in total SDSImax and total FREQ for all of the stations are shown in Figure 6 1983, 1989, 1997, 2001, and 2006, the peaks in annual SDSImax were higher, whereas the troughs in annual SDSImax were lower compared with those of annual FREQ. ...
Sand and dust storms (SDS) are global phenomena that significantly impact the socio-economy, human health, and the environment. The characterization of SDS intensity is a fundamental aspect of SDS issues and studies. In this study, a sand and dust storms index (SDSI) is developed to characterize SDS intensity by addressing the potential impacts of sand and dust storms on sensitive elements. Compared with other indices, SDSI includes four SDS-related components: SDS frequency, SDS visibility, SDS duration, and SDS wind speed. Using SDSI, this study characterizes the SDS intensity in the Three-North Forest Shelterbelt Program (TNFSP) region of China. The SDSI results show that high values of SDSI are mostly concentrated in southern Xinjiang, western and central Inner Mongolia, western and central Gansu, and northern Ningxia. By analyzing the SDSI components, over half of the stations experienced sand and dust storms no more than once per year on average. Most of the SDS events reduced horizontal visibility to less than 500 m, one-third of SDS events last more than two hours, and the wind speed of over half of the SDS events varied between 10-17 m/s. In comparison with SDS frequency, SDSI performs better in reflecting the spatial and temporal variation of SDS events. Therefore, instead of SDS frequency, SDSI can be applied to studies relevant to SDS intensity. Finally, five major SDS transportation routes were identified based on the surface prevailing wind direction, SDSI, and the existing literature. The SDS routes, combined with SDSI, could help governments and policy-makers cooperate on a regional level to combat SDS events more effectively.
... Thus most aeolian sand activity occurs during the dry season. The Alxa Desert Plateau is also considered to be one of sand storm centers and the main source of Asian dust (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2004). Local people were few and had pasture livings during the past in this plateau. ...
... The anthropogenic input could have a relatively smaller effect on base cations in rainwater of the Alxa Plateau because it has an apparently higher Ca 2 + /Sr 2 + ratio and relatively lower 87 Sr/ 86 Sr ratios (Fig. 5c). This is consistent with the fact that dust/sand storms frequently happen and there is a small population on the Alxa Plateau (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2004). Table 4 shows the pH and major ions in the Alxa Desert Plateau and other areas in china. ...
... The contents of alkaline matter in surface soil are higher in northern China (e.g., Ca and Na of 3% and 1.5%, respectively) than in southern China (e.g., Ca and Na of 0.1% and 0.5%, respectively) according to the reference (Wang and Wang, 1996). Moreover, the sandstorms frequently happen in North China (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2004). Therefore, the airborne dust with plenty of carbonates causes alkaline rain in North China. ...
The major ions and Sr isotopes in rainwater have been studied during 2013–2015 on the Alxa Desert Plateau in order to identify the source of rainwater chemistry and to assess air quality in the desert area of northern China. The pH and EC values of rainwater vary from 6.7 to 8.1 and from 35 to 1237 μS cm− 1, respectively, at the two meteorological stations (AYQ and YBL) in the Alxa Desert Plateau. Ca2 +, SO42 −, Na⁺ and Cl⁻ are the dominant ions in rainwater, possessing > 85% of total ions. The mean daily wet deposition fluxes of soluble ions are 8709 μeq/m²/d at YBL and 5459 μeq/m²/d at AYQ, approaching the values at Xi'an, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. Statistical analysis shows that SO42 − and NO3⁻ in rainwater were mainly from anthropogenic sources while Ca2 + and K⁺ originated from terrestrial sources. Cl⁻ was mainly from seawater sources, and Na⁺ was partly from mineral weathering. Major ions are well correlated with each other in rainwater, revealing that substances of various origins were synchronously carried into the atmosphere by wind. By using Sr isotope techniques, three main end-members controlling base cations of rainwater are identified: silicates, carbonates and seawater. Based on the analyses of acid-soluble fractions of desert soils, local soil dust could be the most important source of base cations in rainwater whereas the effect of the anthropogenic sources could be neglected.
... The limitations of C TSP and MDE made them not to be used as the primary indices for assessing the harmfulness and environmental impact of large-scale and longer-lived dust storm dust storms, the previous studies mainly focused on the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of the DSF, and showed that the values of DSF were in an overall decreasing trend (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2004), but the works have rarely been done on the DSE. The purpose of this study is to clarify the differences between DSE and DSF, and the spatiotemporal variation characteristics and outbreak areas of DSEs in Northern China during 1978-2007; and explore the tendency of DSEs, DSF, C TSP and MDE under global change scenarios. ...
... The annual value of DSE was the sum of all the DSEs derived from 319 meteorological stations in a year. The statistical method for the DSF was consistent with the previous studies (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2005;Indoitu et al., 2012). ...
... The variations of λ and DSF in this study showed that, even though DSF values were in a decreasing trend (Fig. 2), the frequencies of the large-scale and longer-lived dust storm which was disastrous extreme weather were in an increasing trend since 1997. This result has not been recognized before (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2005). ...
Dust storms have a great significance for global mineral aerosol cycle, marine ecosystem, air quality and human health. Dust storm frequency (DSF), often used as a primary index for understanding a regional characteristic of dust storms. However, DSF couldn't describe the frequency and the outbreak areas of a dust storm event (DSE) which was defined as a dust storm occurred at three or more meteorological stations during the same weather process, because a DSE might occur at several meteorological stations and continue for several days. We defined a new index DSE considering the factors including wind speed, wind direction and spatial variation during a dust storm process. To clarify which index of DSF or DSE is better to describe the characteristics of dust storms, we have used the data sets of dust storm from 319 meteorological stations to calculate the frequency of DSE, and the outbreak area and the duration of each DSE in 1978–2007, as well as to compare the differences between DSE and DSF in spatiotemporal distribution in Northern China. The results showed that the high-value locations of occurrence numbers of DSE and DSF were almost overlapped; from 1978 to 2007, the total values of DSE and DSF decreased from 558 to 201 and from 1273 to 467, respectively, but the mean values of outbreak area and duration of DSE have wavily increased since 1991. These implied that the differences existed between DSE and DSF in describing the characteristics of a regional dust storm, and DSE was a better index for a dust storm to identify the fact of occurrence frequency and outbreak area. The implication of this study was that the values of DSE and DSF have a decrease trends with increase of extreme precipitation events and decrease of mean wind speed under the global warming scenarios, but strong dust storms, which is defined as the outbreak area of an event > 105 km² here, probably bring greater risk in future.
... Based on multi-year meteorological statistical data, several scholars classified the tracks of the spring Mongolian cyclones into three types: eastward, northeastward and southeastward types. Qian et al. (2004) analysed the average track of spring cyclones at 850-hPa between 1948 and 1999. They concluded that the Mongolian cyclones moved mainly eastward, southeastward and northeastward into China. ...
... The meridional information may affect the clustering results. And previous studies have shown that the categories differences of Mongolian cyclones are mainly concentrated in the latitudinal direction (Chen et al., 2014;Fu et al., 2013;Huang et al., 2016;Qian et al., 2004;Zhang et al., 2012), so we exclude the meridional direction displacement information. Each cyclone track is described by the above three parameters: the latitude d-value, and the variance (y and xy directions). ...
Based on the fifth‐generation reanalysis (ERA5) data of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), spring Mongolian cyclones were examined from 1950 to 2023. Then, based on the feature parameters of activity path information, machine learning method (k‐means) is used to classify the trajectories of spring Mongolian cyclone. Subsequently, the atmospheric circulation configurations of the three categories of Mongolian cyclones and their influence on the weather in China verify the reasonability of the classification method. Specifically: (1) eastward moving type, affecting Inner Mongolia and Northeast China (Clus‐1). The circulation background of the Clus‐1 cyclone displays a broad negative geopotential height anomaly centre over East Asia; (2) northeastward moving type, affecting northeast part of Northeast China (Clus‐2). The circulation background of the Clus‐2 cyclones shows a “positive–negative–positive” distribution of circulation anomalies in the European Plain, Lake Baikal and the Sea of Japan; (3) southeastward moving type, this type can move to the south of China (Clus‐3). The circulation background of the Clus‐3 cyclones is opposite to that of the Clus‐2 cyclones. The three categories of Mongolian cyclones will cause dust weather and strong winds in different regions of China, mainly affecting Inner Mongolia and Northeast China.
... It has been sporadically documented in the ancient poems or literature that aeolian dust events have occurred in China since the beginning of historical written records (Wan et al., 2020). The earliest records on aeolian dust in China were documented in ancient Chinese poems and writings in BC 600-1150 (Qian et al., 2004). Those are merely simple descriptions without a quantitative measurement (Wang et al., 2010). ...
... Frequent aeolian dust events usually occur in arid and semiarid regions of northern China from March to May each year (Wang, Huang, et al., 2008). It has been reported that aeolian dust Qian et al., 2004). Those intense aeolian dust events can wreak havoc all over China and transport sand towards the east of the Korean Peninsula, Japan, the North Pacific, the North America, and the Arctic . ...
Aeolian dust is closely related to land degradation, desertification, and sand and dust storm weather, and is a significant factor influencing the earth's biogeochemical cycles. Here we present an investigation of the recent synoptic features of atmospheric dust in China and analyze its spatiotemporal change based upon meteorological observation data and satellite products. It shows that aeolian dust frequency in China has decreased gradually from 1984 to 2020. The outbreak frequency of dust storm declined significantly by 97.7%, followed by severe dust storm, dust in suspension and blowing dust with 88.8%, 75% and 64.3% reduction, respectively. The main dust sources influencing China are the Mongolian Gobi Desert, the Taklimakan Desert, the Hexi Corridor, the Alxa Plateau Desert, the Qaidam Basin Desert, and the northeast-southwest stretching semiarid farming-pasture ecotone. Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) may play an important role in teleconnection with aeolian dust event occurrence in China. Their correlation coefficients are -0.6 and 0.37, respectively. For more than 40 years, China has made huge investments in ecological restoration projects, and enacted national policies and laws to mitigate desertification. Significant environmental improvement has consequently ensued in China in the early 21st century, and the aeolian dust events reduced to a minimum record in 2020. In contrast to the growing nationwide greenness, China is now facing up to an incremental dust risk generated from extraterritorial source regions such as the Mongolian Gobi Desert and Central Asian desiccated salt lakes.
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... Dust storms in China are strongly associated with cyclone activity accompanied by cold air intrusions as part of the East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) in southern Siberia and Mongolia (Sun et al. 2001;Gong and Ho 2002;Qian et al. 2002Qian et al. , 2004Mao et al. 2011). Approximately 78% of dust storms are associated with active Mongolian cyclones (Sun et al. 2001). ...
... The cold air activity frequency over Mongolia is highly correlated with DSF in North China (Mao et al. 2011). Low winter temperatures associated with cold air intrusions and strong winds result in a negative correlation between prior winter temperatures and dust storm frequencies (Qian et al. 2002(Qian et al. , 2004Deng et al. 2013). In addition, a gradual reduction in wind speed led to a decreasing trend in DSF in North China (Guan et al. 2017;Wang et al. 2017). ...
Dust storm variations over the past ~230 years were reconstructed on the northeast Loess Plateau using a sediment core from Lake Gonghai. The coarse component of the lake sediments (17.38–109.65 μm) was extracted using the grain size standard deviations method and could be used as a dust storm proxy. The reconstructed results suggest five dust storm peaks: in the 1810s, the late 1850s to the late 1880s, the late 1890s to the early 1920s, ~1950s to the early 1990s, and the late 2000s to the early 2010s. The 1950s–1990s had the highest frequency of dust storms over the past ~230 years, as a result of the combined effects of increased human activities, droughts, and strong winds. Before ~1950, the frequency of dust storms was influenced mainly by natural factors, such as drought events and high intensities of the Siberian High and the East Asian Winter Monsoon. After the 1950s, intensive human activity had a significant impact on dust storms, resulting in a relatively high frequency. However, because of a weakening trend in wind strengths resulting from global warming and ecological rehabilitation projects in North China, the frequency of dust storms has significantly decreased in the past two decades. This study highlights the significant effect of human activities on dust storm generation in Inner Asia and the variations in dust storms under global warming scenarios.
... Changes in dust-cycle-related processes, including dust emission, dust transport, and dust deposition, are affected by meteorological and climatic parameters (Littmann, 1991;Qian et al., 2004;Liu et al., 2004;Gong et al., 2006;Zhao et al., 2006;Yumimoto and Takemura, 2015;Lou et al., 2016), as well as the dust radiative forcing including dust DRF (Miller et al., 2004;Heinold et al., 2007;Xie et al., 2018a;Cheng et al., 2019) and dust-in-snow radiative forcing (Xie et al., 2018b). According to the meteorological data, large quantities of the Asian dust storms are generated from high wind speeds associated with cyclonic activities and cold surges (Littmann, 1991;Sun et al., 2001;Liu et al., 2004). ...
... Littmann (1991) examined relationships of the Asian dust storm frequency with meteorological parameters and found positive correlations with wind speed and negative correlation with surface precipitation. Qian et al. (2004) have shown that, over northern China, the regional dust storms show a negative correlation with the prior winter temperature. Furthermore, the spring dust storm frequency is strongly negatively positive with the antecedent annual and seasonal soil moisture and surface precipitation, as shown in Liu et al. (2004). ...
Previous observational evidence and numerical simulations have revealed that the surface sensible heating in spring (March–April–May, MAM) over the Tibetan Plateau (TPSH) can affect the Asian regional hydrological cycle, surface energy balance, and climate through altering atmospheric heat source of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). This study aims to investigate the impacts of MAM TPSH on the interannual variability of East Asian dust cycle by using CAM4-BAM (version 4 of the Community Atmosphere Model coupled to a bulk aerosol model), MERRA-2 (version 2 of the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications) surface dust concentration, and TPSH measurements. Our simulations show that the surface dust concentrations over the East Asian (EA) dust source region and over the northwestern Pacific (NP) in MAM are significantly positively correlated with TPSH, with regionally averaged correlation coefficients of 0.49 for EA and 0.44 for NP. Similar positive correlations are also shown between the MAM TPSH measurements averaged over the 73 observation sites and the surface dust concentration from MERRA-2. Simulation-based comparisons between strongest and weakest TPSH years reveal that, the MAM surface dust concentration in the strongest TPSH years increases with relative differences of 13.1 % over EA and 36.9 % over NP. These corresponding differences are found in MERRA-2 with 22.9 % and 13.3 % over EA and NP, respectively. Further simulated results show that the processes of whole dust cycles (e.g., dust loading, emission, and transport, as well as dust deposition) are also significantly enhanced during the strongest TPSH years over EA and NP. Through enhancing the TP heat source, stronger TPSH in MAM generates an anticyclonic anomaly in middle and upper troposphere over the TP and over the downstream Pacific region, respectively. These atmospheric circulation anomalies induced by the increased TPSH result in increasing the westerly winds over both EA and NP, which in turn increases dust emissions over the dust source, and dust transport over these two regions, as well as the regional dust cycles. These results suggest that addressing the East Asian dust changes in the future climates requires considering not only increasing greenhouse gas emissions but also the variations of the TP's heat source under global warming.
... Changes in dust cycle-related processes, including dust emission, dust transport, and dust depositions, are affected by meteorological and climatic parameters (Littmann, 1991;Qian et al., 2004;Liu et al., 2004;Gong et al., 2006;Zhao et al., 2006;Yumimoto and Takemura, 2015;Lou et al., 2016), as well as the dust radiative forcing including dust DRF (Miller et al., 2004;Heinold et al., 2007;Xie et al., 2018a;Cheng et al., 2019) and dust-in-snow radiative forcing (Xie et al., 2018b). According to the meteorological data, large quantities of the Asian dust storms are generated from high wind speeds associated with cyclonic 5 activities and cold surges (Littmann et al., 1991;Sun et al., 2001;Liu et al., 2004). ...
... Littmann (1991) examined relationships of the Asian dust storm frequency to meteorological parameters, and found positive correlations with wind speed and negative correlation with surface precipitation. Qian et al. (2004) have shown that, over the northern China, the regional dust storms show a negative correlation with the prior winter temperature. Furthermore, the spring dust storm frequency is strongly negatively positive with the antecedent annual and seasonal soil moisture and surface precipitation, shown in Liu et al. (2004). ...
Abstract. Previous observational evidence and numerical simulations have revealed that the surface sensible heating in MAM (March–April–May) over the Tibetan Plateau (TPSH) can affect the Asian regional hydrological cycle, surface energy balance, and climate through altering atmospheric heat source of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). This study aims to investigate the impacts of MAM TPSH on the interannual variability of East Asian dust cycle by use of CAM4-BAM (version 4 of the Community Atmosphere Model coupled to a bulk aerosol model), the MERRA-2 (version 2 of the Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications) surface dust concentration, and TPSH measurements. Our simulations show that the surface dust concentrations over the East Asian dust source region (EA) and over the northwestern Pacific (NP) in MAM are significantly positively correlated with TPSH, with regionally averaged correlation coefficients of 0.49 for EA and 0.44 for NP. Similar positive correlations are also shown to exist between the MAM TPSH measurements averaged over the 73 observation sites and the surface dust concentration from MERRA-2. Simulation-based comparisons between strongest and weakest TPSH years reveal that, the MAM surface dust concentration in the strongest TPSH years increases with relative differences of 13.1 % over EA and 36.9 % over NP. These corresponding differences are found in MERRA-2 with 22.9 % and 13.3 % over EA and NP, respectively. Further simulated results show that the processes of whole dust cycles (e.g., dust loading, emission, and transport, as well as dust depositions) are also significantly enhanced during the strongest TPSH yeas over EA and NP. Through enhancing the TP heat source, stronger TPSH in MAM generates an anticyclonic anomaly in middle and upper troposphere over TP and over the downstream Pacific region, respectively. These atmospheric circulation anomalies induced by the increased TPSH result in increasing the westerly winds over both EA and NP, which in turn increases dust emissions over the dust source, and dust transports over these two regions, as well as the regional dust cycles. These results suggest that addressing the East Asian dust changes in the future climates require considering not only increasing greenhouse gas emissions but also the variations of the TP's heat source under global warming.
... The city groups are: (1) Shenyang, Changchun, and Ha'erbin in the northeast, (2) Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, and Taiyuan in the north, (3) Jinan and Zhengzhou in the north, (4) Xi'an in the northwest, (5) Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Hefei in the east, (6) Wuhan, Changsha, and Nanchang in the central, (7) Chongqing, Chengdu, Guiyang, and Kunming in the southwest, (8) Guangzhou and Fuzhou in the south and east, and (9) Nanning and Haikou in the south. For the cities in the north, northeast, and northwest (groups 1-4), coal is extensively used for central heating in winter (Shen and Liu, 2016;Xiao et al., 2015) and dust storms from the Gobi desert and other desert regions in northwestern China would increase PM 2.5 concentrations, particularly in spring (Qian et al., 2004). For the cities in the central, east, southwest, and south (groups 5-9), central heating is unavailable in winter and electricity is widely used for indoor heating. ...
... For all the city groups except for groups 8 and 9, windblown dust had higher contributions in spring. This is because dust storms generated in the north and northwest China are more prone to occur in the season (Qian et al., 2004) and the cities of groups 8 and 9 are the furthest to be affected. The fractional contributions from agriculture (b~10%), transportation (b~8%), power plants (~15%), and sea salt (b~1%) on PM 2.5 pollution days were relatively constant among the four seasons for the city groups. ...
Source contributions to fine airborne particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters <2.5μm (PM2.5) during 2013 were determined for 25 Chinese provincial capitals and municipalities using a source-oriented version of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Based on the hierarchical clustering analysis of the observed PM2.5 concentrations, the 25 cities were categorized into nine groups. Generally, annual PM2.5 concentrations were highest in the cities in the north (81-154μgm(-3)) and lowest in the cities close to seas in the south and east (27-57μgm(-3)). Seasonal PM2.5 observations in the cities were generally higher in winter than in the other seasons. Industrial or residential sources were predicted to be the largest contributor to PM2.5 for all the city groups, with annually fractional contributions of 25.0%-38.6% and 9.6%-27%, respectively. The annual contributions from power plants, agriculture NH3, windblown dust, and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) for the city groups were 8.7%-12.7%, 9.5%-12%, 6.1%-12.5%, and 5.4%-15.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, the annual contributions from transportation, sea salt, and open burning were relatively low (<8%, <2%, and <6%, respectively). Secondary PM2.5 accounted for 47%-63% of total annual PM2.5 concentrations in the cities and contributed to as much as 70% of daily PM2.5 concentrations on PM2.5 pollution days (daily concentrations>75μgm(-3)). Industrial or residential sources were generally the largest contributor on PM2.5 pollution days for all the city groups in each season, except that open burning, SOA, and windblown dust could be more important on some days, particularly in spring. The results of this study would be helpful to develop measures to reduce annual PM2.5 concentrations and the number of PM2.5 pollution days for different regions of China.
... Northern China contains most of the Eastern Asia deserts ( Qian et al., 2004), that 68 encompass interior Asia. Peripheral plateaus and mountains in this region act as 69 barriers to the transport of water vapor, making it an area of extreme aridity (Huo et al., 70 2013; Huang et al., 2015;Wang et al., 2015). ...
... Northern China is also recognized as the 71 5 major source of dust in China ( Quan et al., 2001;Zhang et al., 2003;Gallon et al., 72 2011; Tan et al., 2012;Wang et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2015). Dust researchers in 73 China and surrounding areas have focused on small regional characteristics 74 ( Natsagdorj et al., 2003;Liu et al., 2004;Zhang et al., 2005a;Wang et al., 2006;Tang 75 et al., 2013;Zhao et al., 2013;Guan et al., 2015;Liu et al., 2014) and have given less 76 attention to long-term spatio-temporal characteristics and correlations associated with 77 natural factors ( Qian et al., 2002;Liu et al., 2004;Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2005;78 Hara et al., 2006;Tao et al., 2010 The study area is located in northern China (31°-53°N, 73°-127°E), covering 91 6 4.17×10 6 km 2 and including 11 provinces (Fig. 1). Based on altitude differences, the 92 entire study area is successively divided into three levels from west to east. ...
Airborne dust derived from desertification in northern China can be transported to East Asia and other regions, impairing human health and affecting the global climate. Study of northern China dust provides an understanding of the mechanism of dust generation and transportation. We used dust storm and climatological data from 129 sites and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) datasets in northern China to analyze spatiotemporal characteristics and main factors controlling dust storms occurring during 1960-2007. Dust storm prone areas are consistent with the spatial distribution of northern China deserts where the average wind speed (AWS) is more than 2 m/s, the mean annual temperature (MAT) ranges from 5°C to 10°C and the mean annual precipitation (MAP) is less than 450 mm. Dust storms commonly occur on spring afternoons in a 3- to 6-h pattern. The three predominant factors 19 that can affect DSF are the maximum wind speed, AWS and MAT. During 1960-2007, dust storm frequency (DSF) in most regions of northern China fluctuated but had a decreasing trend; this was mainly caused by a gradual reduction in wind speed. The effect of temperature on DSF is complex, positive and negative correlations exit simultaneously. Temperatures can affect source material, cyclone activity and vegetation growth status to control the generation of dust storms. NDVI and precipitation are negatively correlated with DSF, but the effect is weak. Vegetation can protect the topsoil environment and prevent dust storm creation, but is affected by the primary decisive influence of precipitation.
... Previous studies, such as those conducted by Qian et al. (2004), Guan et al. (2015, and Kang et al. (2015), have identified a long-term weakening of dust events over the past few decades based on F I G U R E 6 Spatial distributions of monthly and spring dust emissions (g m À2 year À1 ) of S-LU2000 (spring, a; March, c; April, e; May, g) and S-LU2020 (spring, b; March, d; April, f; May, h) in northern China. [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] meteorological records. ...
... Previous studies, such as those conducted by Qian et al. (2004), Guan et al. (2015, and Kang et al. (2015), have identified a long-term weakening of dust events over the past few decades based on meteorological records. These studies primarily attributed the weakening to climate change. ...
Land cover is a key factor affecting dust emissions. Substantial changes in land cover have occurred due to human activities and climate change in northern China. However, the extent to which these changes influence dust emissions is still controversial. Here, we explored the specific impact of land use type transformation on dust emissions between 2000 and 2020 by using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) from the perspective of land cover changes. Two scenarios were set up and compared to quantify this impact. One scenario was using the land cover data in 2000, and the other scenario was to use the land cover data in 2020. Both scenarios were driven by the initial meteorological conditions in 2020. Results indicated that the land cover changes between 2000 and 2020 reduced dust emissions in northern China, but the weakened intensity showed obvious spatial differences. Different land use conversion types had significant differences in their impact on dust emissions. Transforming bare areas to water bodies can reduce dust emissions by up to −3.62 g m−2 year−1. This is followed by the change from bare areas to sparse vegetation areas, which can decrease dust emissions by −2.9 g m−2 year−1, and then by the conversion from bare areas to cropland, with a reduction of −2.57 g m−2 year−1. These findings can offer methodologies and data support for the quantitative evaluation of the effects of land cover changes on dust emissions. They can also serve as a reference for environmental management when formulating land use policies.
... Air pollution events such as dust storms have recently received increasing international attention. Their increasing frequency and severity pose significant challenges to human health, agricultural productivity, and the ecological environment [1]. 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]. ...
Two severe dust storm (DS) events (15–17 March and 28–29 March) hit northern China in 2021 consecutively. The lower atmospheric vertical dynamic and thermal structures during the two cases were compared using the ground-based sensor data from the microwave radiometer and radar wind profiler, combined with the environmental and meteorological observations data in Jinan, China. It was found that both cases occurred under the background of cold vortexes over northeastern China. The dust was transported through the cold air on the northwest route. During the dust period, 2–3 km was the west or northwest airflow, and below 2 km was the northeast wind. The variation in the dynamic structure determined the duration of the DS. During the DS maintenance phase, the vertical wind shear (VWS) below 3 km measured approximately 10 m∙(s∙km)−1. The increased VWS during the dust intrusion period facilitated the transportation of dust. In contrast, the more significant VWS was not conducive to the maintenance of DS, and the shift to south wind control in the upper middle layer indicated the weakening of DS. In both cases, we observed a cliff-like decrease in relative humidity as a prominent indicator of dust outbreaks, occurring approximately 2–5 h beforehand. The diurnal difference between the vertical temperature and relative humidity during the dust maintenance period was found to be insignificant.
... This study provides a quantitative analysis of the major factors driving atmospheric circulation patterns that influence the frequency of springtime dust storms in Northwest China. Previous studies suggest that the decline in springtime dust storms in Northwest China since the mid-1980s is closely linked to natural geographical conditions, human (Lee et al. 2013;Qian et al. 2002Qian et al. , 2004Wang et al. 2004Wang et al. , 2006a. Our research results confirmed that positive atmospheric circulation anomalies over the MPSCS are the predominant element affecting the frequency of spring dust storms in Northwest China. ...
In this research, we initially examined the key atmospheric circulation pattern influencing the occurrence of dust storms in Northwest China during spring (February–May). We then investigated the drivers impacting atmospheric circulation over the Mongolian Plateau and southern Central Siberia (MPCMS), using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and extensive ensemble simulations, and assessed the respective roles of external forces and internal variability. Our results validated a significant inverse correlation between the reduced frequency of spring dust storms in Northwest China post-mid-1980s and heightened geopotential height anomalies over the MPCMS. By scrutinizing five comprehensive ensemble model simulations, we demonstrated that the positive tendencies in atmospheric circulation anomalies over the MPCMS are largely triggered by external forces, accounting for roughly 69.3% of the observed augmentations in the atmospheric circulation index trend from 1954 to 2022. Although the North Atlantic Oscillation is a leading mode of internal variability associated with geopotential height anomalies over the MPCMS, its contribution is comparatively minor. Our findings underline that the primary cause of the decrease in dust storm frequency in Northwest China since the mid-1980s could be ascribed to global warming-related external forces.
... China is one of the countries most severely affected by meteorological disasters, and dust storms are the most common meteorological disaster type in northern China. These storms are characterized by their suddenness and wide-ranging impact, posing significant threats to socioeconomic development, the ecological environment, and the safety of people's lives and property (Qian et al., 2004). Therefore, identifying and forecasting dust storms is crucial for disaster prevention and mitigation. ...
Dust storms are one of the most frequent meteorological disasters in China, endangering agricultural production, transportation, air quality, and the safety of people’s lives and property. Against the backdrop of climate change, Mongolia’s contribution to China’s dust cannot be ignored in recent years. In this study, we used the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem), along with dynamic dust sources and the HYSPLIT model, to analyze the contributions of different dust sources to dust concentrations in northern China in March and April 2023. The results show that the frequency of dust storms in 2023 was the highest observed in the past decade. Mongolia and the Taklimakan Desert were identified as two main dust sources contributing to northern China. Specifically, Mongolia contributed more than 42% of dust, while the Taklimakan Desert accounted for 26%. A cold high-pressure center, a cold front, and a Mongolian cyclone resulted in the transport of dust aerosols from Mongolia and the Taklimakan Desert to northern China, where they affected most parts of the region. Moreover, two machine learning methods [the XGBoost algorithm and the Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique (SMOTE)] were used to forecast the dust storms in March 2023, based on ground observations and WRF-Chem simulations over East Asia. XGBoost-SMOTE performed well in predicting hourly PM10 concentrations in China in March 2023, with a mean absolute error of 33.8 µg m−3 and RMSE of 54.2 µg m−3.
... The strongest potential sources of PM 10 in this study were mainly located in the Kumtag Desert, the Qaidam Basin, and the western Hexi Corridor (Figs. 8a and 9a). These areas have arid climates, experience strong winds, and have aeolian land with low vegetation cover that are conducive to the formation of dust storms, making them important dust sources in China (Qian et al., 2004;Song et al., 2016). Lanzhou is located downwind from these areas (Fig. 1), so that the airflow passing though these areas easily picks up large amounts of dust particulates and carries them toward Lanzhou, which gives rise to significant increase in PM 10 concentration. ...
As one of the most important industrial cities in Northwest China, Lanzhou currently suffers from serious air pollution. This study analyzed the formation mechanism and potential source areas of persistent air pollution in Lanzhou during the heating period from November 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017 based on the air pollutant concentrations and relevant meteorological data. Our findings indicate that particulate pollution was extremely severe during the study period. The daily PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations had significantly negative correlations with daily temperature, wind speed, maximum daily boundary layer height, while the daily PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations showed significantly positive correlations with daily relative humidity. Five persistent pollution episodes were identified and classified as either stagnant accumulation or explosive growth types according to the mechanism of pollution formation and evolution. The PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations and PM2.5/PM10 ratio followed a growing “saw-tooth cycle” pattern during the stagnant accumulation type event. Dust storms caused abrupt peaks in PM10 and a sharp decrease in the PM2.5/PM10 ratio in explosive growth type events. The potential sources of PM10 were mainly distributed in the Kumtag Desert in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Qaidam Basin and Hehuang Valley in Qinghai Province, and the western and eastern Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province. The contributions to PM10 were more than 120 μg/m3. The important potential sources of PM2.5 were located in Hehuang Valley in Qinghai and Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu; the concentrations of PM2.5 were more than 60 μg/m3.
... When suitable macro-meteorological factors and subsurface conditions are both present, favorable circulation patterns and synoptic systems are also required to generate SDSs. A significant decrease in dust weather in northern China in the mid-1980s was related to a decrease in the number of cyclones in northern China during the same period [11]. The distribution and frequency of SDSs are related to the large-scale atmospheric circulation, including the polar vortex, cold air activity, and surface pressure field [12][13][14]. ...
Sand and dust storms (SDSs) cause major disasters in northern China. They have serious impacts on human health, daily life, and industrial and agricultural production, in addition to threatening the regional ecological environment and social economy. Based on meteorological observational data and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 dataset for spring 2000–2021, we used the Lamb–Jenkinson circulation classification method to classify the three major areas influencing SDSs in northern China. We also used the k-means clustering method to classify the overall circulation pattern in northern China. Our results show that the circulation types favoring SDSs in the southern basin of Xinjiang are southwesterly winds (SW), cyclones (C), and anticyclones (A). The circulation types favoring SDSs in western Inner Mongolia and southern Mongolia are northwesterly winds (NW), northerly winds (N), cyclones (C), and anticyclones (A). The circulation types favoring SDSs in central Inner Mongolia are northwesterly winds (NW), northerly winds (N), southwesterly winds (SW), and anticyclones (A). The 500 hPa and surface circulation patterns in China can be divided into nine types. Among them, five dominant circulation patterns favor strong SDSs: a cold high-pressure region and cold front (T1), a Mongolian cyclone (T2), a mixed type of Mongolian cyclone and cold front (T3), a thermal depression and cold front (T5), and a cold front (T8). During 2000–2004, the T8 circulation pattern occurred most frequently as the main influencing circulation. From 2005 to 2010, the T3 and T8 circulation patterns dominated. Circulation patterns T1 and T3 dominated during 2011–2015 and 2016–2020, respectively. We analyzed the main circulation patterns for four SDS events occurring in 2021 by combining the Lamb–Jenkinson and k-means methods. The SDS events in 2021 were closest to the T3 circulation pattern and were mainly influenced by Mongolian cyclones and surface cold fronts. The main propagation paths were westerly and northwesterly.
... Countries that have arid regions have experienced dust storms for a long time. Qian et al. (2004) estimated the spatiotemporal distribution of dust storms in northern China, derived from an analysis of rotated orthogonal empirical functions of dust storm data from 1954 to 1998. Wang et al. (2004) state that in dust storms in China, dust can be emitted predominantly by deteriorated grasslands, the Gobi Desert, alluvial and lake sediments, and dry rivers and stream beds located in the surroundings of the deserts. ...
In arid and semiarid regions from the southwestern USA and vast areas of northwestern Mexico, Santa Ana wind events modify the environment with high temperatures, very low humidity, and dust storms representing a recurrent phenomenon that triggers asthma and other respiratory diseases. While research has emphasized Santa Ana wind effects on the USA side, northwestern Mexico has been less investigated. Numerical modeling of a severe dust storm in November 2018, applying the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with a chemistry module (WRF-Chem), revealed that erosion, transport, and dust storms extend along the peninsula and the Gulf of California. Santa Ana winds eroded large areas, transported desert conditions to urban zones, causing high dust concentrations and reducing the relative humidity below 10%, deteriorating climatic conditions favorable to wellness. In Tijuana, Mexicali, Ensenada, San Diego, and Los Angeles, PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations (particle matter with diameter below 10 µm and 2.5 µm) reached values over 2000 µg/m3 for PM10, with daily mean concentrations well above national standards, leading to poor air quality and representing a health threat even in short-term exposure. This Santa Ana event transported dust particles several hundreds of kilometers over urban areas, the Gulf of California, and the Pacific Ocean. Severe soil deterioration was simulated within the study area, reaching dust emissions above 700,000 t, including croplands from the northern part of Baja California and Sonora's coastal area.
... Sun et al. (2001) examined the temporal and spatial characteristics of DSD in China from 1960 to 1990 and concluded that there had been 60 severe storms in northern China, with the highest frequency in April, especially in 1970. Qiana et al. (2004) reported that there are five leading modes of DSD in northern China including the Taklamakan Desert (Tarim Basin) over the Xinjiang region (far northwestern China), the eastern part of Inner Mongolia (North China), the Tsaidam Basin, the Tibetan Plateau, and the upper reaches of the Yellow River (Gobi Desert). Subsequently, Dujuan and Huijun (2005) studied the temporal variation characteristics of DSD in North China and found the highest frequency of occurrence in spring and the lowest in autumn. ...
n this study, the total seasonal and annual frequency of Dust Storm Days (DSD,
henceforth) of 44 synoptic stations with long-term statistics in a 50-year period from
1968 to 2017 was analyzed using Mann-Kendall nonparametric test, Kriging and
Radial Basis Function (RBF), Spatial Interpolation Methods, directional distribution of
spatial statistics, and mean center. Based on the results of Mann-Kendall test and
related maps using RBF, it was found that about 30 stations had an increasing trend,
most of which had a significant upward trend in the southern regions and western part
of Iran. Significant decreasing trends were also observed in the northern part. The
results of DSD zoning also showed that the maximum incidence of DSD occurs in
spring and summer and more in the southern and western parts of Iran, while in the
middle and northern regions of Iran, they are much less frequent. Investigating the
directional distribution of spatial statistics and the decadal focuses for 5 decades, i.e.,
for the years 68-77 (first decade), 78-87 (second decade), 88-97 (third decade), 98-
2007 (fourth decade) and 2007-2017 (fifth decade), showed that the focuses of DSD in
the first and second decades moved to the east, but it finally shifted to the west in the
fourth and fifth decades. Given that the movement has been to the west, it can be said
that the frequency of DSD is increasing from southeast to west. The results of
directional distribution also showed that in all seasonal and annual time scales, the
focus of DSD in Iran is from southeast to west
... EOF analysis was developed to identify the spatial and temporal characteristics of variables (Tatli and Türkes, 2011). It has become a commonly-used diagnostic tool in the fields of climatology and is usually used to highlight potential physical mechanisms related to climate variability (Behera and Yamagata, 2001;Qian et al., 2004). The EOF analysis is able to identify the dominant spatiotemporal modes of variable while largely reducing the data space. ...
... Dust storms stronger than 14 m s -1 became very frequent, especially in the southeastern part of the basin during summer; they blow over the region more than 40-50 days per year (Yoshino, 1992). The increasing frequency of dust storms in the last decades has been attributed to the decrease in moisture combined with the hot arid climate in the basin (Qian et al., 2004). The dust storms and sandy winds cause loss of crop yields, disturb traffic and damage urban facilities. ...
... Although an artificial factor (e.g., urbanization) may affect dust emission in northeast Asia [2,3], the yellow sand is mainly related to atmospheric circulation changes. Dust events that occur in northeast Asia generally originate from arid or semi-arid regions such as northern China, the Gobi desert in Inner-Mongolia, the Loess Plateau, and the Taklamakan desert [4][5][6][7]. Dust storms move to eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan with strong northwesterly winds induced by atmospheric baroclinic instability in the lower atmosphere [1,[8][9][10][11]. Dust aerosols contain both particulate matters (PM) with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 10 µm (PM10) and smaller than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) ...
Spring dust frequency in northeast Asia has been investigated using various approaches to understand the mechanisms of dust emission and transport. However, little attention has been paid to the linkage between dust activity and the Siberian High (SH), particularly when the SH pressure system is highly variable. In this study, we characterize the possible physical mechanisms of dust emission and transport associated with the Siberian High Intensity (SHI) and Siberian High Position Index (SHPI) in March using 18 years of ground-based observations and reanalysis data. We found that when the SHI was strong and the SH’s center was farther east (“Strong–East period”), surface and atmospheric temperatures were cooler than when the SHI was weak and the SH’s center was farther west (“Weak-West period”), due to anomalous anticyclonic pressure and strong easterlies. As a result, a reduction in the meridional temperature gradient in the lower atmosphere suppressed dust emission and transport, due to stagnant atmospheric conditions. This anomalous anticyclonic pressure in the Strong-East case seems to reduce the development of extratropical cyclones (ETC) in northeast Asia, leading to a less effective dust transport. A case study with composite analysis also showed a similar physical mechanism: stagnant air accompanying weakened westerlies in the Strong-East period suppressed dust transport to South Korea. Our findings reveal that the intensity and position of the SH can be utilized to identify spring transboundary air pollutants in northeast Asia.
... Rainfall is of little probability especially in the arid and semi-arid region, and there are much more non-rainfall days at each station, so P28, P82, and P22 will be all classified into 2 levels with their zero values regarded as one level. LWD values among 16 strings made of "E," "W," "S," and "N" (respectively referring to the easterly, westerly, southerly, and northerly) and it cannot be sized; in view of that LWD = "NW" (SE) is believed most ready (unready) for DSO over NNWC (Jiang et al. 2016;Lee et al. 2015;Liu 2004;Mao et al. 2014;Qian et al. 2001Qian et al. , 2004Qian et al. , 2007Song et al. 2016;Xinfa et al. 2001;Yang et al. 2007a;Zhou and Zhang 2003), LWD will be revalued by the cosine of LWD's difference from the direction "NW," who can be simply sized Table 5 Similarity coefficients, Mahalanobis distances and comprehensive proximities between a pair of variables, factor groups or stations." ...
The local surface meteorological condition (SMC) is decisive for dust storm (DS) occurrence (DSO), and SMC’s impact properties on DSO, such as its impact style, intensity and significance on, its contribution to and decisiveness for DSO, and so on, are expected to help deepen knowledge of SMC’s impact mechanism on DSO so as to improve the DS prediction. This paper has selected 23 SMC factors and assumed they can wholly quantify SMC; so and SMC’s impact properties on DSO can be well reflected by each SMC factor or factor group’s, and the latter can be decided according to the DSO possibility’s (DSOP’s) variations with the factor or group. Based on all SMC factors’ daily datasets together with DS records during 1970–2007 at 139 weather stations within North and Northwest China (NNWC), who encounters the dust storm most frequently and has widely and densely covered weather stations, this paper has put forward a set of universal statistical techniques to respectively quantify DSOP under a certain SMC, a certain SMC factor’s impact style on DSO, and a certain SMC factor or factor group’s impact intensity and significance on and its contribution to and decisiveness for DSO. After quantifying SMC’s impact properties on DSO, their factor-to-factor, i.e., factorial, and station-to-station, i.e., spatial, variations within NNWC have been specially analyzed on in detail, resulting in some interesting conclusions: (1) generally, if one SMC factor rises (drops) from the NDS to DS day and it is positively (negatively) correlated to the DS frequentness (DSF), then it will usually impact on DSO positively (negatively), i.e., that factor’s increase can usually raise (reduce) DSOP; The wind speed and evaporation (relative humidity and vapor pressure) impact on DSO positively (negatively) at all or almost all stations within NNWC, however, other factors impact positively here but negatively there. (2) The SMC factor or factor group’s correlation degree to DSF and its sensitivity to DSO can somewhat decide its impact intensity and significance on and its contribution to and thus decisiveness for DSO: the more sensitive to DSO and the more highly correlated to DSF the factor or group, the more intensively, significantly, contributively, and thus decisively it impacts on DSO. (3) Of all factors, the wind speed has proved to impact on DSO much more intensively, significantly, contributively and thus decisively at all stations within NNWC, and SMC seems to impact on DSO almost wholly by modifying the wind speed. (4) Using the cluster technique onto SMC’s impact properties on DSO, all stations within NNWC have been classified into 7 clusters, who can well display the regionality of SMC’s impact mechanism on DSO.
... Due to a dearth of studies of seasonal patterns of PM 2.5 composition in this region, however, we can only infer that this observed seasonality could be related to the sources, fate and transport of PM 2.5 , and potential seasonal bias in the input data. Additionally, the Northeast region also experienced relatively high PM 2.5 concentrations with large particle radii in spring, which has been related to sand and dust storms caused by Siberian and Mongolian cyclones from northern Asia, indicating that the spatial pattern of PM 2.5 concentrations was also affected by aerosol regional transport (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2011). The drivers of fine aerosol sizes, such as emissions and meteorological factors, should be explored further to test these inferences. ...
... Researchers organize environmental units into homogeneous zones with the goal of establishing local environmental control strategies in different regions. Some applications that regionalization has played a significant role are dust storms (Qian et al., 2004), precipitation , and air pollution (Wang et al., 2015). The conventional regionalization methods adopted in the field include empirical orthogonal functions (EOF) and its rotated version (REOF) (Zhang et al., 2012;Wang et al., 2015), which are basically spatial principal component analysis and the corresponding component rotations, respectively. ...
Severe air pollution affects billions of people around the world, particularly in developing countries such as China. Effective emission control policies rely primarily on a proper assessment of air pollutants and accurate spatial clustering outcomes. Unfortunately , emission patterns are difficult to observe as they are highly confounded by many meteorological and geographical factors. In this study, we propose a novel approach for modeling and clustering PM2.5 concentrations across China. We model observed concentrations from monitoring stations as spatially dependent functional data and assume latent emission processes originate from a functional mixture model with each component as a spatio-temporal process. Cluster memberships of monitoring stations are modeled as a Markov random field, in which confounding effects are controlled through energy functions. The superior performance of our approach is demonstrated using extensive simulation studies. Our method is effective in dividing China and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region into several regions based on PM2.5 concentrations, suggesting that separate local emission control policies are needed.
... This is also consistent with observations from the Dalhart experiment station that noted dust events often occurred with windspeeds > 8.9 m s À1 (National Archives, Record Group 114, Entry 112). The frequency of dust events during the Dust Bowl was equivalent to or greater than events in dry land areas in presentday northern China (Qian et al., 2004), Mongolia (Natsagdorj et al., 2003), North Africa (Mallone et al., 2011;Gkikas et al., 2013;Stafoggia et al., 2016) and the desert U.S. Southwest (e.g. Flagg et al., 2014;Eagar et al., 2017). ...
Mineral dust aerosols are a key component of the Earth system and a growing public health concern under climate change, as levels of dustiness increase. The Great Plains in the USA is particularly vulnerable to dust episodes, but land-atmosphere interactions contributing to large-scale dust transport are poorly constrained. This study compiled one of the longest quantitative, spatially-comprehensive records of dust events in the core Dust Bowl region never before available. Combined with experiment station reports from the Soil Conservation Service, reanalysis data products, and contemporary field surveys using a Portable In-Situ Wind Erosion Laboratory (PI-SWERL), the study examined meteorological catalysts for dust events and surficial dynamics of particle emission on the Southern High Plains (SHP). Multivariate statistical analyses of dust event variance yield 6 principal components capturing ˜60% of the variance of all dust event days. Results identified four dominant modes of dust events related to the season of occurrence and principal meteorological controls. A broader assessment of the potential emissivity of SHP soils reveals that disturbed surfaces begin to emit dust at a magnitude-higher rate than undisturbed surfaces as soon as the wind velocity reaches the threshold, increasing linearly with windspeed. Conversely, crusted undisturbed soil surfaces do not begin to reach the same flux rate until much higher windspeeds, at which point crusts are broken and emissivity rates increase exponentially. Significantly, the particle emissivity of undisturbed, loose sandy soils mirrors that of disturbed surfaces in relation to windspeed and potential magnitude of dust emission. This finding suggests that the prevalent sandier, rangeland soils of the SHP could be equal or greater dust sources than cultivated fields during periods of sustained, severe aridity.
... At large time scale (such as glacial to interglacial transitions), records from loess sediments, and ice cores indicate that dust concentrations were higher in glacial periods than in interglacial periods 21,22 . Similarly, regional characteristics of dust storms from 135 stations in northern China from 1954China from to 1998 indicate that there is a negative correlation between prior winter temperature and dust storm frequency for most stations 23 . Simulations on atmospheric dust loading also suggest that future dust may be 20 to 60% lower than current dust loadings if the global temperature continues to rise 24 . ...
... Previous studies have shown that colder surface air temperature in winter usually corresponds to deeper frozen earth. As the surface air temperature rises in spring, the sandy soil layer desiccates easily after melting (Qian et al. 2002(Qian et al. , 2004, and more sandy soil provides a greater dust source for dust weather. On the contrary, positive temperature anomalies over China in winter correspond to low DWF. Figure 4d indicates that the Aleutian low and Siberian high are weaker under positive AAO events, having an impact on the cold air activities in East Asia and an influence on the atmospheric circulation related to DWFNC (Gong et al. 2007;Kang and Wang 2005;Wu and Wang 2002). ...
Seasonal climate predictions of spring (March‒April‒May) dust weather frequency (DWF) over North China (DWFNC) are conducted based on a previous-summer (June–July–August) normalized difference vegetation index in North China (NDVINC), winter (December–January–February) sea-ice cover index over the Barents Sea (SICBS), and winter Antarctic Oscillation index (AAOI). The year-to-year increment approach is applied to improve the prediction skill. Two statistical prediction schemes—statistical models based on year-to-year-increment-form predictors (SM-DY) and anomaly-form predictors (SM-A)—are applied based on NDVINC, SICBS, and AAOI. The results show that the prediction model using the year-to-year increment approach performs much better in predicting DWFNC, with the correlation coefficient between the average DWFNC and the cross-validated results of SM-DY (SM-A) being 0.80 (0.68) during 1983–2016. A hybrid dynamical–statistical prediction model (HM-DY) is constructed based on NDVINC, SICBS, and a spring 850-hPa geopotential height index, derived from the second version of the NCEP Climate Forecast System. Results show that HM-DY has comparable prediction skill with SM-DY. Both SM-DY and HM-DY are extended to hindcast DWF over the 245 stations in the whole of northern China, indicating comparably high skill. The results show that NDVINC and SICBS account for large variances of the dust climate over northern China. In particular, NDVINC and SICBS can enhance 64% of stations in North China in their prediction of dust climate.
... Regions B and D were found to be dominant dust sources in the Hexi Corridor and are also considered to be dust sources in northern China ( Fig. 3; Sun et al., 2001;Wang et al., 2005a;Wang et al., 2011;Ginoux et al., 2012). Gurbantunggut Desert (region A) and Qaidam Basin (region C) were two active dust sources in the Hexi Corridor (Figs. 3,6), and have been recognized as the main contributors to northern China dust emissions in previous studies (Qiu et al., 2001;Qian et al., 2004;Ku and Park, 2011;An et al., 2018). In conclusion, the four dust sources that affected the Hexi Corridor affected northern China. ...
Four main dust sources and dust events that affected the Hexi Corridor were defined, and the HYSPLIT model was used to trace the dust that originated during the dust episodes of 2015–2017 and to quantify the contributions of dust sources to PM10. On this basis, an algorithm that quantified the contribution of dust sources to PM10 was proposed in this study. The results showed that the main dust sources affecting the Hexi Corridor are generally located in the northern part of Xinjiang, which is mainly dominated by the Gurbantunggut Desert (source A); the Taklimakan and Kumtag Deserts and their surrounding areas (source B); both Qaidam Basins (source C); and the Badain Jaran Desert, Tengger Desert, Hobq Desert, Ulan Buh Desert, and Mu Us Sandy Land and their surrounding areas (source D). The occurrence time of dust and the frequency of PM10 exceeded the daily concentration standards and showed significant characteristics of being high in the spring and low in the autumn. The higher concentration of PM10 in the winter was mainly due to anthropogenic sources from heating process. The contribution of source area D to PM10 concentration was the greatest (42%). Source area B was one of the main dust sources (with a contribution rate of 23%); however, approximately 63% of the dust in this area originates from the Kumtag Desert. The contribution of source area A is lower than that of the study area due to greater precipitation and higher vegetation coverage (22% contribution rate). Source area C has the lowest contribution to the research area due to obstruction by the Qilian Mountain (13% contribution rate).
... Therefore, this has made it impossible to observe a significant relationship between the spatial distribution of precipitation with dust codes or DAF. Such a small correlation between the spatial distribution of dust and precipitation has been reported in the study of Qian et al. (2004) that mentioned there is no relationship between the dust frequency and the annual precipitation. ...
Iran is located in the dust-belt region and so dust is a main environmental issue over the country. The main purpose of this study is to better understand of the spatial and temporal properties of the Dust Aerosol Frequency (DAF) over Iran using satellite data. Daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) deep blue Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Angstrom Exponent (AE) (both Terra and Aqua, Level 3, Collection 6.1) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) Absorption Aerosol Index (AAI) were obtained at 1° × 1° spatial resolution over Iran for the 10 years from 2006 to 2015. In this study observations with AOD higher than 0.3, AE < 0.75 and AAI > 0.7 are considered to be dust aerosols. Results showed that the maximum areas with high DAF are located in the Khuzestan province in the southwest and Sistan in the east of the country. The other areas with peak DAF were observed in the low elevation areas of the country, namely coastal plain of the Oman Sea, Jaz Murian depression and Lut desert in the southeast, and Southern Dasht-e Kavir in central northern. DAF is decreased significantly at latitudes higher than 34.5 ° N. The maximum and minimum DAFs over Iran occur in July (Terra=2.02, Aqua=2.1) and November (Terra=0. 1, Aqua=0.05), respectively. We found good spatial relationship between DAF with the meteorological codes frequency related to the dust from weather stations as well as with the fraction of dust AOD and from Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate (MACC) project. In addition, results showed that dust frequencies based on both weather station and satellite data exhibited corresponding relationships with latitude, elevation, vegetation cover, precipitation and temperature.
... As a meteorological disaster and ecological environment problem, dust weather has already attracted the attention of scientists from all over the world. In different regions, dust weather has been studied from the aspects of synoptic, climatology, moving path, and transmission mechanism (Qian et al. 2004;Wang et al. 2005;Yin et al. 2007;Kaskaoutis et al. 2014;Dimitriou et al. 2017). Dust aerosol had a climate effect, simultaneously diffusing the incident visible light and the emergent long-wave radiation on the ground. ...
This book examines air pollution of a big city using multi-year and multi-season data from ground-based air monitoring stations and satellite sounding data, which provides more clear and detailed information on the main sources of air pollution, the long-term trend of pollution, the influence of meteorological parameters on pollution levels, and trajectories of polluted air masses. For example, the book shows that particulate matter from local sources is transported from deserts to create air quality challenges. It also analyzes the effects of desert and semi-desert landscapes on high concentrations of pollutants. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2019. All Rights Reserved.
... On the other hand, previous studies over Sistan reported a declining trend in dust activity after 2003 and till 2010 due to increase in water surface of the Hamoun lakes and in vegetation cover (Rashki et al., 2012. Furthermore, a decreasing trend in dust-storm frequency was reported in the most regions of northern China, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Tengger desert during 1960-2007 (Qian et al., 2004;Hara et al., 2006;Guan et al., 2015;Kang et al., 2016), attributed to a gradual decrease in wind speed (Guan et al., 2017). In contrast, the frequency and intensity of the dust emissions have increased in Arabia Klingmüller et al., 2016), associated with a shift from an inactive to an active dust period in 2006-2007 due to reasons related to precipitation, soil moisture, vegetation cover and persistent La Niña conditions (Hoell et al., 2013;Notaro et al., 2015;Yu et al., 2015). ...
The central and southwest Asia is usually suffered by dust events of various intensity due to extended arid/desert
regions and, therefore, the statistical evaluation of the dust activity over the region has received an increasing
interest. This study analyses the characteristics of the dust events (according to their intensity) over the central
and southwest Asia during the dusty months May to September from 2010 to 2016, based on visibility observations
at 12 meteorological stations in Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The dust events are
classified based on visibility thresholds such as suspended dust (vis<10 km), blowing dust (visibility between 1
and 5 km) and dust storm for visibility below 1 km. The inter-annual evolution of the frequency of the dust
events is examined on monthly basis for both hourly and daily data series (dust hours and dust days, respectively).
Depending on intensity, the dust frequency shows remarkable inter-annual and intra-seasonal variability
between the stations attributed to differences in topographic and soil characteristics, vicinity to major dust
sources, prevailing meteorology and dust-plumes pathways. In general, June and July are the months with the
highest dust activity, while the dust events seem to be more frequent during the morning hours, but with large
differences between the stations. The highest frequency of the dust storms is observed in the Sistan Basin and
around the deserts of southern Afghanistan, while the dust-plume pathways have a distinct north-to-south
pattern from the Caspian Sea to the Arabian Sea.
... On the other hand, previous studies over Sistan reported a declining trend in dust activity after 2003 and till 2010 due to increase in water surface of the Hamoun lakes and in vegetation cover (Rashki et al., 2012. Furthermore, a decreasing trend in dust-storm frequency was reported in the most regions of northern China, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Tengger desert during 1960-2007 (Qian et al., 2004;Hara et al., 2006;Guan et al., 2015;Kang et al., 2016), attributed to a gradual decrease in wind speed (Guan et al., 2017). In contrast, the frequency and intensity of the dust emissions have increased in Arabia Klingmüller et al., 2016), associated with a shift from an inactive to an active dust period in 2006-2007 due to reasons related to precipitation, soil moisture, vegetation cover and persistent La Niña conditions (Hoell et al., 2013;Notaro et al., 2015;Yu et al., 2015). ...
... The northern and northwestern regions of China are among the most sandstorm-prone areas in the world (Sun et al., 2001;Qian et al., 2004;Huang et al., 2007;Fu et al., 2012). Sandstorms in this region have the following four characteristics. ...
Sand and dust storms (hereafter, “sandstorms”) not only damage the ecological environment in northern and northwestern China but also influence the economic and social development of the affected regions and constitute a threat to human health. This study focuses on monitoring sandstorms and analyzing the sandstorm migration process in northern and northwestern China. These sandstorms are characterized by their high frequency occurrences, strong dust intensity, long durations and highly destructive effects. The dry climate conditions and low degree of vegetation coverage in this region increase the difficulty of sandstorm monitoring. This paper proposes a remote sensing monitoring method for sandstorms in northern and northwestern China based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data and the radiation characteristics of the research region and of the sandstorms. A strong sandstorm that occurred on April 23–25, 2014, is analyzed to illustrate the proposed monitoring method. Information on the sandstorm is validated and analyzed through visual interpretation and comparison with Meteorological Information Comprehensive Analysis and Process System (MICAPS) ground measurements. The spatial distribution of the sandstorm is highly consistent with the true-color MODIS data. The comparison of the results of the remote sensing monitoring of the sandstorm with the MICAPS measurements yields a high coincidence rate of 96.3%. Additionally, the migration process of the sandstorm can be clearly recognized in 6 MODIS images captured during the 3-day sandstorm. Based on the above results, we conclude that the proposed method can be used for dynamic remote sensing monitoring of sandstorms in northern and northwestern China.
... However, increases in precipitation did not noticeably affect decreases in the occurrence of dust storms. The correlation coefficient between annual precipitation and dust storm days in north China was − 0.141 (Qian et al. 2002;Qian et al. 2004). Correlations between the occurrence of dust storms and precipitation in spring and winter are not high. ...
The large-scale transport of dust storms originating from Mongolia and northern China has been observed for dustfall days by meteorological observers in South Korea since 1960. Furthermore, the Korea Centre for Atmospheric Environment Research (KCAER) has been observing dustfall days by using standards of ground-based mass concentrations in central South Korea since 1997. In the spatial distribution, annual dustfall days gradually decreased southeastward in South Korea due to wind speed reduction for the long-range transport of dust storms. During the last 20 years, 19 dustfall days in 1997 were reduced to 3 days in 2016 with a decreasing rate of − 0.8 ± 0.1 day year⁻¹. The warming in northern Mongolia reduced the meridional temperature gradient between Mongolia and northern China. Decreases in the air temperature gradient affect wind speed reduction in the origins of dust storms. A noticeable decrease in PM10 mass concentrations is related to decreases in higher mass concentration days from dustfall in central South Korea during winter and spring. During summer and fall, the decreasing trend of TSP is related to the high level of moisture of the Northwest Pacific air masses.
... The northern and northwestern regions of China are among the most sandstorm-prone areas in the world (Sun et al., 2001;Qian et al., 2004;Huang et al., 2007;Fu et al., 2012). Sandstorms in this region have the following four characteristics. ...
Notable uncertainties in the aerosol impact on the Earth's radiative budget still remain, mainly at local scales. This study aims to accurately quantify the shortwave aerosol radiative forcing (ARF) and its efficiency (ARFE) at Évora (Portugal, Southwestern Europe). This is an interesting region affected by different aerosol types and sources. Towards this goal, ARF and ARFE are calculated for Évora during thirteen years (2003–2015), which is the longest period ever analyzed for this region. For this calculation, the most updated AERONET data have been used to simulate irradiance with the libRadtran code. Thus, 1676 daily values were analyzed, obtaining a mean ARF of –7.4 W m–2 at the Earth's surface (SURF) and –1.1 W m–2 at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), indicating a cooling of the Earth–atmosphere system. The difference in ARF between TOA and SURF indicates a mean net gain of 6.3 W m–2 for the atmosphere. While no ARF seasonal pattern is observed at the TOA, a clear seasonal cycle is detected at the SURF with the most negative values occurring in summer. On the other hand, ARFE shows mean values of –62.7 W m–2 τ–1 at the SURF and –14.3 W m–2 τ–1 at the TOA. Results show that ARFE highly depends on the aerosol single scattering albedo, showing opposite behavior at the SURF and at the TOA. The large temporal variability detected in the aerosol properties in the region of study confirms the general need for long time series of measurements to achieve an accurate estimation of the ARF and ARFE.
... Understanding the microphysical and optical properties of natural dust mixed with the other atmospheric aerosols produced by human activities in the troposphere has a critical impact on our ability to predict atmospheric compositions and global climate 10 change (Nie et al., 2014;Ramanathan et al., 2007;Spracklen and Rap, 2013). Several attempts have been made to investigate the significance of the effects of dust on global climate, meteorology, atmospheric dynamics, ecosystems and human health (Rosenfeld et al., 2011;Qian et al., 2004). Limited field campaigns have focused on the properties of natural dust and anthropogenic aerosols, especially those of the anthropogenic dust 15 aerosols produced by human activities near dust source regions. ...
From 3 April to 16 May 2014, a ground-based mobile laboratory was deployed to measure the optical and microphysical properties of tropospheric aerosols near dust source regions in Wuwei, Zhangye, and Dunhuang along the Hexi Corridor over Northwestern China. This study is novel in that we not only captured natural mineral dust near the Taklimakan and Badain Jaran desert regions but also characterized the properties of anthropogenic soil dust produced by agricultural cultivations (e.g., land planning, ploughing, and disking), especially during floating dust episodes. In this dust campaign, the aerosol scattering (absorption) coefficient (σsp and σap), single scattering albedo (ω), scattering Ångström exponent (Åsp), mass scattering efficiency (MSE), and aerosol size distribution were observed at 5-min intervals. The results indicate that large differences were found between the optical and microphysical properties of anthropogenic and natural dust because of floating dust episodes and dust storms. The values of σsp, σap and ω of PM2.5 measured at 550 nm range from ~ 37–532 Mm−1, ~ 2.2–55.3 Mm−1 and ~ 0.64–0.98, respectively, because of the presence of anthropogenic soil dust during floating dust episodes, and the corresponding values under background conditions are ~ 21–163 Mm−1, ~ 1.3–34.8 Mm−1, and ~ 0.70–0.98, respectively. We note that the higher values of σsp and ω and lower values of Åsp indicate that the aerosol particles observed during a strong dust storm in Zhangye were dominated by coarse mode particles originating from desert regions. However, the highest values of MSE reveal that the anthropogenic soil dust produced by agricultural cultivations can scatter more solar radiation than coarse mode particles.
... previous studies suggested that the regional dust storms in northern China are negatively correlated with prior winter temperature [Qian et al., 2004]. While precipitation reduces dust emissions mainly through suppressing emission when snow covers the potential dust source areas and increasing soil moisture when snow melts [Tanaka et al., 2011;Lee and Kim, 2012], precipitation also reduces dust emissions in other seasons by impacting soil moisture and vegetation conditions over dust source regions [Liu et al., 2004]. ...
We use 150 year preindustrial simulations of the Community Earth System Model to quantify the impacts of the East Asian Monsoon strength on interannual variations of springtime dust concentrations over China. The simulated interannual variations in March-April-May (MAM) dust column concentrations range between 20–40% and 10–60% over eastern and western China, respectively. The dust concentrations over eastern China correlate negatively with the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) index, which represents the strength of monsoon, with a regionally averaged correlation coefficient of −0.64. Relative to the strongest EAM years, MAM dust concentrations in the weakest EAM years are higher over China, with regional relative differences of 55.6%, 29.6%, and 13.9% in the run with emissions calculated interactively and of 33.8%, 10.3%, and 8.2% over eastern, central, and western China, respectively, in the run with prescribed emissions. Both interactive run and prescribed emission run show the similar pattern of climate change between the weakest and strongest EAM years. Strong anomalous northwesterly and westerly winds over the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts during the weakest EAM years result in larger transport fluxes, and thereby increase the dust concentrations over China. These differences in dust concentrations between the weakest and strongest EAM years (weakest-strongest) lead to the change in the net radiative forcing by up to −8 and −3 W m−2 at the surface, compared to −2.4 and +1.2 W m−2 at the top of the atmosphere over eastern and western China, respectively.
... The eastern parts of China included in region 2, are known for smoke and pollution owing to rapid industrialization and developmental activities over the area (Eck et al., 2005;Kim et al., 2005;Kim et al., 2007). Dust storms are also recorded over north eastern parts within this region, and regional soil emissions also occur (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2011). Unlike region 1, the AE values over region 2 vary with season. ...
This work examines the permanent aerosol source regions over Asia by analyzing 7-years data of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) product from MODerate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard Aqua and Terra satellites. The analysis is carried out by taking the average AOT map during the years 2002-2008 over the region in different seasons, in which the permanent source regions will appear pronounced whereas the locations influenced by transport or any emissions that last for shorter time period will be smoothened. The results show four such main permanent source regions. Angstrom Exponent (AE) aerosol product is used to infer about the possible type and size of aerosols over the source regions. The average AOT trends over the source regions in different seasons during 2002-2008 are examined and the results are discussed based on the corresponding variations of meteorological parameters derived from National Center for Environmental Prediction - National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) reanalysis data. In addition, the trends in AOT variation during the period 2002-2008 over certain selected stations over the area are also discussed.
... The opposite conditions and more precipitation due to the summer monsoon resulted in the lowest PM 10 concentration values in summer. Spring is the dust storm season in east Asia (Qian et al., 2004;Wang et al., 2008;Zhou and Zhang, 2003), which leads to high PM 10 concentrations in dust source regions and downwind areas in northern China. For example, the PM 10 concentrations in spring were much higher than other seasons at the dust source sites of Yulin and Erlianhaote. ...
Concentrations of PM10, PM2.5 and PM1 were monitored at 24
CAWNET (China Atmosphere Watch Network) stations from 2006 to 2014. The
highest particulate matter (PM) concentrations were observed at the stations
of Xian, Zhengzhou and Gucheng, on the Guanzhong Plain and the Huabei Plain
(HBP). The second highest PM concentrations were observed in northeast
China, followed by southern China. According to the latest air quality
standards of China, 14 stations reached the PM10 standard, and only 7
stations, mainly rural and remote stations, reached the PM2.5 standard.
The ratios of PM2.5 to PM10 showed a clear increasing trend from
northern to southern China, because of the substantial contribution of
coarse mineral aerosol in northern China. The ratios of PM1 to
PM2.5 were higher than 80 % at most stations. PM concentrations
tended to be highest in winter and lowest in summer at most stations, and
mineral dust influenced the results in spring. A decreasing interannual
trend was observed on the HBP and in southern China for the period 2006 to
2014, but an increasing trend occurred at some stations in northeast China.
Bimodal and unimodal diurnal variation patterns were identified at urban
stations. Both emissions and meteorological variations dominate the
long-term PM concentration trend, while meteorological factors play a
leading role in the short term.
The biases generated by state-of-the-art climate models in simulating dust optical depth (DOD) remain to be detailed. Here a site-scale DOD dataset in March–August over northern China (NC) during 1980–2001 was reconstructed using the empirical relationship between MODIS-retrieved DOD and dust-event frequencies during 2001–2021. Then, through the combined use of MODIS-based and reconstructed DOD, we evaluated the reproducibility of DOD from 10 models participating in phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) for the historical period (1980–2001 and 2002–2014) and under different Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) during 2015–2021. The results demonstrate that CMIP6 models and multi-model ensemble mean (MEM) are capable of capturing the spatial pattern of DOD, but with considerable uncertainty and inter-model variability in magnitude. Regionally-averaged DOD is underestimated by 56.09% during 1980–2001 and overestimated by 30.97% during 2002–2014 in MEM over NC. Simultaneously, the inter-model standard deviations are greater than MEM during 2002–2014, suggesting large discrepancies among individual models. Very few models accurately capture the trends in DOD, which can mainly be attributed to the different trends in simulated wind speed (WS), soil moisture, and vegetation cover, and their contributions to dust evolution. Under 4 SSPs, despite the best correlation between SSP1-2.6-modeled and MODIS DOD over Gobi Desert (GD), overestimation of DOD is still observed. More models under SSP1-2.6 capture the positive DOD trend, mainly attributable to positive changes in simulated WS over GD.
In order to fully understand the chemical properties of Asian dust particles, especially their transformation and aging processes, it is desirable to investigate the nature of original sands collected at local source areas in China. This study presents the detailed properties of sands collected at four different desert regions (Yinchuan, Wuwei, Dulan, and Yanchi) in China. Most of sands have irregular shape with yellowish coloration, whereas some of them show peculiar colors. The relative size distribution of sands collected at Yinchuan, Wuwei, and Dulan deserts exhibits monomodal with the maximum level between 200 and 300 μm, whereas that of Yanchi desert is formed between 100 and 200 μm. The mass concentration ratio of each element to that of Si (Z/Si) determined by PIXE analysis has a tendency towards higher Z/Si ratios for soil derived elements. It was possible to visually reconstruct the elemental maps on the surface of individual sands by XRF microprobe technique. In addition, the multielemental mass concentration could be quantitatively calculated for numerous spots of desert sands.
Six dust storms that originated from Mongolia and moved to northern China in Spring 2021 are investigated by the anomaly variable‐based analysis method, which is compared to the traditional total‐variable based analysis method. Strong surface wind is a force to form dust storms as commonly known in current practice. However, dust area depicted by total‐wind model product analysis and operational forecast has a large bias to observation even for leading 24 hr. The analysis method of anomaly based variables showed that the domain of an airborne dust storm observed from satellite images is usually located between two neighboring convergence lines of 850 hPa anomalous winds. This connection of dust storm associated with the anomalous wind convergence extends southwestward from an anomalous cyclone and moves from Mongolia to northern China or Northeast China. It is thermodynamically associated with an anomalous thermal contrast, which has a spatial structure of wind, temperature, and geopotential height anomalies in the troposphere. We further found that numerical weather prediction products of the ECMWF model are able to indicate the anomalous wind pattern with lead times of 4–8 days by applying the anomaly based analysis approach. Therefore, this approach can not only depict dust area better but also reveal predictors much easier compared to the traditional total‐variable or full‐field‐based analysis method.
Sand and dust storms (SDS) frequently hit northern China and adversely impact both environment and health. The carbonaceous components, inorganic elements, water-soluble ions, and meteorological parameters of several severe SDS episodes have been measured in a supersite in Tianjin, which is a big and representative city located in SDS transmission pathway in northern China. Six SDS episodes were identified in Spring, 2021. The maximum PM10 mass concentration was 2684 and 1664 μg/m³ in SDS1 and SDS3, respectively. North and northwest wind was dominant and significant differences were found in wind speed and RH between the SDS and non-SDS episodes. North dust from Inner Mongolia and Mongolia was determined by back trajectory analysis as the probable source region. The mass concentration of SO4²⁻, NO3⁻, and NH4⁺ decreased in PM2.5. Increase of Na⁺ and K⁺ and low SO4²⁻SDS/ SO4²⁻non-SDS indicate dust source for short length SDS transmission in northern China. The ratio of elements could also be used to distinguish SDS and non-SDS episodes identify north and northwest source for the SDS episodes. Pb/Al, Zn/Al, and Si/Al could be regarded as indicators for SDS and non-SDS episodes, Ca/Al and Ca/Si can help to indicate SDS source direction. This study provides a variety of evidences for the dust source identification and reveals the characteristics of the most severe SDS episodes of the decade in Tianjin during Spring 2021.
There are about more than 700 lakes in arid areas of northwest of China, and they are mainly distributed in Xinjiang. There are 29 lakes with size more than 10 km², of which three lakes are distributed in both inside and outside the boundary of Inner Mongolia, and rest 26 lakes all located in Xinjiang.
Dust weather is a kind of small probability and large hazard weather caused by the development of specific large-scale circulation background and specific weather system under specific geographical environment and underlying surface conditions, mainly in arid areas, in semi-arid areas, in desertified areas, and in farming-pastoral ecotone. Dust weather has a great destructive power, and the economic losses caused to the country and people by sand and dust weather every year are huge and incalculable (Liu et al. 2009; Qi et al. 2011). As a meteorological disaster and ecological environment problem, dust weather has already attracted the attention of scientists from all over the world. In different regions, dust weather has been studied from the aspects of synoptic, climatology, moving path, and transmission mechanism (Qian et al. 2004; Wang et al. 2005; Yin et al. 2007; Kaskaoutis et al. 2014; Dimitriou et al. 2017). Dust aerosol had a climate effect, simultaneously diffusing the incident visible light and the emergent long-wave radiation on the ground. On one hand, the dust aerosol directed scattering and absorption of radiation, resulting in direct climate effect (parasol effect). On the other hand, dust aerosol particles could change cloud microphysical processes, radiation characteristics, and precipitation, resulting in indirect climate effects (Su 2008). In addition, dust aerosols could also endanger people’s physical and mental health (Chen and Yang 2001; Meng et al. 2007) and have an impact on global ecological effects (Zhang et al. 1997; Jickells et al. 2005; Huang et al. 2007; Fan 2013; Ta et al. 2013).
Mineral dust aerosols (MDs) not only influence the climate by scattering and absorbing solar radiation but also modify cloud properties and change the ecosystem. From 3 April to 16 May 2014, a ground-based mobile laboratory was deployed to measure the optical and microphysical properties of MDs near dust source regions in Wuwei, Zhangye, and Dunhuang (in chronological order) along the Hexi Corridor over northwestern China. Throughout this dust campaign, the hourly averaged (±standard deviation) aerosol scattering coefficients (σsp, 550 nm) of the particulates with aerodynamic diameters less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) at these three sites were sequentially 101.5 ± 36.8, 182.2 ± 433.1, and 54.0 ± 32.0 Mm-1. Correspondingly, the absorption coefficients (σap, 637 nm) were 9.7 ± 6.1, 6.0 ± 4.6, and 2.3 ± 0.9 Mm-1; single-scattering albedos (ω, 637 nm) were 0.902 ± 0.025, 0.931 ± 0.037, and 0.949 ± 0.020; and scattering Ångström exponents (Åsp, 450–700 nm) of PM2.5 were 1.28 ± 0.27, 0.77 ± 0.51, and 0.52 ± 0.31. During a severe dust storm in Zhangye (i.e., from 23 to 25 April), the highest values of σsp2.5 (∼ 5074 Mm-1), backscattering coefficient (σbsp2.5, ∼ 522 Mm-1), and ω637 (∼ 0.993) and the lowest values of backscattering fraction (b2.5, ∼ 0.101) at 550 nm and Åsp2.5 (∼ -0.046) at 450–700 nm, with peak values of aerosol number size distribution (appearing at the particle diameter range of 1–3 µm), exhibited that the atmospheric aerosols were dominated by coarse-mode dust aerosols. It is hypothesized that the relatively higher values of mass scattering efficiency during floating dust episodes in Wuwei and Zhangye are attributed to the anthropogenic soil dust produced by agricultural cultivations.
Dust storms occur frequently in arid and semi-arid regions of China and other parts of the world, exerting a considerable influence on air quality in densely populated areas. Instrumental observations of dust storms are only available over the past 50 to 60 years, limiting our ability to understand dust storm variability over longer timescales. However, tropical sea surface temperatures have been reconstructed over the past four centuries, using geochemical records from corals. Here we show that tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures, as recorded by corals, can be used to reconstruct dust storm frequency at one-year resolution. Based on the coral-reconstructed annual sea-surface temperature anomaly data from two regions (the western Pacific; 25°N–25°S, 110–155°E, and the eastern Pacific; 10°N–10°S, 175°E–85°W) published by Tierney et al. (2015), we reconstructed the frequency of dust storms in northern China (DSFCN) for the period from 1617 to 1953 CE. The reconstructed DSFCN variation can be divided into several distinct periods: (1) DSFCN increased from 1617 to 1650, then (2) decreased from 1650 to 1675, (3) remained unchanged from 1675 to 1755, (4) increased again from 1755 to 1860, (5) remained unchanged from 1860 to 1925, and finally (6) decreased rapidly from 1925 to 1995. We propose the following causal chain to explain the observed relationship between DSFCN and SST: as tropical Pacific Ocean SST increases, the Siberian High weakens and the Eastern Asian Trough strengthens. As the air pressure difference weakens, the East Asian Winter Monsoon weakens, and strong wind frequency decreases, causing DSFCN to decrease as well. The statistical results support this interpretation of the causal chain.
Recent research has pointed to a number of inherent disadvantages of unrotated principal components and empirical orthogonal functions when these techniques are used to depict individual modes of variation of data matrices in exploratory analyses. The various pitfalls are outlined and illustrated with an alternative method introduced to minimize these problems via available linear transformations known as simple structure rotations. The rationale and theory behind simple structure rotation and Procrustes target rotation is examined in the context of meteorological/climatological applications. This includes a discussion of the six unique ways to decompose a rotated data set in order to maximize the physical interpretability of the rotated results.
The various analytic simple structure rotations available are compared by a Monte Carlo simulation, which is a modification of a similar technique developed by Tucker (1983), revealing that the DAPPFR and Promax k = 2 rotations are the most accurate in recovering the input structure of the modes of variation over a wide range of conditions. Additionally, these results allow the investigator the opportunity to check the accuracy of the unrotated or rotated solution for specific types of data. This is important because, in the past, the decision of whether or not to apply a specific rotation has been a 'blind decision'. In response to this, a methodology is presented herein by which the researcher can assess the degree of simple structure embedded within any meteorological data set and then apply known information about the data to the Monte Carlo results to optimize the likelihood of achieving physically meaningful results from a principal component analysis.
KEY WORDS: Orthogonal rotation; Oblique rotation; Simple structure; Procrustes target transformation; Principal components; PCA; Empirical Orthogonal Functions; EOF; Eigenvectors; Exploratory analyses; Confirmatory analyses; Monte Carlo techniques
The properties (spatial orthogonality and temporal uncorrelatedness) of orthogonally rotated empirical modes depend on the normalization of the modes, prior to rotation. It is shown here that these properties also depend on how the empirical modes are formulated. The preferred convention is one that allows us to reconstruct the data from the unrotated or rotated modes. When the empirical modes are normalized so that the spatial eigenvectors are unit length (i.e. empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs)), the rotated modes preserve spatial orthogonality, but are no longer temporally uncorrelated. Relaxing the temporal orthogonality in this way does not prejudice conclusions that can be inferred regarding the temporal couplings of the rotated modes.
Sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the subtropical southern Indian Ocean show interannual dipole events that are seasonally phase-locked to the austral summer. A positive phase of the event is characterized by cold SST anomalies in the eastern part i.e. off Australia and warm SST anomalies in the southwestern part, south of Madagascar. Such an event is found to produce above normal rainfall over many regions in south-central Africa. The cooling of SST in the eastern part is mainly caused by the enhanced evaporation. This is associated with stronger winds along the eastern edge of the subtropical high, which is strengthened and shifted slightly to the south during the event. On the other hand, relative decrease in the seasonal latent heat loss due to reduced evaporation dominates the warming in the southwestern part. Evolution of such subtropical dipole events shows quite a contrast to that of the tropical dipole events discovered recently in the Indian Ocean.
Dust storms are major, but under-studied actors in the world's drylands. Not only are they an important manifestation of desertification and land degradation, but they also have a whole suite of important environmental impacts, including possible rainfall suppression (Maley, 1982), fertilization of offshore areas, and disturbance to satellite communications. It is therefore important to ascertain whether their frequency and extent is changing. An increasing dust-storm incidence could be both a manifestation of and a contributor to global change.By analysing long-term meteorological records for a large number of areas (the Great Plains of the USA, the USSR, Morocco, The Arabian Gulf, Australia, the Sahel-Sudan zone of Africa, China, Mongolia and Mexico) certain conclusions can be drawn. The first of these is that there is no one global pattern of dust-storm frequency trend. Some stations (e.g. in the Sahel) show a clear upward trend of great severity, others show a downward trend (e.g. Mexico City), while others show a more cyclical pattern. In many cases it is evident that essentially natural processes (precipitation totals, snow cover, wind strength) determine the frequency of dust events in any one year. It has also been possible to show the importance of runs of drought years (e.g. in the High Plains in the 1930s, and in the Sahel zone of Africa in the 1970s and 1980s). Elsewhere, however, various human activities have been significant in determining dust-storm frequency variations: the introduction of centre-pivot irrigation in the High Plains, the abstraction of water from the Owens and Mono basins in California, the disruption of surfaces by construction activity and vehicle use (e.g. in Ulan Bator, Mongolia), and the deliberate stabilisation of susceptible surfaces (e.g. the Lake Texcoco scheme in Mexico).
Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses (rotated or not) are widely used in climate research. In recent years there have been several studies in which EOF analyses were used to highlight potential physical mechanisms associated with climate variability. For example, several SST modes were identified such as the "Tropical Atlantic Dipole,'' the "Tropical Indian Ocean Dipole, '' and different SLP modes in the Northern Hemisphere winter. In this note it is emphasized that caution should be used when trying to interpret these statistically derived modes and their significance. Indeed, from a synthetic example it is shown that patterns derived from EOF analyses can be misleading at times and associated with very little climate physics.
For the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans, internal modes of variability that lead to climatic oscillations have been recognized, but in the Indian Ocean region a similar ocean-atmosphere interaction causing interannual climate variability has not yet been found. Here we report an analysis of observational data over the past 40 years, showing a dipole mode in the Indian Ocean: a pattern of internal variability with anomalously low sea surface temperatures off Sumatra and high sea surface temperatures in the western Indian Ocean, with accompanying wind and precipitation anomalies. The spatio-temporal links between sea surface temperatures and winds reveal a strong coupling through the precipitation field and ocean dynamics. This air-sea interaction process is unique and inherent in the Indian Ocean, and is shown to be independent of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. The discovery of this dipole mode that accounts for about 12% of the sea surface temperature variability in the Indian Ocean--and, in its active years, also causes severe rainfall in eastern Africa and droughts in Indonesia--brightens the prospects for a long-term forecast of rainfall anomalies in the affected countries.
The granulometrical and mineralogical studies of the fallen dust collected at Beijing during dust-haze weather on April 18, 1980, show that it resembles the typical Pleistocene loess of China in composition and texture. The fallen dust is mainly composed of silt-size grains as are those of the loess. Quartz, feldspar, and carbonates constitute more than 90% of the total amount of the fallen dust, and they are subangular to subrounded. These characteristics of mineral grains of the fallen dust show evidently that it is an up-to-date loess. Meteorological study indicates that this loess was transported to Beijing by a sand and dust storm; dust-haze and dust-fall weather occurred during April 17-20, 1980, in northern China. The strong development of the Mongolian cyclone and the downward transport of momentum of the upper westerlies appeared on April 17 west of the huge loess plateau in central and western Inner Mongolia and He -xi (Kansu) Corridor and initiated the occurrence of the sandstorm. Through the upward motion and turbulent mixing, the sand and dust was enrolled into the westerly jet stream of the upper air. Thereafter, dust and sand in the upper-air jet stream rapidly shifted, spread, and subsided southeastward over the loess plateau and arrived in Beijing on April 18, after it had traveled about 1,500 km east from its source area. The synoptic analysis together with the study of the dust provides an example of recent loess deposition and a possible model of eolian loess transportation and deposition.
We identify the major spatial patterns of variability in the global
surface air temperature data set using empirical orthogonal analysis. We
rotate the major components to simplify physical interpretation. Of the
five patterns which account for the largest proportion of the total
variance in the data set, three are global in extent and two are
continental in scale. The pattern accounting for most of the variance in
the data set indicates a global change in temperature, affecting most
regions in the same sense but most marked in lower latitudes. The second
most important pattern is a measure of the El Niño-Southern
Oscillation phenomenon. The third pattern represents a contrast in
temperature between the northern and southern oceans and is shown to be
related to Sahel rainfall variations, confirming, though with
reservations, the results of previous work. The fourth pattern is an
index of the temperature effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation. The
fifth pattern is a measure of temperature variations over Siberia. It is
shown that this component is related to an atmospheric circulation
fluctuation affecting, among other things, the strength of the
depression track over the Barents and Kara Seas and neighboring areas.
We term this process the Euro-Siberian Oscillation. The effects of
changing data coverage are explored, and it is shown that patterns with
a strong maritime component are particularly susceptible to this form of
inhomogeneity. Finally, potential causal mechanisms, such as volcanic
pollution of the atmosphere, are investigated, and the evolution over
time of the spatial response to these forcing factors is defined using
the empirical orthogonal functions. The analysis demonstrates that
empirical orthogonal functions representing the spatial patterns of
temperature change provide a concise means of monitoring climate trends
and can assist identification of the causes of recent climate change as
well as supporting climate model validation and assessment of the
representativeness and reliability of climate reconstructions based on
proxy indicators such as tree ring data.
The summer rainfall over the middle-lower valley of the Yangtze River and over the whole eastern China experienced a notable regime shift in about 1979. This change is consistent with a simultaneous jump-like change in the 500 hPa geopotential height (Phi500) over the northern Pacific. The rainfall over the Yangtze River valley is closely related to the Phi500 averaged over the area 20°-25°N, 125°-140°E, with a correlation coefficient of 0.66 for the period 1958-1999. Since 1980, the subtropical northwestern Pacific high (SNPH) has enlarged, intensified, and extended southwestward. The changes in the SNPH are strongly associated with the variations of the sea surface temperatures (SSTs) of the eastern tropical Pacific and tropical Indian Ocean. The anomalies of these SSTs, responsible primarily for the shift of the summer rainfall over the Yangtze River through the changes in SNPH, precede the Phi500 signals with different leading times.
In previous studies, limited meteorological observations were used to investigate the temporal-spatial changes of dust storms in China. Here, the authors use the daily 850-hPa geopotential height of NCEP-NCAR reanalysis for 1948-99 to examine the vortex fluctuations, which represent daily cyclone activity in east Asia. They also use the 1000-hPa air temperature data to explain the decadal change of the cyclone activity. In addition, the grid cyclone frequency for 1948-99 and the temperature and precipitation for 1950-98 are used to calculate the correlation with the dust weather frequency (for 1954-98) in China.Results show that the interannual variability and long-term trend among dust storm frequency, dust weather frequency, air temperature, and cyclone frequency exist in northern China. In the eastern part of China, the frequencies of dust storms and dust weather in the 1950s-70s were about twice that after the mid-1980s. The reason for this feature may be due to the warming in Mongolia and cooling in northern China that reduced the meridional temperature gradient, resulting in the reduced cyclone frequency in northern China. In the Tarim Basin, the high-frequency dust storms have been attributed to less precipitation and to the arid-heating climate.The frequency of dust storms (dust weather) is strongly related to the low air temperature in the prior winter season and the high-frequency cyclone activity in the spring season for most parts of eastern China. Based on this relationship, an index describing the dust weather (dust storm) frequency has been formulated. This index can well calibrate the variability of dust weather (dust storms) in northern China, except for the Xinjiang region in far northwest China.
This paper gives the dust emission inventory in the Northern China where the climate is very dry and large desert areas exist. Before calculating the distribution of fugitive dust emission factors (emission rates of particles smaller than 0.05mm in diameter) from natural surfaces with a US EPA formula, Chinese data of pedology and climatology were processed so as to suit requirements of the formula. The computed dust emission factors for this environment of Northern China are shown by contours, their distribution and seasonal variations are briefly discussed. The dust emission rate in the area increases from east to west by five orders. Also, the total amount of the dust emitted from natural surfaces of Northern China into the atmosphere is found to be some 43 million tyr-1, with half of the emissions concentrated in the spring season (March–May).
Dust storms are widespread and responsible for a good deal of movement of material. Deposition rates are typically of the order of 50 tonnes km-2yr-1. Describes the major global source areas for dust with maps of several countries, and examines the relationship between dust storm frequency and mean annual rainfall, seasonality and the long-range transport of desert dust.-K.Clayton
The interannual and interdecadal variability of the Siberian High (SH) and the Aleutian Low (AL) from aspects of strength
and location for the past one hundred years as well as their possible relations with temperature changes over mainland China
are investigated. The data sets used are the historical sea level pressure for 1871–1995 and surface air temperature (SAT)
over China in the last 100 years. The results show that the SAT in different regions over China, central strength of the SH
and the AL, the south-reaching lati-tude of the 1030 hPa contour of the SH and the pressure gradient between the SH and the
AL experienced two obvious changes during this period. One occurred in the 1920s, with a more prominent one in the 1980s.
These variations are closely linked with the change of winter temperature over China in the interdecadal timescale. In the
last 50 years, there is a remarkable interannual correlation between the strength of Active Centers of Atmosphere (Acas) and
the winter temperature of northern and eastern regions in China. The ab-rupt change of Acas in the 1980s is consistent with
the rising of the SAT in China. Since the late 1980s, the atmospheric circulation is experiencing a remarkable modulation,
which may cause the interdecadal transi-tion of warming trend.
The characteristics of the onset of the Pacific basin-wide warming have experienced notable changes since the late 1970s. The changes are caused by a concurrent change in the background state on which El Nino evolves. For the most significant warm episodes before the late 1970s (1957, 1965, and 1972), the atmospheric anomalies in the onset phase (November to December of the year preceding the El Nino) were characterized by a giant anomalous cyclone over east Australia whose eastward movement brought anomalous westerlies into the western equatorial Pacific, causing development of the basin-wide warming. Meanwhile, the trades in the southeastern Pacific relaxed back to their weakest stage, resulting in a South American coastal warming, which led the central Pacific warming about three seasons. Conversely, in the warm episodes after the late 1970s (1982, 1986-87, and 1991), the onset phase was characterized by an anomalous cyclone over the Philippine Sea whose intensification established anomalous westerlies in the western equatorial Pacific. Concurrently, the trades were enhanced in the southeastern Pacific, so that the coastal warming off Ecuado occurred after the central Pacific warming. It is found that the atmospheric anomalies occurring in the onset phase are controlled by background SSTs that exhibit a significant secular variation. In the late 1970s, the tropical Pacific between 20{degrees}S and 20{degrees}N experienced an abrupt interdecadal warming, concurrent with a cooling in the extratropical North Pacific and South Pacific and a deepening of the Aleutian Low. The interdecadal change of the background state affected El Nino onset by altering the formation of the onset cyclone and equatorial westerly anomalies and through changing the trades in the southeast Pacific, which determine whether a South American coastal warming leads or follows the warming at the central equatorial Pacific. 49 refs., 13 figs.
Recent research has pointed to a number of inherent disadvantages of unrotated principal components and empirical orthogonal functions when these techniques are used to depict individual modes of variation of data matrices in exploratory analyses. The various pitfalls are outlined and illustrated with an alternative method introduced to minimize these problems via available linear transformations known as simple structure rotations. The rationale and theory behind simple structure rotation and Procrustes target rotation is examined in the context of meteorological/climatological applications. This includes a discussion of the six unique ways to decompose a rotated data set in order to maximize the physical interpretability of the rotated results.
The various analytic simple structure rotations available are compared by a Monte Carlo simulation, which is a modification of a similar technique developed by Tucker (1983), revealing that the DAPPFR and Promax k = 2 rotations are the most accurate in recovering the input structure of the modes of variation over a wide range of conditions. Additionally, these results allow the investigator the opportunity to check the accuracy of the unrotated or rotated solution for specific types of data. This is important because, in the past, the decision of whether or not to apply a specific rotation has been a ‘blind decision’. In response to this, a methodology is presented herein by which the researcher can assess the degree of simple structure embedded within any meteorological data set and then apply known information about the data to the Monte Carlo results to optimize the likelihood of achieving physically meaningful results from a principal component analysis.
Following the great flooding of summer 1998, the mid-lower Yangtze Basin further suffered from another large flooding in summer 1999. Successive droughts through 3 recent summers (1997–1999) appeared in north China in addition, leading to an abnormal summer climate pattern of “north drought with south flooding”. Such southward move of the summer monsoon rainy belt in east China started in the late 1970s–early 1980s. Its main cause may not be a purely natural climate change, but the acceleration of industrialization in east China could play a major role by emitting large volumes of SO2, especially from the rapidly growing rural factories of east China. The annual release of SO2 in China exceeded 20 Tg during 1992–1998, so dense sulfate aerosols covered the central east China which significantly reduced the sunlight. Although present estimates for the changes of clear sky global solar radiation may include some error, they show that the negative radiative forcing of sulfate aerosols in central east China by far exceeds the effect of greenhouse warming in summer. Hence the mid-summer monsoon rainy belt of east China has a trend moving southward in 21 recent years (1979–1999), showing the very sensitive characteristic of the summer monsoon system to the change in heat equilibrium of the land surface. The occurrence rate of summer climate pattern of “north drought with south flooding” in east China during 21 recent years is the largest since AD 950; such anomalous climate has brought large losses to China. The only possible way to reverse this southward trend of summer monsoon rainy belt is to significantly reduce air pollution by using more clean energy. Recently, the PRC has paid serious attention to this problem by adopting a series of countermeasures.
On an extraordinary heavy sandstorm on April 22nd in Gansu
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- G.-X Wu
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Study on the Duststorm in China
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Fang, Z.-Y., Zhu, F.-K., Jiang, J.X., Qian, Z.A., 1997. Study on the Duststorm in China. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, 158pp. (in Chinese).
Climate on the Loess Plateau in China
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Qian, L.Q., 1991. Climate on the Loess Plateau in China. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, China, 369pp. (in Chinese).
Climatic analysis of the dust storm weather in Chinese history
- Zhang
Zhang, D.-E., 1984. Climatic analysis of the dust storm weather in Chinese history. Science in China B 3, 278–288.
Structure and formation analysis of the 'black storm' on May 5 1993 in Gansu Province
- S.-G Wang
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- W Zhang
Wang, S.-G., Yang, Z.-B., Meng, M.-Z., Zhang, W., 1997. Structure and formation analysis of the 'black storm' on May 5 1993 in Gansu Province. In: Fang, Z.-Y., Zhu, F.-K., Jiang, J.X., Qian, Z.A. (Eds.), Study on the Duststorm in China. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, China, pp. 62–64 (in Chinese).
Spatial-temporal characteristic analysis of dust weather in northwestern China
- Xu
Xu, Q.-Y., Hu, J.-S., 1997. Spatial-temporal characteristic analysis of dust weather in northwestern China. In: Fang, Z.-Y., Zhu, F.-K., Jiang, J.X., Qian, Z.A. (Eds.), Study on the Duststorm in China. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, China, pp. 11–15 (in Chinese).
Discussion on the cause and forecasting method of the ‘black storm’ in northwest China
- Zhang
Zhang, T.-R., 1997. Discussion on the cause and forecasting method of the 'black storm' in northwest China. In: Fang, Z.-Y., Zhu, F.-K., Jiang, J.X., Qian, Z.A. (Eds.), Study on the Duststorm in China. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, China, pp. 70–74 (in Chinese).
The dust fall in Beijing
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Liu, T.-S., Gu, X.-F., An, Z.-S., Fan, Y.X., 1981. The dust fall in Beijing, China, on April 18, 1980. In: Pewe, T.L. (Ed.), Desert Dust. Geological Society of America Special Paper 186, Inc. Boulder, Colorado, USA, pp. 149–157.
Same as in Fig. 8 except for two periods (a)
- Article In
- Fig
ARTICLE IN PRESS Fig. 9. Same as in Fig. 8 except for two periods (a) 1951–70 and (b) 1978–97.
Standard on the Surface Meteorological Observation
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Meteorological Observation. China Meteorological Press,
Beijing, China, 186pp. (in Chinese).
Structure and formation analysis of the ‘black storm’ on May 5 1993 in Gansu Province
- Wang
On an extraordinary heavy sandstorm on April 22nd in Gansu
- Xu