Dust Storms in Central Asia and Kazakhstan: Regional Division, Frequency and Seasonal Distribution

2017 ◽  
pp. 87-109
Author(s):  
Gulnura Issanova ◽  
Jilili Abuduwaili
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Seasonal Distribution ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Regional Division ◽  
Division Frequency

scholarly journals Lidar Measurements of the Vertical Distribution of Aerosol Optical and Physical Properties over Central Asia

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris B. Chen ◽  
Leonid G. Sverdlik ◽  
Sanjar A. Imashev ◽  
Paul A. Solomon ◽  
Jeffrey Lantz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
Angstrom Exponent ◽  
Regional Sources ◽  
Lidar Measurements ◽  
Ångström Exponent ◽  
Ångstrom Exponent

The vertical structure of aerosol optical and physical properties was measured by Lidar in Eastern Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, from June 2008 to May 2009. Lidar measurements were supplemented with surface-based measurements of PM2.5 and PM10 mass and chemical composition in both size fractions. Dust transported into the region is common, being detected 33% of the time. The maximum frequency occurred in the spring of 2009. Dust transported to Central Asia comes from regional sources, for example, Taklimakan desert and Aral Sea basin, and from long-range transport, for example, deserts of Arabia, Northeast Africa, Iran, and Pakistan. Regional sources are characterized by pollution transport with maximum values of coarse particles within the planetary boundary layer, aerosol optical thickness, extinction coefficient, integral coefficient of aerosol backscatter, and minimum values of the Ångström exponent. Pollution associated with air masses transported over long distances has different characteristics during autumn, winter, and spring. During winter, dust emissions were low resulting in high values of the Ångström exponent (about 0.51) and the fine particle mass fraction (64%). Dust storms were more frequent during spring with an increase in coarse dust particles in comparison to winter. The aerosol vertical profiles can be used to lower uncertainty in estimating radiative forcing.

Investigating the consequences of the desiccation of lakes in the Middle East and Central Asia for regional dust activity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Banks ◽  
Bernd Heinold ◽  
Kerstin Schepanski
Keyword(s):  
Surface Water ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Far East ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Western China ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Dust Emissions ◽  
Dust Sources

<p>Over the past several decades, new sources of dust aerosol have appeared in the Middle East and Central Asia due to the desiccation of lakes in the region. It is known that recently dry lakebeds can be efficient dust sources, due to the availability of readily erodible alluvial sediments. Such lake source regions include: Lake Urmia in western Iran; the Sistan Basin in the border area between Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan; and most notably, the Aral Sea on the border between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. A particularly large area (over 50,000 km<sup>2</sup>) of the former lakebed of the Aral Sea has become exposed to aeolian wind erosion, leaving Central Asia susceptible to dust storms originating from the young ‘Aral Kum’ (Aral Desert).</p><p>In this work we update the dust transport model COSMO-MUSCAT in order to simulate dust emissions from these relatively new dust sources. Making use of the Global Surface Water dataset (produced by the Copernicus Programme) in order to define the surface water coverage, we make estimates of dust emissions under three scenarios: 1) the ‘Past’, representative of water coverage in the 1980s; 2) the ‘Present’, representative of water coverage in the 2010s; and 3) the ‘Dry’ scenario, a worst-case future scenario in which currently drying lake regions are assumed to dry out completely under the pressure of climate change and water overuse. These scenarios are applied to the ‘Dustbelt’ modelling domain, covering North Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula, and Central Asia as far east as western China.</p>

scholarly journals STUDY OF ATMOSPHERIC DROUGHT IN CENTRAL ASIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 110-120
Author(s):  
Laura S. Ryssaliyeva ◽  
◽  
Vitaly G. Salnikov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Natural Phenomenon ◽  
Drought Indices ◽  
Strong Winds ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Large Scale Atmospheric Circulation

Agrometeorological events that are dangerous for crops include droughts, dry winds, frosts, heavy rains, hail, strong winds, and dust storms. The most common and dangerous are droughts and dry winds.Drought is a natural phenomenon that is one of the most complex and least studied natural hazards, capable of causing irreparable damage to ecosystems with a wide impact on water resources, agricultural production, ecosystem functions, the environment, local and global economies. The article is a review that presents some of the most frequently and widely used drought indices and indicators in the last two decades, summarizes the results of atmospheric drought research using these indices, demonstrates the relationship between the occurrence of atmospheric drought in various regions of Central Asia and the characteristics of its severity depending on the types of large-scale atmospheric circulation. We compared meteorological and remote sensing indices and identified favorable indices for parameterization and monitoring of droughts. The papers presented in the review provide valuable scientific information and possible directions for further research on drought in Central Asia.

scholarly journals Lakes in Arid Land and Saline Dust Storms

2019 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 01007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongxiao Ge ◽  
Jilili Abuduwaili ◽  
Long Ma
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Atmospheric Chemistry ◽  
Salt Content ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Lake Basin ◽  
Dominant Type ◽  
Diffusion Characteristics ◽  
High Salt Content ◽  
And Control ◽  
And Diffusion

Saline dust storms are typical mainly for the arid and semiarid Central Asia induced by environmental change of tail-end lake basin. Although not the dominant type of global dust, saline dusts from playas may be important with respect to atmospheric chemistry, windborne nutrients and human health because of their high salt content. Saline dust storms in Central Asia occur frequently; this is not only a local issue, but also a regional ecological disaster. A complete understanding of the mechanism and diffusion characteristics are urgently required, and control measurements are urgently needed to lessen the occurrence of saline dust storms, which has been an ignored and serious environmental issue in the context of climate change in arid and semi-arid regions.

The contribution of the former Aral Sea and other desiccating lakes to the prevalence of dust storms in Central Asia and the Middle East

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Banks ◽  
Bernd Heinold ◽  
Kerstin Schepanski
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Dust Emissions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
Dust Sources

<p>The 'Aralkum' desert (the former Aral Sea) in Central Asia is a comparatively new desert that has formed over the past several decades due to water mismanagement associated with the inflowing Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and is now a known source of dust aerosol in the region. It is known that recently dry lakebeds can be efficient dust sources, due to the availability of readily erodible alluvial sediments. As a dry lakebed with a new area of over 60,000 km<sup>2</sup> exposed to aeolian wind erosion the Aralkum has become a significant driver of dust storms in the region. Other such lakebed dust sources in the Central Asian region include the Sistan Basin on the border between Afghanistan and Iran, and Lake Urmia in Iran. However due to a paucity of measurement sites it is difficult to quantify the behaviour and consequences of dust activity in the region.</p><p>Using the dust transport model COSMO-MUSCAT we simulate dust emissions over the course of one year from these relatively new dust sources, exploring the resultant dust emission and transport patterns, quantifying the radiative effects of this dust, and assessing the viability of measuring such dust using remote sensing techniques. Making use of the Global Surface Water dataset (produced by the Copernicus Programme) in order to define the surface water coverage in various epochs, we make estimates of dust emissions for the Central Asian and Middle Eastern region under three scenarios: 1) the 'Past', representative of water coverage in the 1980s; 2) the 'Present', representative of water coverage in the 2010s; and 3) the 'Aralkum' scenario, representing only dust emissions from the present-era Aralkum. In the Present scenario we estimate that the Aralkum area (here considered as 43-47°N, 58-62°E) emitted 28 Tg of dust over the course of a year from March 2015 to March 2016, out of 272 Tg produced by the wider Middle Eastern and Central Asian region. However ~66% of these Aralkum emissions occurred when the cloud cover was > 95%, raising questions as to the extent to which dust storm activity from the Aralkum is measurable. Modelling is therefore a particularly useful tool, complementary to remote sensing measurements, to understand dust activity in a region characterised by dramatic human-induced changes to the natural environment.</p>

scholarly journals Assessment of the dust sources over Central and Southwest Asia with emphasis on the Sistan dust storms

2019 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 01002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Rashki ◽  
Dimitris Kaskaoutis
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Deep Blue ◽  
Ephemeral Lakes ◽  
Modis Aod ◽  
Meteorological Observations ◽  
Dust Events ◽  
Arid Desert

Central and Southwest (SW) Asia are usually suffered by dust events of various intensity due to extended arid/desert regions and, therefore, the statistical evaluation of the dust activity and sources over the region has received an increasing interest. This study analyses the characteristics of the dust events and their sources over the Central and Southwest Asia from 2002 to 2018, based on meteorological observations at stations in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, combined with Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) at 10 km × 10 km derived from MODIS and a new 1-km high resolution algorithm. The dust events are classified based on visibility recordings and WMO codes, as dusty days (vis<10 km) and dust storms for visibility below 1 km. In general, the highest frequency of the dust storms is observed in the Sistan Basin, Iran and around the deserts of southern Afghanistan, while the dust-plume pathways have a distinct north-to-south pattern, from Central Asia to SW Asia and the Arabian Sea. Trend analysis in the Deep Blue MODIS AOD retrievals shows positive AOD trends over large parts of the Central Asia and negative over the Southwest Asia and Sistan. High resolution (1-km) AODs indicated that some parts of the Hamoun ephemeral lakes and the eastern part of the Sistan basin are the most active hotspot areas for dust emissions.

Severe dust storms in Central Asia

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 227-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. S. Orlovsky ◽  
L. Orlovsky ◽  
R. Indoitu
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Dust Storms

scholarly journals Temporal analysis of Sand and Dust Storms (SDS) between the years 2003 and 2017 in the Central Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 02004
Author(s):  
Cihan Dundar ◽  
Ayse Gokcen Isik ◽  
Kahraman Oguz
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Energy Budget ◽  
Fine Particles ◽  
Mineral Dust ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Dust Particles ◽  
East Region

Mineral dust particles play a vital role in climate and the Earth's energy budget and can have impact on weather systems. It has both direct (dust-radiation effect) and indirect (dust-microphysical effect) impacts on the energy budget effect. The most important sources of dust aerosols are located in the Northern Hemisphere, primarily over the Sahara in North Africa, the Middle East, Central and South Asia respectively and Central Asia is under the influence of mineral dust. The objective of this study to carry out intensity and frequency analysis of sand and dust storm in Central Asia for the period 2003-2017 and compare the results with global values as well as the values of the Middle East region. The AOD and AE parameters can be used to differentiate between coarse and fine particles of aerosols. To investigate average annual and monthly AOD (aerosol optical depth) and AE (angstrom exponent) for the period 2003-2017, AOD and AE data of MODIS Aqua is obtained from Giovanni website. In summary, for the last years (2013-2017), annual mean AOD is comparably lower than the other periods while the values are the highest between 2008 and 2012 for both Central Asia and Middle East. The results point out that there is no increasing trend in AOD values for the recent years and annual Central Asia AOD values show a similar trend with the Middle East AOD values.

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