Onset of frequent dust storms in northern China at ~AD 1100

Desertification is a form of land degradation principally in semi-arid and arid areas influenced by climatic and human factors. As a country plagued by extensive sandy desertification and frequent sandstorms and dust storms, China has been trying to find ways to achieve the sustainable management of desertified lands. This paper reviewed the impact of climate change and anthropogenic activities on desertified areas, and the effort, outcome, and lessons learned from desertification control in China. Although drying and warming trends and growing population pressures exist in those areas, the expanding trend of desertified land achieved an overall reversal. In the past six decades, many efforts, including government policies, forestry, and desertification control programs, combined with eco-industrialization development, have been integrated to control the desertification in northern China. Positive human intervention including afforestation, and the rehabilitation of mobile sandy land, and water conservation have facilitated the return of arid and semi-arid ecosystems to a more balanced state. China’s practices in desertification control could provide valuable knowledge for sustainable desertified land management on a global scale.

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Dust Storms in Northern China: Long-Term Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Climate Controls

Journal of Climate ◽

10.1175/jcli-d-16-0795.1 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (17) ◽

pp. 6683-6700 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

Qingyu Guan ◽

Xiazhong Sun ◽

Jing Yang ◽

Baotian Pan ◽

Shilei Zhao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wind Speed ◽

Dust Storm ◽

Northern China ◽

Dust Storms ◽

Effect Of Temperature ◽

Mean Annual Precipitation ◽

Mean Annual Temperature ◽

Spatiotemporal Characteristics ◽

Dust Generation ◽

The Mean

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. This study of northern China dust provides an understanding of the mechanism of dust generation and transportation. The authors used dust storm and climatological data from 129 sites and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) datasets in northern China to analyze spatiotemporal characteristics and determine the 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−1, the mean annual temperature (MAT) ranges from 5° 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 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, as positive and negative correlations exist simultaneously. Temperatures can affect source material (dust, sand, etc.), cyclone activity, and vegetation growth status, which influence 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.

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Mesoscale characteristics of dust storms and mineral dust aerosol's spectral optical depth over Northern China (Invited Paper)

10.1117/12.619646 ◽

2005 ◽

Author(s):

Daren Lu ◽

Wenxing Zhang ◽

Hongzhou Li

Keyword(s):

Optical Depth ◽

Mineral Dust ◽

Northern China ◽

Dust Storms

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Inverse modeling of the 2021 spring super dust storms in East Asia

10.5194/acp-2021-1062 ◽

2022 ◽

Author(s):

Jianbing Jin ◽

Mijie Pang ◽

Arjo Segers ◽

Wei Han ◽

Li Fang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

East Asia ◽

Northern China ◽

Life Cycles ◽

Dust Storms ◽

Dust Deposition ◽

Concentration Data ◽

Long Distance ◽

The North ◽

Modis Aod ◽

Imperfect Knowledge

Abstract. This spring, super dust storms reappeared in East Asia after being absent for a (two) decade(s). The event caused enormous losses both in Mongolia and in China. Accurate simulation of such super sandstorms is valuable for the quantification of health damages, aviation risks, and profound impacts on the Earth system, but also to reveal the driving climate and the process of desertification. However, accurate simulation of dust life cycles is challenging mainly due to imperfect knowledge of emissions. In this study, the emissions that lead to the 2021 spring dust storms are estimated through assimilation of MODIS AOD and ground-based PM10 concentration data. To be able to use the AOD observations to represent the dust load, an Angstrom-based data screening is designed to select only observations that are dominated by dust. In addition, a non-dust AOD bias correction has been designed to remove the part of the AOD that could be attributed to other aerosols than dust. With this, the dust concentrations during the 2021 spring super storms could be reproduced and validated with concentration observations. The emission inversion results reveal that wind blown dust emissions originated from both China and Mongolia during spring 2021. Specifically, 18.3M and 27.2M ton of particles were released in Chinese desert and Mongolia desert respectively during these severe dust events. By source apportionment it has been estimated that 58 % of the dust deposited in the densely populated Fenwei Plain (FWP) in the northern China originate from transnational transport from Mongolia desert. For the North China Plain (NCP), local Chinese desert play a less significant roles in the dust affection; the long-distance transport from Mongolia contributes for about 69 % to the dust deposition in NCP, even if it locates more than 1000 km away from the nearest Mongolian desert.

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Mineral Dust Cycle

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.46 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Irina Sokolik

Keyword(s):

Atmospheric Aerosols ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Mineral Dust ◽

Global Climate ◽

Dust Emission ◽

Northern China ◽

Dust Storms ◽

Atmospheric Composition ◽

System Response ◽

Beneficial Effects

There is scientific consensus that human activities have been altering the atmospheric composition and are a key driver of global climate and environmental changes since pre-industrial times (IPCC, 2013). It is a pressing priority to understand the Earth system response to atmospheric aerosol input from diverse sources, which so far remain one of the largest uncertainties in climate studies (Boucher et al., 2014; Forster et al., 2007). As the second most abundant component (in terms of mass) of atmospheric aerosols, mineral dust exerts tremendous impacts on Earth’s climate and environment through various interaction and feedback processes. Dust can also have beneficial effects where it deposits: Central and South American rain forests get most of their mineral nutrients from the Sahara; iron-poor ocean regions get iron; and dust in Hawaii increases plantain growth. In northern China as well as the midwestern United States, ancient dust storm deposits known as loess are highly fertile soils, but they are also a significant source of contemporary dust storms when soil-securing vegetation is disturbed. Accurate assessments of dust emission are of great importance to improvements in quantifying the diverse dust impacts.

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Investigation of severe dust storms over the Pan-Eurasian area using multi-satellite observations and ground-based measurements

10.5194/nhess-2018-84 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Lu She ◽

Yong Xue ◽

Jie Guang ◽

Yahui Che ◽

Cheng Fan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Dust Storm ◽

Northern China ◽

Dust Storms ◽

Satellite Observations ◽

Central China ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Gobi Desert ◽

Long Distance ◽

Hysplit Model

Abstract. The deserts in East Asia are one of the most influential mineral dust source regions in the world. Large amounts of dust particles are emitted and transported to distant regions. A super dust storm characterized by long-distance transport occurred over the Pan-Eurasian Experiment (PEEX) area in early May 2017. In this study, multi-satellite/sensor observations and ground-based measurements combined with the HYbrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model were used to analyse the dynamical processes of the origin and transport of the strong dust storm. The optical and microphysical properties of the dust particles were analysed using Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) measurements. From the multi-satellite observations, the dust storms were suggested to have originated from the Gobi Desert on the morning of 3 May 2017, and it transported dust northeastward to the Bering Sea, eastward to the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and southward to southern Central China. The air quality in China drastically deteriorated as a result of this heavy dust storm; the PM10 (particulate matter less than 10 mm in aerodynamic diameter) concentrations measured at some air quality stations located in northern China reached 4000 μg/m3. During the dust event, the maximum AOD values reached 3, 2.3, 2.8, and 0.65 with sharp drops in the extinction Ångström exponent (EAE) to 0.023, 0.068, 0.03, and 0.097 at AOE_Baotou, Beijing, Xuzhou-CUMT, and Ussuriysk, respectively. The dust storm introduced great variations in the aerosol property, causing totally different spectral single-scattering albedo (SSA) and volume size distribution (VSD). The combined observations revealed comprehensive information about the dynamic transport of dust and the dust affected regions, and the effect of dust storms on the aerosol properties.

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