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>

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 New inventory of dust sources in Central Asia derived from the daily MODIS imagery

2019 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 01001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamad Nobakht ◽  
Maria Shahgedanova ◽  
Kevin White
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Salt Lake ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Western China ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Dust Emissions ◽  
Lop Nur ◽  
Modis Imagery ◽  
Ustyurt Plateau

This paper presents the first inventory of dust emission sources in Central Asia and western China (35-50°N, 50-100°E) derived from the twice daily MODIS imagery from 2003-2012. The high-resolution (1 km) dust enhancement product was generated and used to produce maps of dust point sources and gridded data sets of dust emission frequencies. The most active dust emissions were observed in the eastern part of the Tarim basin (Lop Nur salt lake) followed by the Aralkum. A high frequency of dust emissions was recorded in the regions which were not reported in literature to date: the upper Amudarya region in northern Afghanistan and the Pre-Aral region (from the Ustyurt Plateau to the Betpak Dala desert). Dust emissions were associated mainly with the fluvial features (dry river beds and lakes), agricultural activities and fire damage to vegetation. In the eastern and northern parts of the study region and in the Aralkum, dust emissions peaked in spring while in the western and southern parts, they peaked in summer. The Aralkum exhibited a consistent growth in the frequency and intensity of dust emissions and similar but weaker trends were observed in the Karakum and Kyzylkum.

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.

scholarly journals Quantification of iron-rich volcanogenic dust emissions and deposition over the ocean from Icelandic dust sources

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (23) ◽  
pp. 6623-6632 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Arnalds ◽  
H. Olafsson ◽  
P. Dagsson-Waldhauserova
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Dust Event ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
Dust Emissions ◽  
Dust Sources ◽  
Basaltic Composition ◽  
Limiting Nutrient ◽  
Dust Events

Abstract. Iceland has extremely active dust sources that result in large-scale emissions and deposition on land and at sea. The dust has a volcanogenic origin of basaltic composition with about 10% Fe content. We used two independent methods to quantify dust emission from Iceland and dust deposition at sea. Firstly, the aerial extent (map) of deposition on land was extended to ocean areas around Iceland. Secondly, surveys of the number of dust events over the past decades and calculations of emissions and sea deposition for the dust storms were made. The results show that total emissions range from 30.5 (dust-event-based calculation) to 40.1 million t yr−1 (map calculation), which places Iceland among the most active dust sources on Earth. Ocean deposition ranges between 5.5 (dust event calculations) and 13.8 million tons (map calculation). Calculated iron deposition from Icelandic dust ranges between 0.567 and 1.4 million tons, which are distributed over wide areas (>370 000 km2) and consist of fine reactive volcanic materials. The paper provides the first quantitative estimate of total dust emissions and oceanic deposition from Iceland. Iron is a limiting nutrient for primary production in the oceans around Iceland, and the dust is likely to affect Fe levels in Icelandic ocean waters.

scholarly journals Migration Crisis on the Russian-Chinese Border in the Early 1917-1920s: Regional Aspect of the Global Migration Processes of the XX Century

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-112
Author(s):  
Elena N. Nazemtseva
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Far East ◽  
Western China ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Border Area ◽  
The Far East ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
The Russian Empire

The publication analyzes the reasons and particular qualities of the migration crisis on the Russian-Chinese border in 1917–1922. This crisis was caused by the revolution and the Civil War in Russia. A huge mass of former subjects of the Russian Empire, who disagreed with the new system, were forced to leave their homeland and in the early 1920s formed one of the largest emigrant diasporas in the world in China. The bulk of the White Army’s remnants the civilian population crossed the Russian-Chinese border in the Far East, forming Russian refugee camps in the Chinese border area. A significant number of Russians crossed the border in western China, in the region of Xinjiang province, where several refugee camps also emerged. The composition of Russian refugees has raised serious concerns in both the central and border authorities of China: the bulk of the refugees were well-armed experienced military men who had gone through not only the Russian Civil War, but also the First World War and refused to surrender their weapons, the Cossacks and their chieftains, peasants and merchants from the border regions who did not want to obey anyone, who needed help. A small part of the Russians who left for China were nobles and intellectuals, who settled mainly in Harbin and Shanghai. The peculiarity of the migration situation in the Far East, as well as on the Russian-Chinese border in Central Asia, was not only in the huge number of Russians who arrived in China, but also in the fact that a severe internal political crisis had been developing in China itself for several years. The Chinese authorities were unable to control the situation in the country, and Russian refugees aggravated the situation. In addition, the Chinese authorities did not want to aggravate relations with Soviet Russia, which repeatedly threatened to send troops to eliminate the remnants of the White Army, which had settled in the Chinese border area. This could seriously aggravate the political situation in the Far East and Central Asia. Therefore, the Chinese authorities actively took measures to regulate the flow of Russian refugees and prevent a possible crisis: they blocked the border with Russia in some areas, expelled refugees back, did not issue permits to cross the border, etc.

scholarly journals Vesoul 2012

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gönül Dönmez-Colin
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Far East ◽  
Real Life ◽  
The Other ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
China And India ◽  
The Far East ◽  
The Family ◽  
International Festival

18th INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF THE CINEMAS OF ASIA (FICA) - VESOUL The only Asian film festival in France that stretches the boundaries from the Middle East to the Far East and from Central Asia to China and India, FICA-Vesoul (14-21 February 2012), opened the curtain this year with the most recent film of renowned Japanese filmmaker, Koreeda Hirokazu, Kiseki (I Wish, 2011) about two brothers separated after the divorce of their parents- one living with his unemployed mother and the other, with his bohemian musician father. Played with charm by two real life brothers, who are often more sensible than the adults around them, the film tenderly reflected the emotions of children, who are happiest when the family is together. The festival honoured KoreEda with the Golden Cycle, screening all his films including his documentaries such as Kare no ina hachigatsu ga (August Without Him, 1994) about the first...

Temporal variation of dust emissions in dust sources over Central Asia in recent decades and the climate linkages

2020 ◽  
Vol 222 ◽  
pp. 117176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lamei Shi ◽  
Jiahua Zhang ◽  
Fengmei Yao ◽  
Da Zhang ◽  
Huadong Guo
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variation ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Dust Emissions ◽  
Dust Sources

scholarly journals Developmental Historiography of the Ancient Silk Road

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
Sheriff G.I. ◽  
Akeje K.
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Far East ◽  
Precious Metals ◽  
Silk Road ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Trade Routes ◽  
Traded Goods ◽  
Ancient Silk Road ◽  
The Silk Road

This study seeks to explain the history of the ancient Silk Road and also explain its strategic importance as a network of trade routes connecting China and the Far East with the Middle East and Europe. Using the library's documented instrument and historical descriptive methodology, findings show that the Silk Road is historically connected with the Eastern and Western civilizations and culture. Merchants on the Silk Road transported goods and traded at bazaars along the way. They traded goods such as silk, spices, tea, ivory, cotton, wool, precious metals, and ideas. The Silk Road also enabled cultural transfers, for instance when Genghis Khan and the Mongols invaded China, they came along with their own culture, e.g., buttons on clothes were introduced in China as a cultural import from Central Asia especially under the rule of Kublai Khan during the Yuan Dynasty. The paper concludes that the Silk Road rose to prominence during the Han and Tang dynasties. The long-distance trade at this time did not just transport goods and luxuries, it was also a lifeline of ideas and innovations from Persia, India and countries of the Middle East and Central Asia.

scholarly journals Quantification of iron-rich volcanogenic dust emissions and deposition over ocean from Icelandic dust sources

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 5941-5967 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Arnalds ◽  
H. Olafsson ◽  
P. Dagsson-Waldhauserova
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Dust Storms ◽  
Dust Deposition ◽  
Dust Emissions ◽  
Dust Sources ◽  
Basaltic Composition ◽  
Limiting Nutrient ◽  
Dust Events ◽  
Event Based

Abstract. Iceland has extremely active dust sources that result in large scale emissions and deposition on land and sea. The dust has volcanogenic origin of basaltic composition with about 10 % Fe content. We used two independent methods to quantify dust emission from Iceland and dust deposition on sea. Firstly, aerial extent (map) of deposition on land was extended to ocean areas around Iceland. Secondly, survey of number of dust events over the past decades and calculations of emissions and sea deposition for the dust storms were made. The results show total emissions range from 30.5 (dust event based calculation) to 40.1 million tons (map calculation), which places Iceland among the most active dust sources on Earth. Ocean deposition ranges between 5.5 (dust events calculations) and 13.8 million tons (map calculation). Calculated iron deposition from Icelandic dust ranges between 0.56 to 1.4 million tons, which are distributed over wide areas (> 370 000 km2) and consist of fine reactive volcanic materials. The paper provides the first quantitative estimate of total dust emissions and oceanic deposition from Iceland. Iron is a limiting nutrient for primary production in the oceans around Iceland and the dust is likely to affect Fe levels in Icelandic ocean waters.

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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