High-frequency observation during sand and dust storms at the Qingtu Lake Observatory

Abstract

Abstract. Partially due to global climate change, sand and dust storms (SDSs) have occurred more and more frequently, yet a detailed measurement of SDS events at different heights is still lacking. Here we provide a high-frequency observation from the Qingtu Lake Observation Array (QLOA), China. The wind and dust information were measured simultaneously at different wall-normal heights during the SDS process. The datasets span the period from 17 March to 9 June 2016. The wind speed and direction are recorded by a sonic anemometer with a sampling frequency of 50 Hz, while particulate matter with a diameter of 10 µm or less (PM10) is sampled simultaneously by a dust monitor with a sampling frequency of 1 Hz. The wall-normal array had 11 sonic anemometers and monitors spaced logarithmically from z=0.9 to 30 m, where the spacing is about 2 m between the sonic anemometer and dust monitor at the same height. Based on its nonstationary feature, an SDS event can be divided into three stages, i.e., ascending, stabilizing and descending stages, in which the dynamic mechanism of the wind and dust fields might be different. This is preliminarily characterized by the classical Fourier power analysis. Temporal evolution of the scaling exponent from Fourier power analysis suggests a value slightly below the classical Kolmogorov value of -5/3 for the three-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. During the stabilizing stage, the collected PM10 shows a very intermittent pattern, which can be further linked with the burst events in the turbulent atmospheric boundary layer. This dataset is valuable for a better understanding of SDS dynamics and is publicly available in a Zenodo repository at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5034196 (Li et al., 2021a).

Atmospheric Turbulent Characteristics Under Summer Shamal in Coastal Qatar

“…This agrees with the results of Li et al. (2021) reporting a power coefficient β = −1.53 in Minqin, China. They explained the slightly lower decay rate as due to the lower height of the measurement system to the ground, z = 3.49 m. The classic Kolmogorov value of β = −5/3 assumes a homogeneous and isotropic turbulence; however, the isotropic condition is rare in the real atmosphere near ground.…”