History and Applications of Dust Devil Studies

Lorenz, R. D.; Balme, M. R.; Gu, Zhaolin; Kahanpää, Henrik; Klose, Martina; Kurgansky, M. V.; Patel, Manish R.; Reiss, D.; Rossi, A. P.; Spiga, Aymeric; Takemi, Tetsuya; Wei, Wei

doi:10.1007/s11214-016-0239-2

Cited by 43 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 102 publications

(87 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…When an LSS occurs, many "waves" appear at the front end, and these "waves" would be originated from numerous subvortices. The LSS vortices in a different intensity are consistent with reported observations [5,55,56].…”

Section: Fully Developed Stagesupporting

confidence: 92%

“…A black storm is a frequent occurrence in several deserts in northwestern China, such as Taklimakan Desert, Badain Jaran Desert and Tengger Desert [2,3]. Haboobs often occur in or near the desert regions of the western United States and Africa [4][5][6]. In fact, a Sudan haboob or American haboob appears mostly in the rainy season, followed by thunderstorms, while local strong sandstorms in China, with no seasonality, are rarely followed by precipitation, which is related to precipitation, which is related to the relative humidity of the squall line formed by the intrusion of cold air [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

RANS Simulation of Local Strong Sandstorms Induced by a Cold Pool with Vorticity

Shui

et al. 2020

Atmosphere

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Local strong sandstorms (LSSs) in northwestern China often occur suddenly in tens of minutes during the late afternoon and by dusk. Observations and theoretical studies have shown the trigger role of cold-air pools over desert areas for the occurrence of LSS. In this study, a numerical heat convection model was established to simulate an LSS that was induced by a single cold pool with vertical helicity to study the evolution process. The Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) method was used for the numerical calculation to illustrate different stages of the evolution process of an LSS. Results show that after the intrusion of a cold pool into the upper region of the surface convective mixing layer, descending of the cold air would lead to the downward transport of vorticity, enabling thermal convection cells in the mixing layer to become swirling convection cells. After LSS is fully developed, there occurs many subvortices (secondary vortices) in the convection field. The velocity at different altitudes over selected positions in the calculation domain is consistent with the "lobe" shape of an LSS. The secondary vortices cause quick and huge energy dissipation and the decay of the LSS. These results are consistent with observations and indicate the crucial effect of convection cells structure in the mixing layer and the cold pool in the upper layer on the formation of LSS.

show abstract

Section: Fully Developed Stagesupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RANS Simulation of Local Strong Sandstorms Induced by a Cold Pool with Vorticity

Shui

et al. 2020

Atmosphere

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In English-speaking countries they are often called DDs. This nomenclature is well-established in the literature for describing rotating columns of rising dust, most usually found in arid desert regions of the Earth [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. In fact, DDs are the most common vortex structures in the Earth's atmosphere.…”

Section: Dust Devils-columns Of Rising Dustmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The history of regular observations of DDs spans more than 150 years, starting with general descriptions [1,2,4,5] and then later more detailed observations and measurements were developed (see e.g., [6,[10][11][12][13][14][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]). Let us summarize the currently available data on DDs.…”

Section: Dust Devils: Typical Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dust Devils: Structural Features, Dynamics and Climate Impact

Onishchenko

Fedun

Horton

et al. 2019

Climate

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

According to modern concepts, the main natural sources of dust in the atmosphere are dust storms and associated dust devils—rotating columns of rising dust. The impact of dust and aerosols on climate change in the past, present and future is one of the poorly understood and, at the same time, one of the fundamental elements needed for weather and climate forecasting. The purpose of this review is to describe and summarise the results of the study of dust devils in the Earth’s atmosphere. Special attention is given to the description of the 3D structures, the external flows and atmospheric gradients of temperature that lead to the generation and maintenance of the dust devils.

show abstract

“…Well-defined vortexes that range from 1 to 1000 m tall (Lorenz et al, 2016), also known as dust devils (DDs), are the most common small-scale (< 50 m diameter at ground level) dust transmitting system in the atmosphere (Lorenz et al, 2016;Kanak, 2005;Kanak et al, 2000;Leovy, 2003). It is a special case of columnar, ground-based convective vortex occurring in the lower atmospheric boundary layer (Gu et al, 2008;Koch and Renno, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dust opacities inside the dust devil column in the Taklimakan Desert

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. The distribution of dust aerosols in dust devils (DDs) is quantitatively characterized here based on a field observation. We applied the digital optical method (DOM) with digital still cameras to quantify the opacity of the DDs in the Taklimakan Desert, China. This study presents the following unique and important results: (1) the distinct horizontal distributions of opacity proved the existence of DDs' eye, similarly to the eye of tropical cyclone; (2) the opacity of the DDs decreases with increasing height; however, the dust aerosols do appear to settle out, and the relatively calm eye leads to a minimum in dust opacity at the eye; (3) the horizontal distribution of opacity is quasi-symmetric with a bimodal across the eye of the DDs, which could be resulted from the ambient air conditions; and (4) a new method is developed for characterizing the three-dimensional structure of DDs based on the observed two-dimensional opacity provided by DOM. This study not only proposes a highly reliable, low-cost and efficient methodology to capture the optical structure of DDs, but it could also provide the information on estimation of dust emissions driven by DDs.

show abstract

History and Applications of Dust Devil Studies

Cited by 43 publications

References 102 publications

RANS Simulation of Local Strong Sandstorms Induced by a Cold Pool with Vorticity

RANS Simulation of Local Strong Sandstorms Induced by a Cold Pool with Vorticity

Dust Devils: Structural Features, Dynamics and Climate Impact

Dust opacities inside the dust devil column in the Taklimakan Desert

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About