Mapping the Global Dust Storm Records: Review of Dust Data Sources in Supporting Modeling/Climate Study

Abstract

Dust storms, as extreme environmental events, are one of the Earth's major natural hazards. Their impact on socio-economics can range from local urban to (trans-) continental and from minutes to decades, such as the dust bowl of the 1930s in the United States. Research on dust storms can be traced back for several decades as a meteorological extension. Latest technology developments have enabled comprehensive studies on dust storms, including sampling improvement, analytic studies, and numerical modeling. However, inhomogeneity of the data has hampered and sometimes even misguided research on comprehensive understanding of dust storms and exploring their feedbacks with climate. This review will focus on currently available observations of dust activities, which include routine meteorological records, in situ air chemistry observations, and satellite remote sensing. The aim is to show data sources and the status of their usage in a common framework for global dust regions. Emphasis is placed on data continuity and the spatial and temporal coverage of dust storms, since it is anticipated that this brief summary of dust data will benefit modeling and climate studies. Therefore, it must be noted that field campaign data are outside of the scope of the current review, although they play an important role in research and understanding.

Variation in global chemical composition of PM<sub>2.5</sub>: emerging results from SPARTAN

“…RH indicates relative humidity. natural desert dusts by Wang (2015), we generalize that natural CM is approximately 10 × [Al + Fe + Mg]. Aluminum, iron, and magnesium are chosen due to their collectively consistent composition in natural mineral dust and frequency above detection limit (> 95 %).…”

“…Each acid-digested element was quantified by five dilutions of a 25-element standard (25-500 ppb), plus three internal calibration metals (Sc, In, Tb). The elemental comparison of crustal materials varies regionally (Wang, 2015), which contributes to CM uncertainty of ±30 % based on Al, Fe, and Mg composition. Recovery of individual water-soluble elements was determined through five-point anion and cation standards curves each with r 2 > 98 % and < 10 % mass uncertainty for most elements at environmentally relevant concentrations, including sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium.…”

An assessment of the spatial extent of polar dust using satellite thermal data

“…Mineral dust produces a negative BTD 11−12 value because of the emissive properties of common silicate minerals present in desert sand 51 . Saharan and East Asian dust consist of 18.9% and 23.2% silicon respectively, while the primary Antarctic contributor of dust in Patagonia is 28.8% silicon with Australian dust at 18.5% silicon 52 . Since Patagonian and Australian dust affect different geographical areas of Antarctica, a detailed mapping of BTD [11][12] values could help evaluate the relative importance of silicate concentration on BTD 11-12 signatures.…”

Key factors affecting single scattering albedo calculation: Implications for aerosol climate forcing

“…Since the observations were available for multiple years (AMS: 2000~ 2008, SPARTAN: 2013~ 2015, we focused our evaluation on the observed monthly variation using the monthly mean 20 value of the simulation averaged for the years 2008 -2010. Year to year variability was not considered in this study similar to previous studies (Jo et al, 2013;Spracklen et al, 2011;Yu, 2011).…”