Modelling transportation of desert dust to the South Caucasus using WRF Chem model

Abstract

The problem of the ongoing climate change resulting from natural and growing anthropogenic factors acquires a particular importance for the territory of the Caucasus. Dust aerosol represent one of the main pollutants on the territory of Georgia and impact on regional climate. In this study, the WRF Chemistry model with dust module is used to study transportation of dust to the territory of the South Caucasus from the Sahara and Sahel in Africa, Arabian and ar-Rub’ al-Khali deserts located in the Middle East, Kyzylkum, Karakum in the Central Asia. The results of calculations have shown the WRF model was able to simulate dust aerosols transportation to the Caucasus reliably in conditions of the complex topography and that dust aerosol is an important factor in the climate system of the South Caucasus.

Aeolian Dust Inputs in the Mediterranean and Black Sea Marine System

“…Roberts et al, 2008;Israelevich et al, 2012;Bout-Roumazeilles et al, 2013), significant amounts of dust can be transported from the Sahara desert by the aforementioned southerly winds. Moreover, the transportation of dust to the eastern part of the Black Sea is associated with easterly /southeasterly winds related to the lowand mid-tropospheric flows from the Caspian -Central Asia regions in the east and warm advection from the Middle East in the south (Davitashvili, 2019). In general, the dust transport occurs in the form of "pulses", and the annual dust flux can be controlled by a few episodes, with several researchers (e.g.…”

Using modern technology to protect vineyards from hail amid climate change

“…According to statistics of the National Environmental Agency (NEA) of Georgia, the frequency of natural disasters in recent decades has increased significantly, namely heavy rains increased with dramatic consequences, which undoubtedly is associated with climate change [3]. Heavy rains, hail, floods and drought are the main climatological hazards for the country [5][6][7]. It is reported that floods kills more people, but droughts affect far more number of people and causes more economic damage in Georgia.…”

“…For example, a severe drought in 2000 affected about 700,000 people and caused damage of 5.6% of GDP due to its impact on agriculture and hydropower production [8]. The same applies to natural disasters such as landslides, avalanches and tornadoes indicating climate change [3,6,7]. During the last four decades the number of natural hazards in comparison to 60th years of the last century has increased about three times and as a consequence economic expenses have increased eight times [2,9].…”

“…The analysis showed that the frequency of recurrence of hazard floods for the period of 1961-2000 compared to the period of 1921-1960 increased by 150% in Eastern Georgia [6,8,9]. Among them, extremely heavy rainfall with hail increased by 12%, and there are no reliable methods for prediction these dangerous natural phenomenas even for short periods of time [3,7]. Especially over the past two decades, the number of showers with hail (as a result of floods and landslides) has increased in Eastern Georgia [5,10].…”

“…Statistical analysis of historical data on precipitation and aerosols showed that aerosols can affect deeper clouds of precipitation in the form of sediment suppression [16]. In particular, the suppression effect is stronger in the mountains than over the plains [5], and the influence of anthropogenic aerosols on convective precipitation may play an important role in summer over Kakheti as well [6,7].…”