Synthetic monitoring of Asian dust from space, ground and/or simulations

Abstract

It is well known that the heavy soil dust is transported from the China continent to Japan on westerly winds, especially in spring. It is also known that the increasing emissions of anthropogenic aerosols associated with continuing economic growth in Asia has caused serious air pollution over a wide range of East Asia. Accordingly the dust particles involve anthropogenic aerosols as well as soil dust. Thus aerosols in Asia are very complex due to mixing of small anthropogenic particles and large dust particles, which are called Asian dust. The satellite observation is an effective tool for global monitoring of the Asian dust. A new algorithm for detection of Asian dust from space is proposed based on multispectral satellite (Terra/Aqua/MODIS) data. The derived space-based results are validated with ground-based measurements and/or model simulations. The sun/sky photometry has been undertaken at NASA/AERONET stations at Higashi-Osaka in Japan, where the suspended particulate matter (SPM) sampling and NIES/LIDAR network equipment have been simultaneously working. In order to validate the satellite results with these surface-level data, an aerosol transportation model is available. In other words, the space-based and/or surface-based measurements are examined with the model simulations, and vice-versa.