East Asian dust storm in May 2017: observations, modelling and its influence on Asia-Pacific region

Authors: ZHANG, XIAO-XIAO - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; Sharratt, Brenton; LIU, LIAN-YOU - Beijing Normal University; WANG, ZI-FA - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; PAN, XIAO-LE - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; LEI, JIA-QIANG - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; WU, SHI-XIN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; HUANG, SHUANG-YAN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; GUO, YU-HONG - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; LI, JIE - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; TANG, XIAO - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; YANG, TING - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; TIAN, YU - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; CHEN, XUE-SHUN - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; HAO, JIAN-QI - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; ZHENG, HAI-TAO - Chinese Academy Of Sciences; YANG, YAN-YAN - Beijing Normal University; LYU, YAN-LI - Beijing Normal University

Submitted to: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/30/2018
Publication Date: 6/14/2018
Citation: Zhang, X., Sharratt, B.S., Liu, L., Wang, Z., Pan, X., Lei, J., Wu, S., Huang, S., Guo, Y., Li, J., Tang, X., Yang, T., Tian, Y., Chen, X., Hao, J., Zheng, H., Yang, Y., Lyu, Y. 2018. East Asian dust storm in May 2017: observations, modelling and its influence on Asia-Pacific region. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 18:8353–8371. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8353-2018.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8353-2018

Interpretive Summary: Dust storms can impact human health, transportation, and climate. Dust storms in East Asia are common, but their development and impact across land and ocean surfaces are not well understood. Dust emission and atmospheric transport models along with Lidar and satellite data indicated a severe dust storm originated over Mongolia on May 2, 2017. This dust storm degraded air quality over China, Japan, and Korea while evidence suggested some deposition of the dust occurred over the western US. About 65% of the airborne dust was redeposited over land, 15% of the dust was deposited over the Pacific Ocean, and 20% of the dust remained in suspension which could impact the global climate. Scientists, land managers, and government organizations responsible for managing public lands must be diligent in adopting wind erosion control practices to minimize the occurrence of large-scale dust storms that can otherwise affect humans and land and marine ecosystems.

Technical Abstract: A severe dust storm event originated from the Gobi Desert in Central and East Asia during 2-7 May, 2017. Based on moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite products, hourly environmental monitoring measurements from 367 Chinese cities and more than 2000 East Asian meteorological observation stations, and numerical simulations, we analysed the spatial and temporal characteristics of this dust event as well as its associated impact on the Asia-Pacific region. The maximum observed hourly PM10 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 10 µm) concentration was above 1000 µg m-3 in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Baoding, and Langfang and above 2000 µg m-3 in Erdos, Hohhot, Baotou, and Alxa in northern China. This dust event affected over 8.35 million km2, or 87% of mainland China, and significantly deteriorated air quality in 316 cities of the 367 cities examined across China. The maximum surface wind speed during the dust storm was 23-24 m s-1 in the Mongolian Gobi Desert and 20-22 m s-1 in central Inner Mongolia, indicating the potential source regions of this dust event. Lidar-derived vertical dust profiles in Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo indicated dust aerosols were uplifted to an altitude of 1.5-3.5 km whereas simulations by the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model indicated 20.4 Tg and 5.3 Tg of aeolian dust being deposited respectively across continental Asia and the North Pacific Ocean. According to forward trajectory analysis by the FLEXible PARTicle dispersion (FLEXPART) model, the East Asian dust plume moved across the North Pacific within a week. Dust concentrations decreased from East Asian continent across the Pacific Ocean from a magnitude of 103 to 10-5 µg m-3, while dust deposition intensity ranged from 104 to 10-1 mg m-2. This dust event was unusual due to its impact on continental China, Korea, Japan and North Pacific Ocean. Asian dust storms such as observed in early May 2017 may lead to wider climate forcing on a global scale.