Sand-dust storms in China: temporal-spatial distribution and tracks of source lands

Sand-dust storm is a special natural disaster that frequently occurs in deserts and their surrounding areas. With the data published onSurface Meteorological Monthly Bulletin andSurface Chart during 1971–1996, the temporal-spatial distribution and annual variation of sand-dust storms are analyzed on the basis of the case study of atmospheric processes. Furthermore, the tracks and source areas of sand-dust storms are determined with the aid of GIS. The results show that except some parts of Qinghai Province and Inner Mongolia as well as Beijing, sand-dust storms decrease apparently in time and space in recent decades in China. Sand-dust storms occur most frequently in spring, especially in April. According to their source areas, sand-dust storms are classified into two types, i.e., the inner-source and outer-source sand-dust storms. Most of the outer-source sand-dust storms move along the north and west tracks. The north-track outer-source sand-dust storms always intrude into China across the Sino-Mongolian border from Hami, a city in the eastern part ofXinjiang, to Xilin Gol, a league in Inner Mongolia, while the west-track ones intrude into China from both southern and northern Xinjiang. The source lands of inner-source sand-dust storms concentrate in the Taklimakan Desert and its surrounding areas in southern Xinjiang, southern part of the Junggar Basin in north of Xinjiang, the Hexi Corridor in western Gansu Province, the dry deserts of Inner Mongolia and the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai.

Identification of sand and dust storm source areas in Iran

Sand and dust storms （SDS） are common phenomena in arid and semi-arid areas. In recent years, SDS frequencies and intensities have increased significantly in Iran. A research on SDS sources is important for understanding the mechanisms of dust generation and assessing its socio-economic and environmental impacts. In this paper, we developed a new approach to identify SDS source areas in Iran using a combination of nine related datasets, namely drought events, temperature, precipitation, location of sandy soils, SDS frequency, hu- man-induced soil degradation （HISD）, human influence index （HII）, rain use efficiency （RUE） and net primary pro- ductivity （NPP） loss. To identify SDS source areas, we firstly normalized these datasets under uniform criteria in- cluding layer reprojection using Lambert conformal conic projection, data conversion from shapefile to raster, Min-Max Normalization with data range from 0 to 1, and data interpolation by Kriging and images resampling （resolution of 1 km）. After that, a score map for the possibility of SDS sources was generated through overlaying multiple datasets under average weight allocation criterion, in which each item obtained weight equally. In the score map, the higher the score, the more possible a specific area could be regarded as SDS source area. Exceptions mostly came from large cities, like Tehran and Isfahan. As a result, final SDS source areas were mapped out, and Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes and Sistan Basin were identified as main SDS source areas in Iran. The SDS source area in Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes still keeps expanding. In addition, Al-Howizeh/Al-Azim marshes are now suf- fering rapid land degradation due to natural and human-induced factors and might totally vanish in the near future. Sistan Basin also demonstrates the impacts of soil degradation and wind erosion. With appropriate intensity, dura- tion, wind speed and altitude of the dust storms, sand particles uplifting from this area might have developed into extreme dust storms, especially during the summer.

PRELIMINARY STUDY ON SAND - DUST STORM DISASTER AND COUNTERMEASURES IN CHINA

As a kind of natural disasters, sand dust storms frequently occur in deserts and their surrounding areas. The occurrence of this disaster in China′s northwest and north China has exerted an extremely adverse effect upon the environment in China. The management of sand dust storms is of a systematic project closely related with the environment such as agriculture, ecosystem, forestry, water conservancy, meteorology and other aspects. Therefore, studies of the formation, the basic features, causes, temporal spatial distribution, developing trend and related disasters of sand dust storms in China are conducted based on satellite data. The experience of sand dust storms control and countermeasures in the United States and some other countries are referred. Meanwhile, preliminary countermeasures relating to sand dust storms in China are proposed.

The influence of different underlying surface on sand-duststorm in northern China

In this paper, a quantitative research on the relationship between different underlying surface and sand-dust storm has been made by using 40 years meteorological data of five different types of underlying surface in northern China, which include farmland, grassland, sandland, gobi and salt crust. These metrological data comprise sand-dust storm days and strong wind days. By analyzing, we can find that there are certain correlations between the days of sand-dust storm and strong wind for different underlying surface, which has great influence on sand-dust storm. But there are pronounced differences in different types of underlying surface. The sand-dust storm days of grassland, gobi and salt crust, with smaller interannual variation are obviously less than strong wind days. On the other hand, the sand-dust storm days of farmland and sandland increase evidently, even in many years, are much more than strong wind days. The differences are mainly induced by the influencing mechanism of different underlying surface on sand-dust storm. Grassland, gobi and salt crust with stable underlying surface are not prone to sand-dust storm under strong wind condition. Whereas, the underlying surface of farmland and sandland is unstable, that is easy to induce sand-dust storm under strong wind condition.

The atmospheric circulation patterns influencing the frequency of spring sand-dust storms in the Tarim Basin

Using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and the sand-storm frequency data fi＇om 37 weather stations in the Tarim Basin for the period 1961-2009, the relationship between the frequency of spring sandstorms in the Tafim Basin and the associated atmospheric circu- lation pattems is analyzed in this study. We found significantly negative correlations between sandstorm frequency and the 500-hPa geopotential height over the Paris Basin and midwestem Mongolia, while there were positive correlations over the Ural River region. The rising of the 500-hPa geopotential height in midwestem Mongolia and its falling over the Ural region corre- spond to a weakening of the large-scale wave patterns in the Eurasian region, which directly causes the frequency of the sand-dust storms in the Tarim Basin to decline. Also, the abrupt decline in the spring sandstorm frequency in the Tarim Basin observed in the last half-century is associated with profound changes in the atmospheric circulation in these key regions. At the interannual scale, the strengthened cyclonic atmospheric circulation patterns in the western part of Mongolia and the anticyclonic patterns over the East European plains at 500-hPa geopotential height, are responsible for frequent sandstorm occurrences in the Tarim Basin.

Detecting sand-dust storms using a wind-profiling radar

Sand-dust storm is a type of disastrous weather, typically occurring in arid and semi-arid climates. This study selected a region in the hinterlands of the Taklimakan Desert, called the Tazhong region, as the experimental area to quantitatively estimate the particle concentrations of sand-dust storms using the boundary layer wind-profiling radar. We thoroughly studied the radar echo signals and reflectivity factor features during the sand-dust storms. The results indicate that（1） under sand-dust storm conditions, boundary layer wind-profiling radar cannot capture the complete information regarding horizontal wind velocity and direction, but it can obtain the backscattering intensity of sand-dust storms; and（2） during sand-dust storms particle size distributions in the surface layer closely resemble log-normal distributions, with sand-dust particles sizes of 90–100 μm accounting for the maximum particle probability. Retrieved particle size distributions at heights of 600, 800, and 1000 m follow log-normal distributions, and the expected value of particle diameter decreases gradually with increasing height. From the perspective of orders of magnitude, the retrieved results for particle number concentrations and mass concentrations are consistent with previous aircraft-detected results, indicating that it is basically feasible to use boundary layer wind-profiling radar to quantitatively detect the particle concentrations of dust storms.

Sand-dust Storm, Population and Environment in Northwest China

Sand-dust storms are the result of the integrated influences of climate, geography, society and human factors. A theoretical framework is built to explain the coherence of population growth, agriculture change and environmental degradation. On the basis of the analysis of the causes of the sand-dust storm in terms of human factors, a discussion will be given to show that these factors are internally consistent with the theoretical framework. After that, it will look at China's Agenda 21 and try to find relevant measures to reduce such large sand-dust storms happening in Northwest China and eventually make this area develop sustainably.

A Simulation Study on Channel Estimation for Cooperative Communication System in Sand-dust Storm Environment

There are many factors that influence the propagation of electromagnetic wave in the sand-dust storm environment, the scattering effect of dust particle is one of the major factors, so this paper focuses on the dust particles scattering function. The scattering of dust particles inevitably brings the multipath transmission of the signal, multipath propagation will bring the multipath fading of the signal. In this paper, we first investigate the use of AF and DF modes in a sand-dust storm environment. Secondly, we present a low-order modulation method should be used in cooperative communication system. Lastly, we evaluate the system performance for both of the moving nodes and power allocation. Experimental results validate the conclusion of theoretical derivation: the multipath fading is one of the main factors that affect the quality of signal transmission. Cooperative communication technology has good anti-fading ability, which can guarantee the signal transmission timely and correctly.

Impacts of Sand and Dust Storms on Regional Economy Based on Stochastic CGE Model : A Case Study in Inner Mongolia, China

[Objectives]The paper was to study the impacts of sand and dust storms(SDS)on regional economy.[Methods]In this paper,we combined the computable general equilibrium(CGE)model and the Monte Carlo method to examine the impact of SDS on the regional economy,with a focus on GDP,price index,employment rate,industrial structure and output,income and expenditure.We extended the standard CGE model,introduced the stochastic parameters into the production module,which had significant impact on economic output,and inserted the rate of change of the total labor supply and the expenditure share of early warning and protective measures into the income and expenditure module.[Results]SDS had significant impacts on regional GDP,employment rate,and industrial output from a macro perspective,and can reduce the income of residents and enterprises and increase expenditures from a micro perspective.The impact can be reduced by taking early warning and protective measures.[Conclusions]The protective measures taken for different grades of SDS have different effects.

Dust storms evolution in Taklimakan Desert and its correlation with climatic parameters

Based on the sand dust storms data and climatic data in 12 meteorological stations around sand dust storm originating areas of the Taklimakan Desert, we analyzed the trends of the number of dust storm days from 1960 to 2005 as well as their correlations with temperature, precipitation, wind speed and the number of days with mean wind speed 〉 5 m/s. The results show that the frequency of dust storm events in the Taklimakan region decreased with the elapse of time. Except Ruoqiang and Minfeng, in the other 10 meteorological stations, the frequency of dust storm events reduces, and in 4 meteorological stations of Kuqa, Korla, Kalpin and Hotan, the frequency of dust storm events distinctly decreases. The temperature has an increasing trend, while the average wind speed and the number of days with mean wind speed ≥ 5 m/s have decreasing trends. The correlation analysis between the number of days of dust storms and climatic parameters demonstrates that wind speed and the number of days with mean wind speed 〉 5 m/s have strong positive correlation with the number of days of dust storms, with the correlations coefficients being 0.743 and 0.720 （p〈0.01）, respectively, which indicates that strong wind is the direct factor resulting in sand dust storms. Whereas precipitation has significant negative correlation with the number of days of dust storms （p〈0.01）, and the prior annual precipitation has also negative correlation, which indicates that the prior precipitation restrains the occurrence of sand dust storms, but this restraining action is weaker than the same year＇s precipitation. Temperature has negative correlation with the number of dust storm days, with a correlations coefficient of -0.433 （p〈0.01）, which means that temperature change also has impacts on the occurrence of dust storm events in the Taklimakan region.

Wind power and sand/dust storms

Sand/dust storms,a globally prevalent catastrophic weather phenomenon,can cause significant erosion to the climate and ecological environment.The high concentration of sand particles they carry not only impacts atmospheric quality and poses a threat to human health,but also leads to soil sanding and environmental destruction.

Features of Sand-dust Deposits in Harbin City,China

From the sedimentologic view,this paper analyses the grain-size distribution and the chemical composition of the deposits from sand-dust storm,occurring in Harbin on March 20,2002.The result indicates that there exist plentiful coarse matters in the sand-dust deposits in Harbin,and the sand-dust composition presents obvious three peak distribu-tion characteristics,indicating that the sand-dust in Harbin is composed of multi-origin components.The grain-size composition consists of silt(4-8Ф),accounting for 71.18% of the total,sand(>4Ф),21.70%,and clay(<8Ф),only 7.13%.The average grain size(Mz) is 5.14Ф.The chemical elements of the deposits are mainly SiO2 and Al2O3 and Fe2O3,totally occupying 77.8%.The enrichment factors(EF) of Mg,K,Si,Fe,Mn,P,Ti,Co,Ni and V elements are all about 1,which mainly come from lithosphere source,while parts of Cu,Pb,Zn,Cr and Se elements are from pollution sources out of lithosphere source,and As,Cd and Sb elements are mainly from pollution sources.Based on the com-prehensive analysis of grain-size,chemical composition,enrichment factor(EF),discriminant function(DF) and matter source index(PI),this paper points out that the grain-size distribution and element composition of the sand-dust deposits in Harbin are evidently different from the loess and sand-dust in Lanzhou,and that matter source of the sand-dust in Harbin is different from the loess in Northwest China and the sand-dust in Lanzhou.The sand-dust deposits in Harbin are an admixture of coarse grains transmitted in short distance and fine grains transported in long distance.The plentiful coarse grains of the sand-dust deposits in Harbin origin from sand of local spot,and are the near-source deposits transported by low altitude airflow.

Deposition of sandstorms in a vegetation-covered sand dune in Ejin Oasis and its characteristics

＂Ejin Section＂ found in a typical vegetation-covered sand dune in Ejin Oasis was investigated. In this study, 263 samples were taken from the section for grain-size analysis, 25 for chemical analysis, 11 for ^14C dating and 6 for scanning electron microscope （SEM）. The results of the study indicate that 3 types of the sediments in the section can be identified, YS, LS and ST. YS, homogeneous yellow-brown dune sands, is equal to those of inland deserts, LS, loess-like sandy soils, is the same as the sandy loess in the middle Yellow River and modem falling dusts, and ST, sandy sediments interbeded with the deadwood and defoliation of Tamarix spp, represents the depositional process of the section interrupted by abrupt changes in climate. The Ejin Section has recorded the repeated dust-storms or sandstorms since 2500 yr BP and the peak periods of the dust-storms or sandstorms revealed by the section are consistent with the records of ＂dust rains＂ in historical literatures, indicating that the change of climate is a key factor to increase sandstorms or dust-storms, whereas, ＂artificial＂ factor may only be an accelerating one for desertification.

蒙古高原春季沙尘暴分布数据集(2000-2021年)

蒙古高原是亚洲沙尘暴多发源地之一,其中蒙古国的戈壁地区及内蒙古西部的沙漠地区与蒙古国和中国近年多发的沙尘暴事件有密切的关系。本研究首先基于沙尘暴相关气象观测资料和新闻事件文本资料,统计整理获得蒙古高原2000-2021年来春季发生的76次沙尘暴事件。下载对应时空区域的MODIS数据,结合云量等对数据进行筛选处理,在ENVI软件中利用MRTK插件对MODIS数据进行几何校正等预处理。构建沙尘暴探测指数DSDI,提取沙尘空间分布信息,得到蒙古高原沙尘暴分布数据集。结合ArcGIS软件随机选取验证点,结合台站记录、文本数据、图像增强、目视解译等获取验证点真值,从而完成精度评价,总体分类精度达85.24%,Kappa系数为0.7636。本数据集直观反映蒙古高原沙尘暴空间分布状况,可为蒙古高原沙尘暴灾害治理提供详实可靠的数据支持,与此同时,还可为管控蒙古高原沙尘暴灾害风险提供决策支持。

2022年12月大气环流和天气分析

2022年12月大气环流的主要特征是:北半球极涡呈偶极型分布,东亚大槽偏强,环流形势有利于冷空气活动;南支槽偏弱,西太平洋副热带高压偏东,不利于降水天气的发展。12月,全国平均降水量为7.5 mm,较常年同期(11.9 mm)偏少37%;全国平均气温为-4.2℃,较常年同期(-3.0℃)偏低1.2℃。月内出现了4次冷空气过程,1次沙尘天气过程。冷空气活动频繁,全国大部地区大气扩散条件较好;11—13日沙尘天气过程强度强,发生时间偏晚。

2023年1月大气环流和天气分析

2023年1月大气环流的主要特征是:北半球极涡呈偶极型分布,东北亚低涡偏强。东亚大槽偏东,南支槽偏弱。1月全国平均降水量为8.8 mm,较常年同期(14.3 mm)偏少38%;全国平均气温为-4.4℃,较常年同期(-4.8℃)偏高0.4℃。月内气温冷暖起伏较大,中下旬出现3次冷空气过程,气温由上旬异常偏暖逆转为下旬普遍偏冷的格局,黑龙江出现极寒天气,漠河最低气温达-53℃,刷新我国最低气温纪录。13—16日出现年度首次大范围寒潮天气,具有降温剧烈、风力大、雨雪范围广等特点,新疆、陕西、山西、河南等地出现大雪或暴雪,北方地区出现首次沙尘天气过程。此外,上旬大气扩散和湿清除条件较为不利,出现持续性雾-霾天气。

VARIABILITY IN OCCURRENCE OF CHINA'S SPRING SAND/DUST STORM AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH ATMOSPHERIC GENERAL CIRCULATION

Spatial distribution and climate variability of China's spring sand/dust storms,and their association with the atmospheric circulation patterns at 500 hPa in the present spring and previous winter were researched in this study.The result shows that in China more than 50 percent of sand/dust storms are observed in spring,especially in Northwest China,where sand/dust storms occur frequently.The occurrence of China's spring sand/dust storms has a general decrease trend in the past 50 years,but it has tended to increase again since 1997.There are significant differences in the general circulations between the most frequent and the least frequent sand/dust storm springs.During the spring and previous winter of the most frequent sand/dust storm springs,at 500 hPa,positive anomalies were found over the Mt.Ural,while negative anomalies were over Siberia and Mongolia.During the least frequent sand/dust storm springs,however, there are negative anomalies over the Mt.Ural and positive anomalies over Europe,Siberia and Mongolia.

A new-generation sand and dust storm forecasting system GRAPES_CUACE/Dust:Model development,verification and numerical simulation

Based on the new-generation Global/Regional Assimilation and PrEdiction System(GRAPES) developed by the Numerical Prediction Research Center,China Meteorological Administration and the Chinese Unified Atmospheric Chemistry Environment for Dust Atmospheric Chemistry Module(CUACE/Dust) developed by the Centre for Atmosphere Watch and Services(CAWAS) of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences(CAMS) ,the China sand and dust storm forecasting system GRAPES /CUACE-Dust model has been established.The latest data of land desertification,optical properties of China sand and dust aerosols,daily soil moisture and snow cover over China main land was introduced in this system.The system showed good performance in mass conservation.The comparisons of real-time prediction outputs with surface observations and aerosol indices derived from TOMS ozone spectrophotometers(TOMS AI) indicate that the model can predict the outbreak,development,transport and depletion processes of sand and dust storms accurately over China and the East Asian region.The system makes real-time quantitative prediction of a series of elements including sand and dust injection from the surface,dry and wet deposition amount,dust concentration and optical depth.We selected 7 major dust storms occurring in April 2006 and analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of dust emission,dry and wet deposition and atmospheric load in this paper.The results showed that about 225 million tons of dust were emitted into the atmosphere from the deserts over east Asia in that month.The 3 major sand and dust sources were just as the following:The deserts in northern Inner Mongolia and the boundary area around China-Mongolia were the first dust sources with a contribution of 153 million tons accounting for 68%of the total emission.The Taklimakan Desert ranked second and contributed approximately 40 million tons accounting for 17%of the dust emission.The Onqin Daga Sandland emitted about 15 million tons or 7%of the total emission.The contributions from other deserts,sandy lands and abandoned farmlands were about only 8%of the total dust emission.The total deposition over the East Asian region in April 2006 was 136 million tons.The regional distribution of dust deposition showed that the 3 major sources were also the major deposition areas.The deposition amount in the 3 major sources accounted for 78%of the total with about 135 million tons falling back to the source regions.The secondary deposition area was the China mainland downriver,where more than 2 million tons deposited accounting for 16%of the total deposition.The deposition over the region east of 120°E including China off-shore regions,Korean Peninsula,Japan and the West Pacific took only 6%of the total deposition,which was about 850000 tons.The analysis on dry and wet deposition showed that dry deposition dominated in the process,accounting for 94%of the total sand and dust depositions in the period and wet deposition only was around for 6%,since it was generally dry with less rainfall over northern China in April.

The Variability of Spring Sand-Dust Storm Frequency in Northeast Asia from 1980 to 2011

The characteristic distributions of regional sand-dust storm （SDS） weather processes over Northeast Asia from 1980 to 2011 were investigated using the shared WMO surface station meteorological data, atmospheric sounding data, China high density weather data, NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data, as well as the archived original weather maps of China. The concentration-weighted trajectory （CWT） method was used to calculate the SDS frequency from the discrete station data and to track the large-scale regional SDS weather processes in Northeast Asia. A spline trend analysis method was employed to investigate the variability of the SDS weather systems. The results show that during 1980-2011, the SDS weather processes exhibit both a historical persistence and abrupt transitions with an approximate 10-yr high-low occurrence oscillation. Through composite analysis of atmospheric circulation during high and low SDS years, it is found that the SDS occurrences are closely related to the anomalies of arctic vortex and midlatitude westerly, and the circulation patterns around the Lake Baikal. During the high frequency years, the meridianal flows in the upper and mid troposphere above the high SDS corridor in East Asia （from the Lake Balkhash along Northwest and North China, Korean Peninsula, meridianal flows during the low SDS frequency years, the midlatitude regions. and Japan Islands） are apparently stronger than the favoring the development and transport of SDSs in the midlatitude regions.

OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES ON SAND-DUST STORM IN HELAN MOUNTAINOUS AREA

According to the observation of the number and mass concentration spectra of atmospheric aerosols,the total suspended particulates (TSP) and their size distribution,micrometeorology, and the solar spectroscopic radiation,even neutron activation treatment of sand dust samples in Helan Mountainous area.the formation law of floating dust,blowing sand and sandstorm weather and the characteristics of climatic variation in this area and the influence of the Helan Mountain are counted and analyzed.In addition,the spectrum characteristics,optical depth and chemical composition of sand aerosol particles are also analyzed and discussed.