A new theoretical model deriving planetary boundary layer height in desert regions and its application on dust devil emissions

Planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) is one of the major factors influencing the occurrence of dust storms and dust devils in desert regions; however, the existing planetary boundary layer parameterization schemes are largely limited to reflect the actual diurnal cycles of PBLH in desert regions, which further affects the global dust-aerosol emission evaluation. A new theoretical model deriving PBLH applicable to the desert areas is developed based on heating effect of dust aerosols and the method calculating PBLH by the vertical profile of virtual potential temperature, and then parameterized by observations at the desert regions in northern China (defined as new PBLH scheme). The results show that the simulated PBLH by the new scheme agrees better with the observations compared to the available PBLH schemes in the WRF model, such as Yonsei University scheme (YSU), Asymmetric Convection Model 2 scheme and Shin-Hong scale-aware scheme. The PBLHs derived from those three schemes might be replaceable by the new scheme due to the great improvement. The normally used YSU scheme and the new PBLH scheme are further applied to evaluate dust-devil emissions, despite the consistent unimodal distribution and similar spatial distribution in daily dustdevil emissions from two schemes in comparison with the measured occurrence frequency of dust devils, the new PBLH scheme improves the emission at the episodes from 09:00 to 18:00 LST (Local Standard Time) with greater magnitude relative to the YSU scheme, and demonstrates more significant differences near the peak-emission time, leading to approximate 1.5 times higher in the summer emission of dust devils. The results imply that the existing schemes underestimate about 5% of the contribution of dust devil emissions to the total amount of dust aerosols, and the new scheme can evaluate better, and provide new insight to understand the impact of the aerosol on climate effect.

Automated summary

Planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) is a crucial factor for dust storms and dust devils in desert regions. Existing parameterization schemes have limitations in reflecting the diurnal cycles of PBLH in these areas, which affects global dust-aerosol emission evaluation. A new theoretical model based on the heating effect of dust aerosols and the vertical profile of virtual potential temperature is developed, and successfully parameterized using observations in northern China. The new scheme shows better agreement with observations compared to existing schemes, and provides improved evaluation of dust-devil emissions.