Numerical prediction of northeast Asian dust storms using an integrated wind erosion modeling system

[1] Northeast Asia is one of the most active regions of mineral dust emission. In this study, an integrated wind erosion modeling system is developed, which consists of an atmospheric model, a land surface scheme, a wind erosion scheme (for dust emission and sediment drift), a dust transport and deposition scheme, and a geographic information database. The integrated system is applied to the prediction of northeast Asian dust storms, from the perspective of dust emission and dust concentration of various particle size groups. Two successive but different dust storm events that occurred on 6-7 and 9-10 April 2000 are studied and the predictions are compared qualitatively with meteorological and satellite observations. The comparison shows that the integrated system simulated well the spatial and temporal evolution of dust source and dust concentration. The simulations reveal several significant synoptic features of dust storms. It is found that during a typical dust storm episode, the total emission of dust (with d less than or equal to 22 mum, d is particle diameter) in northeast Asia amounts to 4.62 Mt/day, including 0.04, 1.88, and 2.70 Mt/day for particle size groups, d less than or equal to 2 mum, 2 < d <= 11 mu m, and 11 < d less than or equal to 22 mum, respectively.