The Estimation of Dust Aerosol Sources for the Numerical Simulation of Asian Dust Storms Observed in May 2005 in China

This study is concerned with the quantitative prediction of dust storms in China. Some dust storms were observed in China for the period of 1-5 May 2005. These dust events have been simulated using an integrated wind erosion modeling system (IWEMS) which simulates all stages of dust cycle, from dust emission and transport to deposition. WMO 3 hourly synoptic reporting data for six spring seasons (March- May) from 2000 to 2005 in East Asia and GIS data were used to establish the database of dust source. These data sets are implemented to IWEMS model to simulate the intensive dust storms observed in China in terms of temporal and spatial variations of dust concentrations, starting and ending times of the dust storms. It is found that the model simulates quite well the observed concentrations and the starting and ending times of dust storms. The predicted spatial patterns and temporal evolutions of dust events and the predicted near-surface dust concentrations are found to agree well with the observations.