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A preliminary study on the transport pathways of dust originating from playa of Chaiwopu Lake, arid northwest China |
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Abstract In order to understand the potential dust transport pathways and the spatiotemporally characteristics of dust at different heights, seasonal climatologies of air parcel trajectories from playa of Chaiwopu Lake was created using the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT) coupled with reanalysis meteorological data (2000~2013) from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) . The results showed that spring has the largest potential diffusion range at each height, at which dust from Chaiwopu basin can potentially affect most parts of China, and some areas as far away as the Korean peninsula. Dust diffusion in summer has obvious height differentiation around 1000 meter; however that of winter is minimum. Dust diffusion range turned out changing seasonally at different height. Air parcel trajectories densities reduced with the increase of height in four seasons. The potential transport corridors of dust was southeast toward above 100m, while potential transport corridors turned to southwest below 100meter. Under favorable atmospheric conditions, dust originating from Chaiwopu Lake can affect regions many thousands of kilometers in a relatively short period of time. After settlement in the near source region, the dust mainly influences Urumqi and its surrounding areas, importantly accelerates the melting of snow and ice of Tianshan Mountains.
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Received: 16 October 2014
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