Meteorological and physical characteristics of dust transport events in the Eastern Great Basin of Utah, U.S.A
Abstract
Although the Great Basin physiographic province in North America is a known source area of atmospheric dust, the ascendant controls on its dust events have not been well documented to date. We assess the climatology of these dust events back to the 1930s, and find clear seasonal and diurnal patterns, indicating that dust events are, commonly, an afternoon phenomenon during the spring months. Since 1930, Salt Lake City, UT has had 379 dust event days, or 4.7 per year. Air quality station data from the more populated regions of Utah, available since 1993, indicate that dust events have produced elevated PM10, exceeding NAAQS, on 16 days over the past 18 years, or 0.9 per year. This study identifies deepening cyclonic systems over the northern Great Basin as the primary producer of these dust events affecting the eastern Great Basin; this region is located in the lee of the Sierra Nevada, and is a known region of cyclogenesis. Strengthening synoptic scale weather systems interact at the mesoscale with local topography and dust source regions to cause significant dust storms events that have affected the metropolitan area of Salt Lake City, Utah. Upwind of Salt Lake City, these cyclonic systems produce strong southwesterly winds that exceed threshold friction velocities and entrain sediment at the surface of such dust sources as the Sevier Lake, Tule Lake, and Milford Flat, an area disturbed in 2007 by Utah's largest wildfire in recorded history. Case studies of two significant dust events, occurring on 19 April, 2008 and 4 March, 2009, and producing elevated PM10 levels in this region, highlight the key meteorological features and land surface attributes of "hotspot" source areas, identifiable in satellite imagery, of the dust that affected SLC. BSNE dust samplers at the Sevier Lake source region characterize the source type and magnitude and reveal the composition of dust that is being transported. Understanding the meteorological and physical characteristics of recent dust storm events aids in the forecasting, prediction, and possible control of future dust transport into the Salt Lake City metropolitan area.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.U14A..07H
- Keywords:
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- 0305 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Aerosols and particles;
- 0478 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Pollution: urban;
- regional and global;
- 1029 GEOCHEMISTRY / Composition of aerosols and dust particles;
- 3307 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Boundary layer processes