High Impact Dust Events: Trends From the Great Plains to the West Coast
Abstract
Climate change and anthropogenic land use are altering the U.S. landscape, allowing for increases in windblown dust. High dust loading events are linked to visibility reduction, dangerous road conditions, increased hospital visits from respiratory complications, and Valley fever. Furthermore, through its role as ice nuclei, dust has a critical role in cloud formation.
Combining data from several aerosol networks and satellite remote sensors, trends in high dust loading events from the Great Plains to the West Coast of the U.S. are investigated. This study quantifies trends, with the Theil-Sen Estimator method, of aerosol loading events in the 75th quantile. Dust is isolated from the total aerosol load using the Ångström exponent and coarse mode aerosol optical depth (AODcoarse) both derived from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET), fine soil (PMsoil) and coarse mode (PM10-2.5) particulate matter derived from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network, and the non-spherical AOD (AODns) product from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR). IMPROVE analyses reveal an increase in 75th quantile PMsoil and PM10-2.5 from 1988 to 2018 in the Great Plains, with annual increases of 1-6% in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. This is in agreement with a positive trend in 75th quantile AODcoarse at the Konza AERONET station (2000-2015) in Kansas. In June, IMPROVE sites in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, and Arkansas all saw increases of 5-20% per year in 75th quantile PMsoil. This finding parallels positive trends in June 75th quantile AODcoarse, with increases of 5-10% per year at AERONET stations in South Dakota, Iowa, and Kansas (2000-2018). Positive trends were also observed in MISR 75th quantile AODns in Nebraska and Kansas from 2000 to 2016. These results suggest that recent agricultural expansion in the Midwest is destabilizing soils and increasing susceptibility to erosion during high wind events. Future work will combine the above with meteorological data, land surface variables, and land use/land cover change (LUCC) data to investigate connections between high dust loading events and LUCC. Furthermore, this analysis will employ AOD products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MODIS) to enhance the spatial coverage of the study.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.A34D..08L
- Keywords:
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- 0305 Aerosols and particles;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0345 Pollution: urban and regional;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0394 Instruments and techniques;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 3394 Instruments and techniques;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES