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Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 11, 26441-26475, 2011
www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/26441/2011/ doi:10.5194/acpd-11-26441-2011 © Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
The impact of channel effect on Asian dust transport dynamics: a case in southeastern Asia
1Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
2Institute of Atmospheric physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China
3Department of Geology, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract. A super heavy dust event was identified with unprecedented PM10 in terms of speed and concentration in the southeastern Asia. The average concentration was observed exceeding the value of 1000 μg m−3 for the duration lasting more than 10 h, with the highest value reached 1724 μg m−3 in northern Taiwan on 21 March 2010. We found that this case exhibited an uneven and intriguing spatial distribution of PM10 concentration and transport speed between eastern and western Taiwan. Higher values were observed in the western and northern areas. The differences in concentration can be reached to 5 times in less than 100 km in the west-east bound distance while the variations can be up to 10 times within 400 km in north-south direction. A high resolution, 10 km, numerical study by Weather Research Forecast (WRF) and WRF-chem models revealed that this intriguing spatial distribution of the Asian dust transport was resulting from a strong coupling effect of the geographic channel effect and blocking of the easterly from the Pacific Ocean. We are confident that this coupling effect can be revealed only by applying a high resolution numerical study in other similar regions.
Citation: Lin, C.-Y., Sheng, Y.-F., Chen, W.-N., Wang, Z., Kuo, C.-H., Chen, W.-C., and Yang, T.: The impact of channel effect on Asian dust transport dynamics: a case in southeastern Asia, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 11, 26441-26475, doi:10.5194/acpd-11-26441-2011, 2011.