92nd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Observation and Simulation of Summer Dust Aerosols Over the Tibetan Plateau
Hall E (New Orleans Convention Center )
CY Chen, Lanzhou Univ., Lanzhou, Gansu, China; and J. Huang, H. Yu, W. Wang, and J. Liu

The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite data were used to study the seasonal distribution of dust aerosols over Tibetan Plateau from 2007 to 2010. Results reveal that dust storms over Tibetan Plateau occur more frequently in summer than in other seasons. To investigate the dust aerosol origins, the transport of summertime dust over Tibetan Plateau in late August, 2006 was investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry model (WRF-Chem). Combining the simulation results and the CALIPSO satellite data, it is showed that the dust particles primarily originate from the nearby Taklimakan desert and form a layer of dust at the height of 5-7km above mean sea level over the northern slope of the Tibetan Plateau. The thermodynamic circulation of Tibetan Plateau in summer plays a key role in lifting dust particles up to Tibetan Plateau, and the thick boundary layer makes the dust particles accumulate for a long time. It is verified by simulation that the dust particles can heat the atmosphere over Tibetan Plateau, which has positive effect on strengthening the thermodynamic circulation and the north westerly jet.

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