Articles Also Play an Important Role Urnal Variability in Dust Event Frequency and Intensity, and in Soil and Forest Biogeochemistry
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 993–1015, 2017 www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/993/2017/ doi:10.5194/acp-17-993-2017 © Author(s) 2017. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Quantifying local-scale dust emission from the Arabian Red Sea coastal plain Anatolii Anisimov1, Weichun Tao1,a, Georgiy Stenchikov1, Stoitchko Kalenderski1, P. Jish Prakash1, Zong-Liang Yang2, and Mingjie Shi2,b 1King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Physical Science and Engineering Division (PSE), Thuwal, 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia 2The University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences, Department of Geological Sciences, Austin, TX 78712, USA anow at: Policy Research Center of Environment and Economy, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Beijing, 100029, People’s Republic of China bnow at: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA Correspondence to: Georgiy Stenchikov ([email protected]) Received: 11 August 2016 – Published in Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss.: 25 August 2016 Revised: 17 December 2016 – Accepted: 22 December 2016 – Published: 23 January 2017 Abstract. Dust plumes emitted from the narrow Arabian Red discuss the physical mechanisms responsible for dust gener- Sea coastal plain are often observed on satellite images and ation. felt in local population centers. Despite its relatively small This study provides the first estimates of the fine-scale spa- area, the coastal plain could be a significant dust source; how- tial and temporal distribution of dust emissions from the Ara- ever, its effect is not well quantified as it is not well approxi- bian Red Sea coastal plain constrained by MERRAero and mated in global or even regional models. In addition, because short-term WRF-Chem simulations. The estimate of total of close proximity to the Red Sea, a significant amount of dust emission from the coastal plain, tuned to fit emissions in dust from the coastal areas could be deposited into the Red MERRAero, is 7.5 ± 0.5 Mt a−1. Small interannual variabil- Sea and serve as a vital component of the nutrient balance of ity indicates that the study area is a stable dust source. The marine ecosystems. mineralogical composition analysis shows that the coastal In the current study, we apply the offline Community Land plain generates around 76 ± 5 kt of iron oxides and 6 ± 0.4 kt Model version 4 (CLM4) to better quantify dust emission of phosphorus annually. Over 65 % of dust is emitted from from the coastal plain during the period of 2009–2011. We the northern part of the coastal plain. verify the spatial and temporal variability in model results us- ing independent weather station reports. We also compare the results with the MERRA Aerosol Reanalysis (MERRAero). We show that the best results are obtained with 1 km model 1 Introduction spatial resolution and dust source function based on Meteosat Second Generation Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Mineral dust has a significant impact on climate at regional Imager (SEVIRI) measurements. We present the dust emis- and global scales (Choobari et al., 2014; Miller et al., 2014; sion spatial pattern, as well as estimates of seasonal and di- Shao et al., 2011a). Dust particles also play an important role urnal variability in dust event frequency and intensity, and in soil and forest biogeochemistry. Atmospheric deposition is discuss the emission regime in the major dust generation hot a vital component of the nutrient balance of marine ecosys- spot areas. We demonstrate the contrasting seasonal dust cy- tems (Jickells et al., 2005; Mahowald et al., 2005; Nickovic et cles in the northern and southern parts of the coastal plain and al., 2012, and references therein; Schulz et al., 2012). Dust air pollution also affects human health, increasing the risk of hu- man morbidity and mortality (Morman and Plumlee, 2014). Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 994 A. Anisimov et al.: Quantifying local-scale dust emission from the Arabian Red Sea coastal plain The exploration of dust generation and transport, as well duce the dust emission processes here with the desired accu- as climatology and seasonality of the dust cycle in the Ara- racy. Even for similar meteorological conditions, a number bian Peninsula, has been gaining increased attention in re- of studies reported substantial differences in dust fluxes pre- cent years (Hamidi et al., 2013, 2014; Kalenderski and dicted by different models, indicating the model deficiencies Stenchikov, 2016; Kalenderski et al., 2013; Notaro et al., in accounting for fine-scale features such as soil texture and 2013, 2015; Prakash et al., 2015; Rezazadeh et al., 2013; surface vegetation cover (Ginoux et al., 2012; Kang et al., Shalaby et al., 2015; Shi et al., 2016; Yu et al., 2013, 2015; 2011; Koven and Fung, 2008; Prospero et al., 2002; Shao, Alobaidi et al., 2016). Along with a strong climate effect, 2008; Textor et al., 2006; Todd et al., 2008; Zender et al., dust outbreaks in this region affect the nutrient balance of 2003b). Raupach and Lu (2004) identified key challenges in the semi-enclosed Red and Arabian seas. For example, it was modeling wind erosion related to the representation of land- shown that the passage of major dust storms over the Arabian surface processes, including the fidelity of parameterizations Sea causes chlorophyll blooming (Singh et al., 2008). The and the availability of high-resolution input data for dust gen- Red Sea, bordered by the Sahara and Arabian deserts, and eration calculations. Therefore, to obtain reliable estimates of with little or no river discharge and infrequent flash floods dust emissions, especially in such highly heterogeneous re- from land, is highly oligotrophic, especially in the northern gions as the Arabian Red Sea coastal plain, fine-resolution part, rendering nutrients coming from the Indian Ocean al- surface information is required. most unobtainable (Acker et al., 2008; Chase et al., 2011; Recently, satellite-derived high-resolution datasets of sur- Weikert, 1987). Therefore, atmospheric dust and gaseous de- face properties have emerged and provided an opportunity positions are especially important as nutrient supplies for the for improving dust emission calculations (Bullard et al., Red Sea (Kalenderski et al., 2013; Prakash et al., 2015). 2011; Ginoux et al., 2012; Kang et al., 2011; Knippertz and Although previous studies indicate that dust outbreaks Todd, 2012; Pérez et al., 2011; Shao et al., 2011a). For ex- are most frequent over the eastern sector of Saudi Arabia ample, Kim et al. (2013) and Hamidi et al. (2014), using a (Barkan et al., 2004; Goudie and Middleton, 2006; Prospero dynamic vegetation dataset, enabled a simple dust emission et al., 2002; Shalaby et al., 2015; Washington et al., 2003), scheme to account for the control of seasonally varying vege- satellite images and ground observations show that there is a tation cover on dust emission, which is usually accounted for zone of increased dust activity in the western part of the Ara- in more advanced schemes (Bullard et al., 2011; Mahowald bian Peninsula (Ackerman and Cox, 1989; Furman, 2003; et al., 2006; Zender et al., 2003a). Menut et al. (2013) re- Ginoux et al., 2012; Shao, 2008; Shao et al., 2011a; Walker ported that the State Soil Geographic Database (STATSGO- et al., 2009; Yu et al., 2013). Located next to the Red Sea, the FAO), remapped from the Food and Agriculture Organiza- narrow coastal plain could make a significant contribution tion of the United Nations (FAO) two-layer 5 min global to the overall amount of dust depositing to the sea, trans- soil texture dataset (Nickovic et al., 2012), provides realis- porting iron, phosphorus, and nitrogen. However, despite the tic spatial patterns of dust emission for the Middle East and importance of this source area for the nutrient balance of northern Africa. Shi et al. (2016) discussed the impact of the the Red Sea, no specific studies have been focused on the satellite-derived vegetation dataset on patterns and intensity semidesert coastal region and no estimates of the amount of of dust emission in the Arabian Peninsula. Many studies have dust emitted from these areas have been made yet, partly due been devoted to accurately locating dust source regions us- to the scarcity of observations and partly because the nar- ing different criteria, accounting for sediment availability and row coastal plain is a subgrid area in most global and even erodibility due to geographic influences, and applying satel- regional modeling studies. lite datasets to define so-called source functions (Ginoux et The concentration of dust particles in the atmosphere de- al., 2012; Kim et al., 2013; Parajuli et al., 2014; Walker et al., pends on small-scale emission processes, which are spatially 2009; Zender et al., 2003b). heterogeneous and involve complex nonlinear interactions In this study, we focus on dust emission from a relatively controlled by meteorological conditions and properties of small local area: the narrow semidesert western coast of the land surfaces. As the measurement of emission in field con- Arabian Peninsula. We employ the high-resolution Commu- ditions is extremely difficult, numerical models are the prin- nity Land Model version 4 (CLM4) with the Dust Entrain- cipal tools for dust emission evaluation. At the same time, the ment and Deposition (DEAD) module to conduct simulations results from the AeroCom intercomparison project for atmo- for the 3-year span of 2009–2011. Our principle objective is spheric models that comprise aerosol components (Huneeus to conduct multi-year emission simulations and study fine- et al., 2011) suggest large discrepancies in model estimates scale dust generation areas, evaluate the temporal variability of global dust emission and deposition by up to a factor of 10. in dust emissions, and assess the mineralogical composition As global models cannot approximate fine-scale circulations of local dust, as a potential source of nutrients for the Red well, regional uncertainties in dust emissions are expected Sea.