Climate Research Lab, Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Dec 8;106(49):20564-71. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0711850106. Epub 2009 Jul 20.
Dust plays a vital role in climate and biophysical feedbacks in the Earth system. One source of dust, the Bodélé Depression in Chad, is estimated to produce about half the mineral aerosols emitted from the Sahara, which is the world's largest source. By using a variety of new remote sensing data, regional modeling, trajectory models, chemical analyses of dust, and future climate simulations, we investigate the current and past sensitivity of the Bodélé. We show that minor adjustments to small features of the atmospheric circulation, such as the Bodélé Low-Level Jet, could profoundly alter the behavior of this feature. Dust production during the mid-Holocene ceased completely from this key source region. Although subject to a great deal of uncertainty, some simulations of the 21st century indicate the potential for a substantial increase in dust production by the end of the century in comparison with current values.
尘埃在地球系统的气候和生物物理反馈中起着至关重要的作用。尘埃的一个来源是乍得的博德莱洼地，据估计，它产生的矿物气溶胶约占撒哈拉沙漠这一世界最大尘埃源排放量的一半。我们利用各种新的遥感数据、区域建模、轨迹模型、尘埃化学分析和未来气候模拟，研究了博德莱洼地的现状和过去的敏感性。结果表明，大气环流中一些小特征的微小调整，如博德莱低空急流，就可能极大地改变这一特征的行为。在中全新世，这个关键源区的尘埃生成完全停止。尽管存在很大的不确定性，但对 21 世纪的一些模拟表明，与当前水平相比，本世纪末尘埃生成量可能会大幅增加。
