HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Department of Meteorology, Budapest, Hungary; CSFK, MTA Centre of Excellence, Budapest, Hungary; Research Institute of Biomolecular and Chemical Engineering, University of Pannonia, Veszprém, Hungary.
Atmospheric Composition Research, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland.
Environ Int. 2023 Oct;180:108243. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2023.108243. Epub 2023 Sep 29.
Studies on atmospheric dust and long-range transport of mineral dust have been a focus of atmospheric science in recent years. With its wide range of direct and indirect effects, mineral dust is one of the most uncertain elements in the mechanisms of climate change, and a deeper understanding of its role is essential for understanding future processes. The aim of our research was to provide the first systematic data on the so far episodically documented northward transport mineral dust from arid-semiarid areas. So, in this paper, we present dust storm events from lower latitudes reaching the Finnish atmosphere, based on the MERRA-2 model Dust Column Mass Density data and after a multistep verification procedure using independent data source. In total, 86 long-range dust storm events were identified between 1980 and 2022, when air masses loaded with dust reached Finland. Based on backward-trajectories different sources were identified: 59 were Saharan, 22 were Aral-Caspian, and five were associated with Middle Eastern source areas. Considerable variation in inter-annual frequencies was observed among the source areas, which may be due to changes in circulation conditions and the effects of human activity (agriculture and land use changes in Aral Sea region). There is a clear maximum of dust events in spring (60%), followed by summer and autumn (where 10 of the 11 autumn episodes were from the Sahara). However, the number and proportion of scarce winter events have more than doubled since 2010 compared to the preceding 30 years, but no autumn events were registered during this period. This clear temporal variation coincides with changes in dust transport observed in other regions of Europe, driven by greater atmospheric meridionality associated with climate change and driven by reduced temperature difference between low and high latitudes due to enhanced temperature increases at Arctic regions.
近年来，大气粉尘和粉尘长距离传输的研究一直是大气科学的重点。由于矿物粉尘具有广泛的直接和间接影响，它是气候变化机制中最不确定的因素之一，因此深入了解其作用对于理解未来的过程至关重要。我们的研究目的是提供迄今为止间歇性记录的从干旱-半干旱地区向北传输矿物粉尘的第一个系统数据。因此，在本文中，我们根据 MERRA-2 模型尘埃柱质量密度数据，并使用独立数据源进行了多步验证程序，展示了到达芬兰大气的低纬度地区的尘暴事件。总共在 1980 年至 2022 年间确定了 86 次长距离尘暴事件，当时载有灰尘的空气团到达了芬兰。基于后向轨迹，确定了不同的来源：59 次来自撒哈拉沙漠，22 次来自里海-咸海盆地，5 次与中东源区有关。不同源区的年际频率变化很大，这可能是由于环流条件的变化和人类活动（咸海地区的农业和土地利用变化）的影响。在春季（60%）有明显的尘埃事件最大值，其次是夏季和秋季（其中 11 个秋季事件中有 10 个来自撒哈拉沙漠）。然而，与前 30 年相比，自 2010 年以来，冬季事件的数量和比例增加了一倍以上，但在此期间没有秋季事件记录。这种明显的时间变化与欧洲其他地区观察到的尘埃传输变化相吻合，这是由气候变化引起的大气经向性增强以及由于北极地区温度升高导致低纬和高纬之间温差减小所驱动的。
