Insights into Variations and Potential Long-Range Transport of Atmospheric Aerosols from the Aral Sea Basin in Central Asia
Wu N. Ge Y. Abuduwaili J. Issanova G. Saparov G.
July-1 2022MDPI
Remote Sensing
2022#14Issue 13
The dramatic shrinkage of the Aral Sea in the past decades has inevitably led to an environmental calamity. Existing knowledge on the variations and potential transport of atmospheric aerosols from the Aral Sea Basin (ASB) is limited. To bridge this knowledge gap, this study tried to identify the variations and long-range transport of atmospheric aerosols from the ASB in recent years. The Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model and Cloud– Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) data were used to gain new insight into the types, variation and long-range transport of atmospheric aerosols from the ASB. The results showed five types of tropospheric aerosols and one type of stratospheric aerosol were observed over the ASB. Polluted dust and dust were the dominant subtypes through the year. Sul-fate/other was the only stratospheric aerosol detected. The occurrence frequency of aerosols over the ASB showed obvious seasonal variation. Maximum occurrence frequency of dust appeared in spring (MAM) and that of polluted dust peaked in summer (JJA). The monthly occurrence frequency of dust and polluted dust exhibited unimodal distribution. Polluted dust and dust were distributed over wide ranges from 1 km to 5 km vertically. The multi-year average thickness of polluted dust and dust layers was around 1.3 km. Their potential long-range transport in different directions mainly impacts Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and eastern Iran, and may reach as far as the Caucasus region, part of China, Mongolia and Russia. Combining aerosol lidar, atmospheric climate models and geochemical methods is strongly suggested to gain clarity on the variations and long-range transport of atmospheric aerosols from the Aral Sea Basin.
Aral Sea , atmospheric aerosol , CALIPSO , Central Asia , long-range transport
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State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China
CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi, 830011, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, 050040, Kazakhstan
Kazakh Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry Named after U.U.Uspanov, Almaty, 050060, Kazakhstan
State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology
CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences
Kazakh Research Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry Named after U.U.Uspanov
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