Identifying Seasonal and Diurnal Variations and the Most Frequently Impacted Zone of Aerosols in the Aral Sea Region

Yongxiao Ge (), Na Wu, Jilili Abuduwaili, Rashid Kulmatov, Gulnura Issanova and Galymzhan Saparov
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Yongxiao Ge: State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Na Wu: State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Jilili Abuduwaili: State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Rashid Kulmatov: Department of Biology, National University of Uzbekistan, Tashkent 100170, Uzbekistan
Gulnura Issanova: CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi 830011, China
Galymzhan Saparov: CAS Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Urumqi 830011, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-21

Abstract: With the desiccation of the Aral Sea, salt–alkali dust storms have increased in frequency and the surrounding environment has deteriorated. In order to increase our understanding of the characteristics and potential impact zone of atmospheric aerosols in the Aral Sea region, we evaluated seasonal and diurnal variation of aerosols and identified the zone most frequently impacted by aerosols from the Aral Sea region using CALIPSO data and the HYSPLIT model. The results showed that polluted dust and dust were the two most commonly observed aerosol subtypes in the Aral Sea region with the two accounting for over 75% of observed aerosols. Occurrence frequencies of polluted dust, clean continental, polluted continental/smoke, and elevated smoke showed obvious seasonal and diurnal variations, while occurrence frequency of dust only showed obvious seasonal variation. Vertically, the occurrence frequencies of all aerosol subtypes except dust showed significant diurnal variation at all levels. The thickness of polluted dust layers and dust layers exhibited same seasonal and diurnal variations with a value of more than 1.0 km year-round, and the layer thickness of clean continental and polluted continental/smoke shared the same seasonal and diurnal variation features. The zone most severely impacted by aerosols from the Aral Sea region, covering an area of approximately 2 million km 2 , was mainly distributed in the vicinity of the Aral Sea region, including western Kazakhstan, and most of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The results provide direct support for positioning monitoring of aeolian dust deposition and human health protection in the Aral Sea region.

Keywords: dust; terminal lake; aerosols; Aral Sea; Central Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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