Abstract: Aeolian dust is a recurring safety and health hazard in Central Asia due to the dry, continental climate and the interference of land use and water resource policies on the soil erodibility. Whereas there is rich information on the causes and institutional drivers of recent LCLUC in Central Asia, the LCLUC-associated consequence the region's aeolian dust activity is poorly understood. Compared to the world's other prominent dust regions, the geographic distribution, meteorological drivers, and geomorphology of dust sources in Central Asia have received less attention. This is manifested, for example, by the lack of long-term ground measurements or multi-platform coordinated field campaigns dedicated to the study of atmospheric aerosols or air quality in Central Asia. As a result, satellite remote sensing and modeling are the only alternatives to studying the large-scale dust aerosol dynamics and air quality impact in Central Asia.
In this presentation I will use the dust outbreak episodes between 26-30 May 2018 as a case study to perform a detailed analysis on the synoptic-scale forcing and dust source activation in Central Asia. I will then give an overview of the physical basis and algorithms in detecting the presence, column burden, and vertical structure of dust aerosol plumes over desert areas using passive and active techniques spanning different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum (ultra-violet, visible and near infrared, and thermal infrared). These include the ultra-violet aerosol index, mid-visible aerosol optical depth, and infrared dust index derived from a wide range of instruments and algorithms. I will discuss the strength and weakness of each technique in dust mapping, and the cross-sensor consistency and complementary capabilities between a group of satellite instruments. By providing a survey and detailed case analysis of dust remote sensing in Central Asia, this presentation is hoped to attract new interest on the application of newly available satellite capabilities to monitor the aeolian dust in Central Asia.
NASA Land-Cover and Land-Use Change (LCLUC) Program, lcluc-support@umd.edu