INT-01 SOLAS: Air-Sea interaction
Transport and impacts of three asian dust events in spring 2021 in the northwestern Pacific
Tianle Zhang* , State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University
Mei Zheng, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University
Yuntao Wang, State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources
Xuehua Fan, Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yubing Pan, Institute of Urban Meteorology, Chinese Meteorological Administration
Junyi Liu, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University
Daren Lyu, Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shuangling Chen, State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources
Tong Zhu, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University
Fei Chai, State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources

In March 2021, China experienced three dust events (Dust-1, 2, 3), the first of which was reported as the strongest one in recent ten years, and its environmental impacts have received great attention. Multiple advanced measurement methods, including satellite, lidar, online aerosol speciation instrument, and biogeochemical Argo float, were combined to examine and compare the transport path, optical and chemical properties, and impacts of these three dust events on urban air quality and marine ecosystem. Moreover, meteorological data were also included to analyze the transport process of dust events from land to sea under different synoptic systems. The results showed that Dust-1 exhibited the largest impacts on urban area, increasing PM10 concentration in Beijing, Shuozhou, and Shijiazhuang up to 7525, 3819, and 2992 µg m-3, respectively. However, due to fast movement of the Mongolian low-pressure cyclone, the duration of northwest wind over the land was quite short (e.g., only 10 hours in Beijing), which prevented the transport of dust plume to the northwest Pacific, resulting in limited impact on the ocean. Dust-2 and Dust-3, though weaker in intensity, were transported directly to the sea, and led to a clear increase in chlorophyll-a concentration (up to near 3 times) in the northwest Pacific, comparing to climatological mean state. This indicates that the impact of dust on ocean is also closely related to the transport path besides dust intensity. This study examined how marine ecosystem responded to three significant Asian dust events in spring 2021 and quantitatively assessed the overall impacts of strong dust events on both land and ocean.