Slide 1

A massive cloud of dust looms over Phoenix, Arizona during a dust storm in July 2012 [natl geo news, 2013] Toward enhanced capability of detecting and predicting dust events in the western US Min Huang (GMU/NOAA, mhuang10@gmu.edu) D. Tong, P. Lee, L. Pan, I. Stajner AQAST 9 meeting | St. Louis, MO | June 3, 2015 Contribute to: ROSES-National Climate Assessment Also support NOAA NAQFC Users & Collaborators: USDA (soil conservation) EPA CMAQ, NASA GOCART, NOAA HYSPLIT (modeling) National, state and county AQ agencies (AQ management) Center for Disease Control & Prevention (public health)

Slide 2

North American dust: a short-lived climate forcer North America contributes to 0.1-5% of the worlds dust emissions. Important emitters include the four major deserts in the western US Many dust storms in North America last for 2-21 hours; mechanisms and compositions vary Miller et al., 2004; Tanaka and Chiba, 2006; Lei and Wang, 2014; Ginoux et al., 2004; Zender et al., 2003 2

Slide 3

Dust affects human life, ecosystems, and the climate Ecosystems Nourishes forests Neutralizes acid rain Climate Absorbs sunlight Reduces the planetary albedo over bright surfaces Deposition on snow/ice & accelerate their melting Modifies monsoon Human life May be associated with certain human diseases such as the valley fever Degrades visibility and prevents normal outdoor activities and transportation The 1930s dust bowl Recent dust storm in Las Vegas (Apr 15, 2015) Goudie, 2013; Panikkath et al., 2013 Carslaw et al., 2010; Brahney et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2012 3

Slide 4

Dust temporal changes in the WUS Long-term observations revealed intensified dust activities in the WUS with weaker extra-regions impacts Need to extend and better understand the temporal changes of dust activities using diverse observations Important to improve daily dust forecasting skills as well as its future projection under the changing climate Brahney et al., 2013 Non-US contributions:1.2 g/m 3 (