Untersuchung der langjährigen, interannualen Variabilität von Staubstürmen im Hinblick auf geomorphologische, biologische und meteorologische Kontrollmechanismen an Hand von Beobachtungen und Modellsimulationen

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Airborne mineral dust is an important player in our environment on local and global scales. However, our knowledge on source areas and their activity is limited. The spatiotemporal distribution of occurrences of dust storms that emit large amounts of mineral dust into the atmosphere is controlled by surface properties and atmospheric conditions. Changes in the atmosphere or the ecologic and geomorphologic environment lead to changing conditions for dust emission and thereby to variations in dust storm occurrence. In the proposed research, time-series of observed active dust sources from remote sensing and reports from weather stations will be analysed with respect to interannual variability and changes in environmental conditions affecting dust emissions. In addition, an off-line dust emission model driven by atmospheric reanalysis fields will be used to evaluate the effect of a changing environment on the regional occurrence of dust storms. The study will focus on North Africa and North America areas in which dust storm activities vary considerably from year-to-year. Understanding the interannual controls on dust emission will help to improve seasonal dust storm forecasts as well as predict changes in dust storm activities in a changing climate.