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

空气中的矿物粉尘在本地和全球范围内对我们的环境都有重要影响。然而，我们对震源区及其活动的了解有限。向大气中排放大量矿物粉尘的沙尘暴的发生时空分布受地表性质和大气条件的控制。大气或生态地貌环境的变化导致沙尘排放条件的变化，从而导致沙尘暴发生的变化。在拟议的研究中，将分析从遥感观测到的活动沙尘源的时间序列和气象站的报告，分析影响沙尘排放的年际变化和环境条件的变化。此外，将利用大气再分析场驱动的离线沙尘排放模式来评价环境变化对区域沙尘暴发生的影响。这项研究将集中在北非和北美地区，这些地区的沙尘暴活动每年都有很大的变化。了解沙尘排放的年际控制将有助于改善季节性沙尘暴预报，以及预测气候变化下沙尘暴活动的变化。

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.