Modeling dust storm events in the southwestern United States

Dazhong Yin

NASA/GSFC

Abstract:

In the semi-arid southwest United States, wind-blown dust storms occur periodically. Aided by consecutive drought in recent years, the frequency of dust storms seems increasing. In an effort to protect the public from unnecessarily exposure to high air-borne particulate matter concentrations, we are developing wind-blown dust storm model with capabilities of forecasting dust events and air-borne particle concentrations due to these events. An Eta-based dust model that is currently running for the southwestern United States will be introduced in this presentation. The model results of a past dust storm case simulation will be presented. Future work and future direction of the model development will also be discussed.