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.