Lou, S., L. M. Russell, Y. Yang, L. Xu, M. A. Lamjiri, M. DeFlorio,
A. J. Miller, S. J. Ghan, Y. Liu and B. Singh,
2016:
Impacts of the East Asian Monsoon on springtime
dust concentrations over China
Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 121,
8137-8152.
Abstract.
We use 150 year preindustrial simulations of the Community Earth System Model to quantify the
impacts of the East Asian Monsoon strength on interannual variations of springtime dust concentrations over
China. The simulated interannual variations in March-April-May (MAM) dust column concentrations range
between 20-40% and 10-60% over eastern and western China, respectively. The dust concentrations over
eastern China correlate negatively with the East Asian Monsoon (EAM) index, which represents the strength of
monsoon, with a regionally averaged correlation coefficient of -0.64. Relative to the strongest EAM years,
MAM dust concentrations in the weakest EAM years are higher over China, with regional relative differences of
55.6%, 29.6%, and 13.9% in the run with emissions calculated interactively and of 33.8%, 10.3%, and 8.2% over
eastern, central, and western China, respectively, in the run with prescribed emissions. Both interactive run
and prescribed emission run show the similar pattern of climate change between the weakest and strongest
EAM years. Strong anomalous northwesterly and westerly winds over the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts
during the weakest EAM years result in larger transport fluxes, and thereby increase the dust concentrations
over China. These differences in dust concentrations between the weakest and strongest EAM years
(weakest-strongest) lead to the change in the net radiative forcing by up to -8 and -3W/m2 at the surface,
compared to -2.4 and +1.2W/m2 at the top of the atmosphere over eastern and western China, respectively.
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