The characterization of Taklamakan dust properties using a multiwavelength Raman polarization lidar in Kashi, China

• Published in: Atmospheric chemistry and physics Vol. 20; no. 22; pp. 13817 - 13834
• Main Authors: Hu, Qiaoyun, Wang, Haofei, Goloub, Philippe, Li, Zhengqiang, Veselovskii, Igor, Podvin, Thierry, Li, Kaitao, Korenskiy, Mikhail
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Katlenburg-Lindau Copernicus GmbH 17.11.2020; European Geosciences Union; Copernicus Publications
• Subjects: Aerosol optical depth; Aerosols; Air pollution; Analysis; Anthropogenic factors; Atmospheric models; Atmospheric particulates; Climate models; Depolarization; Deserts; Dust; Dust control; Dust storms; Emissions; Extinction; Extinction coefficient; Lasers; Lidar; Model accuracy; Optical analysis; Optical radar; Optical thickness; Photometers; Polarization; Pollutants; Pollution control; Ratios; Remote sensing; Sciences of the Universe; Weather; China; Arabian Peninsula; Beijing China; Afghanistan; Tarim Basin; East Asia; France; Central Asia; Kyrgyzstan; Tajikistan
• ISSN: 1680-7324; 1680-7316; 1680-7324
• DOI: 10.5194/acp-20-13817-2020

The Taklamakan desert is an important dust source for the global atmospheric dust budget and a cause of the dust weather in East Asia. The characterization of Taklamakan dust in the source region is still very limited. To fill this gap, the DAO (dust aerosol observation) was conducted in April 2019 in Kashi, China. The Kashi site is about 150 km from the western rim of the Taklamakan desert and is strongly impacted by desert dust aerosols, especially in spring time, i.e., April and May. According to sun–sky photometer measurements, the aerosol optical depth (at 500 nm) varied in the range of 0.07–4.70, and the Ångström exponent (between 440 and 870 nm) in the range of 0.0–0.8 in April 2019. In this study, we provide the first profiling of the 2α+3β+3δ parameters of Taklamakan dust based on a multiwavelength Mie–Raman polarization lidar. For Taklamakan dust, the Ångström exponent related to the extinction coefficient (EAE, between 355 and 532 nm) is about 0.01 ± 0.30, and the lidar ratio is found to be 45 ± 7 sr (51 ± 8–56 ± 8 sr) at 532 (355) nm. The particle linear depolarization ratios (PLDRs) are about 0.28–0.32 ± 0.07 at 355 nm, 0.36 ± 0.05 at 532 nm and 0.31 ± 0.05 at 1064 nm. Both lidar ratios and depolarization ratios are higher than the typical values of Central Asian dust in the literature. The difference is probably linked to the fact that observations in the DAO campaign were collected close to the dust source; therefore, there is a large fraction of coarse-mode and giant particles (radius >20 µm) in the Taklamakan dust. Apart from dust, fine particles coming from local anthropogenic emissions and long-range transported aerosols are also non-negligible aerosol components. The signatures of pollution emerge when dust concentration decreases. The polluted dust (defined by PLDR532≤0.30 and EAE355-532≥0.20) is featured with reduced PLDRs and enhanced EAE355−532 compared to Taklamakan dust. The mean PLDRs of polluted dust generally distributed in the range of 0.20–0.30. Due to the complexity of the nature of the involved pollutants and their mixing state with dust, the lidar ratios exhibit larger variabilities compared to those of dust. The study provides the first reference of novel characteristics of Taklamakan dust measured by Mie–Raman polarization lidar. The data could contribute to complementing the dust model and improving the accuracy of climate modeling.