Arid Zone Research ›› 2022, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (4): 1017-1026.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2022.04.03

• Weather and Applied Climate • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Different diurnal effects of floating dust on the structures in the atmospheric boundary layer over desert areas

ZHU Congzhen1,2(),ZHAO Tianliang1,2(),MENG Lu2,YANG Xinghua3,HE Qing2,Ali MAMTIMIN2,YANG Jie1,ZHU Yan1,WU Zhaoye1   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, Jiangsu, China
    2. Institute of Desert Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Urumqi 830002, Xinjiang, China
    3. School of Geography Science Shanxi Normal University, Taiyuan 030032, Shanxi, China
  • Received:2021-10-13 Revised:2022-01-03 Online:2022-07-15 Published:2022-09-26
  • Contact: Tianliang ZHAO E-mail:20191203040@nuist.edu.cn;josef_zhao@126.com

Abstract:

Based on data from four-times-daily intensive sounding and ground meteorological observations in the hinterland of the Taklamakan Desert in July 2016, this paper compares the structures in the atmospheric boundary layer and differences in surface radiation budget on sunny days and days with high amounts of floating dust (“floating dust days”) to reveal the diurnal change in the effect of floating dust aerosols on the structure of the atmospheric boundary layer and its underlying mechanism. The results show that the height of the stable boundary layer at night on a sunny day and a floating dust day is 270 m and 360 m, respectively. The stable boundary layer inversion intensity on a sunny day reaches 3.1 K·(100m)-1, which is stronger than 1.6 K·(100m)-1 on a floating dust day. The convective boundary layer height is close to 3600 m on a sunny day and only 2700 m on a floating dust day. The downward long-wave radiation of floating dust aerosols at night weakens the radiative cooling of the surface, raises the height of stable boundary layer, and weakens its stability. In the daytime, the strong solar short-wave net radiation heats the desert surface, and its strong sensible heat creates an ultrahigh convective atmospheric boundary layer. Floating dust aerosol significantly reduces the surface short-wave radiation and sensible heating and reduces the height of the convective boundary layer during the day. The unique radiation effect of floating dust aerosols in the Tarim Basin has opposite influences on the structure of the atmospheric boundary layer during the day and night.

Key words: Taklamakan Desert, structure of atmospheric boundary layer, radiative forcing of floating dust, diurnal change