ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-12-3717-2012 Impact of the Desert dust on the summer monsoon system over Southwestern North America Zhao C. 1 Liu X. 1 Leung L. R. 1 Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA 24 04 2012 12 8 3717 3731 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/3717/2012/acp-12-3717-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/3717/2012/acp-12-3717-2012.pdf

The radiative forcing of dust emitted from the Southwest United States (US) deserts and its impact on monsoon circulation and precipitation over the North America monsoon (NAM) region are simulated using a coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model (WRF-Chem) for 15 years (1995–2009). During the monsoon season, dust has a cooling effect (−0.90 W m<sup>−2</sup>) at the surface, a warming effect (0.40 W m<sup>−2</sup>) in the atmosphere, and a negative top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) forcing (−0.50 W m<sup>−2</sup>) over the deserts on 24-h average. Most of the dust emitted from the deserts concentrates below 800 hPa and accumulates over the western slope of the Rocky Mountains and Mexican Plateau. The absorption of shortwave radiation by dust heats the lower atmosphere by up to 0.5 K day<sup>−1</sup> over the western slope of the Mountains. Model sensitivity simulations with and without dust for 15 summers (June-July-August) show that dust heating of the lower atmosphere over the deserts strengthens the low-level southerly moisture fluxes on both sides of the Sierra Madre Occidental. It also results in an eastward migration of NAM-driven moisture convergence over the western slope of the Mountains. These monsoonal circulation changes lead to a statistically significant increase of precipitation by up to ~40 % over the eastern slope of the Mountains (Arizona-New~Mexico-Texas regions). This study highlights the interaction between dust and the NAM system and motivates further investigation of possible dust feedback on monsoon precipitation under climate change and the mega-drought conditions projected for the future.

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