ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-8-5045-2008 Airborne dust distributions over the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding areas derived from the first year of CALIPSO lidar observations Liu Z. 1 Liu D. 2 Huang J. 3 Vaughan M. 4 Uno I. 5 Sugimoto N. 6 Kittaka C. 7 Trepte C. 4 Wang Z. 2 Hostetler C. 4 Winker D. 4 National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA 23666, USA University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, USA Kyushu University, Kasuga, Fukuoka, Japan National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan Science Systems and Applications, Inc, Hampton, VA, USA 29 08 2008 8 16 5045 5060 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/8/5045/2008/acp-8-5045-2008.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/5045/2008/acp-8-5045-2008.pdf

Using an analysis of the first full year of CALIPSO lidar measurements, this paper derives unprecedented, altitude-resolved seasonal distributions of desert dust transported over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the surrounding areas. The CALIPSO lidar observations include numerous large dust plumes over the northern slope and eastern part of the TP, with the largest number of dust events occurring in the spring of 2007, and some layers being lofted to altitudes of 11–12 km. Generation of the Tibetan airborne dusts appears to be largely associated with source regions to the north and on the eastern part of the plateau. Examination of the CALIPSO time history reveals an "airborne dust corridor" due to the eastward transport of dusts originating primarily in these source areas. This corridor extends from west to east and shows a seasonality largely modulated by the TP through its dynamical and thermal forcing on the atmospheric flows. On the southern side, desert dust particles originate predominately in Northwest India and Pakistan. The dust transport occurs primarily in dry seasons around the TP western and southern slopes and dust particles become mixed with local polluted aerosols. No significant amount of dust appears to be transported over the Himalayas. Extensive forward trajectory simulations are also conducted to confirm the dust transport pattern from the nearby sources observed by the CALIPSO lidar. Comparisons with the OMI and MODIS measurements show the unique capability of the CALIPSO lidar to provide unambiguous, altitude-resolved dust measurements.

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