Abstract
In this study, the long-term characteristics of the dust weather frequency (DWF) in the ensuing spring (March–April–May, MAM) in northern China (NC) and the association with sea ice concentration in the Barents Sea (SICBS) and Arctic Oscillation (AO) in the preceding winter (December–January–February, DJF) during 1979–2021 are investigated. The results show that the dust weather in NC is mainly associated with decreased SICBS during 1982–2008 and linked with a negative AO phase during 2009–2021. Due to the decreased SICBS in the preceding winter during 1982–2008, the surface adiabatic heating excites Rossby waves to spread southward and eastward, resulting in decreased snow cover over Eurasia and more dust weather by anomalous northerly wind in the ensuing spring over NC. On the other hand, with a negative AO phase in the preceding winter during 2009–2021, the increased meridional temperature gradient at mid-latitudes tends to enhance westerly wind and cyclogenesis over NC, leading to more dust weather in the ensuing spring. Consequently, both the negative AO phase and decreased SICBS in the preceding winter correspond to strong wind and dry soil in the dust source region, which favor an increase in the DWF in the ensuing spring over NC. Studying the characteristics of the SICBS and AO could provide some clues to predict the dust weather in NC.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The land-based (in situ) dataset the National Centers for Environmental Information are available at https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/data/global-hourly/archive/csv/. The sea ice concentration data from the Hadley Centre Global Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature are available at https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadisst/data/download.html. The land cover type data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer are available at https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/archive/allData/6/. The reanalysis data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and the National Center for Atmospheric Research are available at https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis.html. The monthly snow cover data derived from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 are available at https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/cdsapp#!/dataset/reanalysis-era5-pressure-levels-monthly-means?tab=form.
References
Andreae MO, Rosenfeld D (2008) Aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. Part 1. The nature and sources of cloud-active aerosols. Earth Sci Rev 89:13–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2008.03.001
Barenett TP, Dumenil L, Schlese U, Roekler E, Latif M (1989) The effect of Eurasian snow cover on regional and global climate variation. J Atmos Sci 46:661–686. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1989)046%3c0661:TEOESC%3e2.0.CO;2
Cohen J, Screen JA, Furtado JC, Barlow M, Whittleston D, Coumou D, Francis J, Dethloff K, Entekhabi D, Overland J, Jones J (2014) Recent Arctic amplification and extreme mid-latitude weather. Nat Geosci 7:627–637. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2234
Comiso JC (2002) A rapidly declining perennial sea ice cover in the Arctic. Geophys Res Lett 29:1956. https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GL015650
Dai A, Luo D, Song M, Liu J (2019) Arctic amplification is caused by sea-ice loss under increasing CO2. Nat Commun 10:121. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07954-9
Fan K, Wang H (2004) Antarctic oscillation and the dust weather frequency in North China. Geophys Res Lett 31:L10201. https://doi.org/10.1029/2004gl019465
Fan K, Wang H (2006) Interannual variability of Antarctic oscillation and its influence on East Asian climate during boreal winter and spring. Sci China Ser D 49:554–560. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-006-0554-7
Fan K, Xie Z, Xu Z (2016) Two different periods of high dust weather frequency in North China. Atmos Ocean Sci Lett 9:263–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/16742834.2016.1176300
Fan K, Xie Z, Wang H, Xu Z, Liu J (2018) Frequency of spring dust weather in North China linked to sea ice variability in the Barents Sea. Clim Dyn 51:4439–4450. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3515-7
Garrett TJ, Zhao C (2006) Increased Arctic cloud longwave emissivity associated with pollution from mid-latitudes. Nature 440:787–789. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04636
Gong D, Wang S, Zhu J (2001) East Asian winter monsoon and Arctic oscillation. Geophys Res Lett 28:2073–2076. https://doi.org/10.1029/2000gl012311
Gong D, Mao R, Fan Y (2006a) East Asian dust storm and weather disturbance: possible links to the Arctic Oscillation. Int J Climatol 26:1379–1396. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1324
Gong SL, Zhang XY, Zhao TL, Zhang XB, Barrie LA, McKendry IG, Zhao CS (2006b) A simulated climatology of Asian dust aerosol and its trans-pacific transport. Part II: interannual variability and climate connections. J Clim 19:88–103. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI3606.1
Guan Q, Sun X, Yang J, Pan B, Zhao S, Wang L (2017) Dust storms in North China: long-term spatiotemporal characteristics and climate controls. J Clim 30:6683–6700. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0795.1
Guo L, Fan B, Zhang F, Jin Z, Lin H (2018) The clustering of severe dust storm occurrence in China from 1958 to 2007. J Geophys Res Atmos 123:8035–8046. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029042
Han Z, Li S, Mu M (2011) The role of warm North Atlantic SST in the formation of positive height anomalies over the ural mountains during January 2008. Adv Atmos Sci 28:246–256. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-010-0069-1
He S, Gao Y, Li F, Wang H, He Y (2017) Impact of Arctic oscillation on the East Asian climate: a review. Earth-Sci Rev 164:48–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.10.014
Holland MM, Bitz CM (2003) Polar amplification of climate change in coupled models. Clim Dyn 21:221–232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-003-0332-6
Huang J, Lin B, Minnis P, Wang T, Wang X, Hu Y, Yi Y, Ayers JK (2006) Satellite-based assessment of possible dust aerosols semi-direct effect on cloud water path over East Asia. Geophys Res Lett 33:L19802. https://doi.org/10.1029/2006gl026561
Husar RB, Prospero JM, Stowe LL (1997) Characterization of tropospheric aerosols over the oceans with the NOAA advanced very high resolution radiometer optical thickness operational product. J Geophys Res Atmos 102:16889–16909. https://doi.org/10.1029/96JD04009
Jeong JH, Ho CH (2005) Changes in occurrence of cold surges over East Asia in association with Arctic oscillation. Geophys Res Lett 32:L14704. https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL023024
Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Kistler R, Collins W, Deaven D, Gandin L, Iredell M, Saha S, White G, Woollen J, Zhu Y, Leetmaa A, Reynolds R, Chelliah M, Ebisuzaki W, Higgins W, Janowiak J, Mo KC, Ropelewski C, Wang J, Jenne R, Joseph D (1996) The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 77:437–471. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077%3c0437:TNYRP%3e2.0.CO;2
Kang D, Wang H (2005) Analysis on the decadal scale variation of the dust storm in North China. Sci China Ser D 48:2260–2266. https://doi.org/10.1360/03yd0255
Kurosaki Y, Mikami M (2003) Recent frequent dust events and their relation to surface wind in East Asia. Geophys Res Lett 30:1736. https://doi.org/10.1029/2003gl017261
Kurosaki Y, Shinoda M, Mikami M (2011) What caused a recent increase in dust outbreaks over East Asia? Geophys Res Lett 38:L11702. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011gl047494
Lee YG, Kim J, Ho CH, An SI, Cho HK, Mao R, Tian B, Wu D, Lee JN, Kalashnikova O, Choi Y, Yeh SW (2014) The effects of ENSO under negative AO phase on spring dust activity over northern China: an observational investigation. Int J Climatol 35:935–947. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4028
Letu H, Nagao TM, Nakajima TY, Riedi J, Ishimoto H, Baran AJ, Shang H, Sekiguchi M, Kikuch M (2018) Ice cloud properties from Himawari-8/AHI next-generation geostationary satellite: capability of the AHI to monitor the DC cloud generation process. IEEE T Geosci Remote 57:3229–3239. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2018.2882803
Li F, Wang H (2013) Autumn sea ice cover, winter northern hemisphere annular mode, and winter precipitation in Eurasia. J Clim 26:3968–3981. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00380.1
Li F, Wan X, Wang H, Orsolini YJ, Cong Z, Gao Y, Kang S (2020) Arctic sea-ice loss intensifies aerosol transport to the Tibetan Plateau. Nat Clim Change 10:1037–1044. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0881-2
Li M, Letu H, Peng Y, Ishimoto H, Lin Y, Nakajima T, Baran AJ, Guo Z, Lei Y, Shi J (2022) Investigation of ice cloud modeling capabilities for the irregularly shaped Voronoi ice scattering models in climate simulations. Atmos Chem Phys 22:4809–4825. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4809-2022
Liu Y, Huang J, Shi G, Takamura T, Khatri P, Bi J, Shi J, Wang T, Wang X, Zhang B (2011) Aerosol optical properties and radiative effect determined from sky-radiometer over Loess Plateau of Northwest China. Atmos Chem Phys 11:11455–11463. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-11455-2011
Liu J, Curry JA, Wang H, Song M, Horton RM (2012) Impact of declining Arctic sea ice on winter snowfall. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 109:4074–4079. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1114910109
Liu Y, Zhu Q, Huang J, Hua S, Jia R (2019) Impact of dust-polluted convective clouds over the Tibetan Plateau on downstream precipitation. Atmos Environ 209:67–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.04.001
Liu J, Wu D, Liu G, Mao R, Chen S, Ji M, Fu P, Sun Y, Pan X, Jin H, Zhou Y, Wang X (2020) Impact of Arctic amplification on declining spring dust events in East Asia. Clim Dyn 54:1913–1935. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-05094-4
Mao R, Gong D, Bao J, Fan Y (2011a) Possible influence of Arctic oscillation on dust storm frequency in North China. J Geogr Sci 21:207–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11442-011-0839-4
Mao R, Ho CH, Shao Y, Gong D, Kim J (2011b) Influence of Arctic oscillation on dust activity over northeast Asia. Atmos Environ 45:326–337. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.10.020
Natsagdorj L, Jugder D, Chung YS (2003) Analysis of dust storms observed in Mongolia during 1937–1999. Atmos Environ 37:1401–1411. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1352-2310(02)01023-3
Overland JE, Wang M (2010) Large-scale atmospheric circulation changes are associated with the recent loss of Arctic sea ice. Tellus A 62:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0870.2009.00421.x
Peng S, Mysak LA, Derome J, Ritchie H, Dugas B (1995) The differences between early and midwinter atmospheric responses to sea surface temperature anomalies in the northwest Atlantic. J Clim 8:137–157. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1995)008%3c0137:TDBEAM%3e2.0.CO;2
Qian W, Quan L, Shi S (2002) Variability of the dust storm in China and its climatic control. J Clim 15:1216–1229
Rodwell MJ, Hoskins BJ (1996) Monsoons and the dynamics of deserts. Q J Roy Meteor Soc 122:1385–1404. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49712253408
Rossby CG (1939) Relation between variations in the intensity of the zonal circulation of the atmosphere and the displacements of the semi-permanent centers of action. J Mar Res 2:38–55. https://doi.org/10.1357/002224039806649023
Screen JA, Simmonds I (2010) The central role of diminishing sea ice in recent Arctic temperature amplification. Nature 464:1334–1337. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09051
Serreze MC, Barry RG (2011) Processes and impacts of Arctic amplification: a research synthesis. Global Planet Change 77:85–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2011.03.004
Serreze MC, Francis JA (2006) The arctic amplification debate. Clim Change 76:241–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-005-9017-y
Sokolik IN, Toon OB (1996) Direct radiative forcing by anthropogenic airborne mineral aerosols. Nature 381:681–683. https://doi.org/10.1038/381681a0
Stroeve JC, Kattsov V, Barrett A, Serreze M, Pavlova T, Holland M, Meier WN (2012) Trends in Arctic sea ice extent from CMIP5, CMIP3 and observations. Geophys Res Lett 39:L16502. https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052676
Sun Y, Zhao C (2020) Influence of Saharan dust on the large-scale meteorological environment for development of tropical cyclone over north Atlantic ocean basin. J Geophys Res Atmos. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD033454
Sun Y, Zhao C (2021) Distinct impacts on precipitation by aerosol radiative effect over three different megacity regions of eastern China. Atmos Chem Phys 21:16555–16574. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16555-2021
Takaya K, Nakamura H (2001) A formulation of a phase-independent wave-activity flux for stationary and migratory quasigeostrophic eddies on a zonally varying basic flow. J Atmo Sci 58:608–627. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2001)058%3c0608:AFOAPI%3e2.0.CO;2
Thompson DWJ, Wallace JM (1998) The Arctic oscillation signature in the wintertime geopotential height and temperature fields. Geophys Res Lett 25:1297–1300. https://doi.org/10.1029/98GL00950
Twomey SA, Piepgrass M, Wolfe TL (1984) An assessment of the impact of pollution on global cloud albedo. Tellus B 36:356–366. https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v36i5.14916
Vihma T (2014) Effects of Arctic sea ice decline on weather and climate: a review. Surv Geophys 35:1175–1214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-014-9284-0
Wang J, Zhao Z, Dong J, Li Y, Li D, Tian Y (2014) The relationship between Pacific SST and dust storms in Northern China in spring. Appl Mech Mater 522–524:48–51. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.522-524.48
Wang H, Chen H, Liu J (2015) Arctic sea ice decline intensified haze pollution in eastern China. Atmos Ocean Sci Lett 8:1–9. https://doi.org/10.3878/AOSL20140081
Wu RG, Kirtman BP (2007) Observed relationship of spring and summer East Asian rainfall with winter and Spring Eurasian snow. J Clim 20:1285–1304. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI4068.1
Xiao D, Li Y, Fan S, Zhang R, Sun J, Wang Y (2014) Plausible influence of Atlantic Ocean SST anomalies on winter haze in China. Theor Appl Climatol 122:249–257. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-014-1297-6
Yang S, Li Z, Yu J, Hu X, Dong W, He S (2018) El Niño-Southern oscillation and its impact in the changing climate. Natl Sci Rev 5:840–857. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwy046
Yang Y, Zhao C, Wang Y, Zhao X, Sun W, Yang J, Ma Z, Fan H (2021) Multi-source data based investigation of aerosol-cloud interaction over the North China plain and north of the Yangtze plain. J Geophys Res Atmos. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD035609
Yin Z, Wang H (2015) The relationship between the subtropical Western Pacific SST and haze over North-Central North China Plain. Int J Climatol 36:3479–3491. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.4570
Yin S, Feng J, Li JP (2013) Influences of the preceding winter Northern hemisphere annular mode on the spring extreme low temperature events in the north of eastern China. Acta Meteor Sin 71:96–108. https://doi.org/10.11676/qxxb2013.008
Yin Z, Wan Y, Zhang Y, Wang H (2022) Why super sandstorm 2021 in North China? Natl Sci Rev 9:165. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwab165
Yu S, Sun J (2020) Conditional impact of boreal autumn North Atlantic SST anomaly on winter tropospheric Asian polar vortex. Clim Dynam 56:855–871. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05507-9
Yuan Y, Li C, Yang S (2014) Decadal anomalies of winter precipitation over southern China in association with El Niño and La Niña. Acta Meteorol Sin 72:237–255. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-014-0106-6
Zhao C, Garrett TJ (2015) Effects of Arctic haze on surface cloud radiative forcing. Geophys Res Lett 42:557–564. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL062015
Zhao C, Lin Y, Wu F, Wang Y, Li Z, Rosenfeld D, Wang Y (2018a) Enlarging rainfall area of tropical cyclones by atmospheric aerosols. Geophys Res Lett 45:8604–8611. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079427
Zhao C, Qiu Y, Dong X, Wang Z, Peng Y, Li B, Wu Z, Wang Y (2018b) Negative aerosol-cloud re relationship from aircraft observations over Hebei, China. Earth Space Sci 5:19–29. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EA000346
Zhao C, Yang Y, Fan H, Huang J, Fu Y, Zhang X, Kang S, Cong Z, Letu H, Menenti M (2020) Aerosol characteristics and impacts on weather and climate over the Tibetan Plateau. Natl Sci Rev 7:492–495. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwz184
Zhou Z, Zhang G (2003) Typical severe dust storms in northern China during 1954–2002. Chin Sci Bull 48:2366–2370. https://doi.org/10.1360/03wd0029
Zhu C, Wang B, Qian W (2008) Why do dust storms decrease in northern China concurrently with the recent global warming? Geophys Res Lett 35:L18702. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008gl034886
Zuo ZY, Zhang RH, Wu BY, Rong XY (2012) Decadal variability in springtime snow over Eurasia: relation with circulation and possible influence on spring time rainfall over China. Int J Climatol 32:1336–1345. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.2355
Acknowledgements
This research is mainly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41991231), and jointly supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA2006010301), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2020-kb02), and Gansu Province Education Science and Technology Innovation Project (2022CXZX-105).
Funding
This study is mainly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41991231), and jointly supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA2006010301), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2020-kb02), and Gansu Province Education Science and Technology Innovation Project (2022CXZX-105).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by TS, DL, and ZT. The first draft of the manuscript was written by TS and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Shao, T., Liu, Y., Tan, Z. et al. Characteristics and a mechanism of dust weather in Northern China. Clim Dyn 61, 1591–1606 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06644-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06644-z