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Soil moisture effects on sand saltation and dust emission observed over the Horqin Sandy Land area in China

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Abstract

In this study, the effects of soil moisture on sand saltation and dust emission over the Horqin Sandy Land area are investigated, based on observations of three dust events in 2010. The minimum friction velocity initiating the motion of surface particles, namely, the threshold friction velocity, is estimated to be 0.34, 0.40, and 0.50 m s−1 under the very dry, dry, and wet soil conditions, respectively. In comparison with the observations during the dust events under the very dry and dry soil conditions, the dust emission flux during the wet event is smaller, but the saltation activities of sand particles (d ⩾ 50 μm) are stronger. The size distributions of airborne dust particles (0.1 ⩽ d ⩽ 20 μm) show that concentrations of the finer dust particles (0.1 ⩽ d ⩽ 0.3 μm) have a secondary peak under dry soil conditions, while they are absent under wet soil conditions. This suggests that the surface soil particle size distribution can be changed by soil moisture. Under wet soil conditions, the particles appear to have a larger size, and hence more potential saltating particles are available. This explains the occurrence of stronger saltation processes observed under wet soil conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Xiaolan Li  (李晓岚) & Hongsheng Zhang  (张宏升)

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  1. Xiaolan Li  (李晓岚)
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  2. Hongsheng Zhang  (张宏升)
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Correspondence to Hongsheng Zhang  (张宏升).

Additional information

Supported by the National (Key) Basic Research and Development (973) Program of China (2010CB428501), China Meteorological Administration Special Public Welfare Research Fund (GYHY201006014), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41075005), and Research Fund for Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20110001130010).

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Li, X., Zhang, H. Soil moisture effects on sand saltation and dust emission observed over the Horqin Sandy Land area in China. J Meteorol Res 28, 444–452 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-014-3053-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-014-3053-3

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