Lake Dust Impacts on Weather and Climate
Project Title: Assessing the Impact of Dust from Ephemeral Lakes on Earth's Weather and Climate
As Earth's climate continues to warm, the aridity of the planet's drylands increases, and human demands on water resources continues to grow, it is plausible, if not likely, that dust emission from ephemeral lakes will similarly increase over time. As such, in order to understand how the dust cycle and dust impacts on weather and climate will change in the future, there is a need to better characterize and understand dust from these sources. This project aims to address that need by investigating dust from ephemeral lakes and its effect on Earth's weather and climate by utilizing soil mineralogy products from the Earth surface Mineral dust source InvesTigation (EMIT) imaging spectrometer. The main goal of this project is to use EMIT level 2b surface soil mineralogy data products to characterize the microphysical properties of dust from ephemeral lakes and evaluate how increasing emission such sources can feedback onto extreme weather events and impact Earth's climate through the dust direct radiative effect. In order to accomplish this goal we propose a series of studies ranging from the local to global scale that are designed to elucidate the role of dust from dry lakebeds on Earth's weather and climate:
1. Comparison of the dust direct radiative effect between desert and playa sources over a research site in the Salton Basin, a region in southeastern California prone to frequent dust storms. Dust microphysical properties will be obtained from EMIT and the direct radiative effect will be estimated using these data and observations of other relevant aerosol and atmospheric properties, with validation obtained via comparison to radiative flux measurements. Results will be compared to a similar analysis conducted with the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer in order to evaluate the differences in these surface soil mineralogy products.
2. Utilization of EMIT-based dust microphysical properties to evaluate the influence of dust direct radiative effect on extreme weather events associated with dust storms in the Salton Basin using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry. The investigation will explore how dust-driven feedbacks evolve as the Salton Sea, a large lake in the region, dries up and becomes emissive, such that an increasing fraction of the airborne dust is from playa sources.
3. Global-scale numerical experiments using the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Earth System Model to assess the current contribution of dust from ephemeral sources to the dust direct radiative effect. Additionally, the project aims to evaluate potential future changes in the dust cycle and the direct radiative effect due to continued drying of and thus emission of dust from lakebeds in arid regions.
The proposed project aligns closely with the EMIT science objectives by addressing dust radiative forcing and changes in dust sources under future climate scenarios. It also supports the RFP's focus on evaluating EMIT data products and advancing understanding of Earth's climate system and extreme weather events. Furthermore, increased dust emissions from playa sources may pose health risks, particularly impacting disadvantaged communities, emphasizing the project's relevance to environmental justice concerns. Findings from this research have the potential to inform climate planning and adaptation strategies.
Project Members
Amato Evan
University of California, San Diego