Climatic factors contributing to long-term variations in surface fine dust concentration in the United States

Pu, Bing; Ginoux, Paul

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4201-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4201-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4201-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 6

Research article

|

27 Mar 2018

Research article |

| 27 Mar 2018

Climatic factors contributing to long-term variations in surface fine dust concentration in the United States

Bing Pu and Paul Ginoux

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4201-2018-supplement

Data sets

IMPROVE (Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments): Spatial and seasonal patterns and temporal variability of haze and its constituents in the United States J. L., Hand, S. A. Copeland, D. E. Day, A. M. Dillner, H. Indresand, W. C. Malm, C. E. McDade, C. T. Moore, M. L. Pitchford, B. A. Schichtel, and J. G. Watson http://vista.cira.colostate.edu/Improve/spatial-and-seasonal-patterns-and-temporal-variability-of-haze-and-its-constituents-in-the-united-states-report-v-june-2011/

NOAA Climate Data Record (CDR) of Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR) M. Claverie, E. Vermote, and NOAA-CDR-Program https://doi.org/10.7289/V5M043BX

Status and performance of the CALIOP lidar D. M. Winker, W. Hunt, and C. Hostetler https://doi.org/10.1117/12.571955

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Short summary

Fine dust (< 2.5 microns) is an important component of the total PM_2.5 mass in the western and central US in spring and summer and has positive trends. However, the causes of the trends have not been thoroughly discussed by previous studies. This work identified key local factors controlling the variations in fine dust in the US and found that the increase in fine dust in the central Great Plains in summer is associated with increasing atmospheric stability.