HR: 08:15h
AN: G21D-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Spatiotemporal Land Cover Analysis of China Dust Storms using Remote Sensing Imagery
AU: * Bach, D E
EM: dbach@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Barbour, J R
EM: jbarbour@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Taramelli, A
EM: ataram@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Stark, C C
EM: cstark@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Weissel, J
EM: jeffw@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AU: Small, C
EM: small@ldeo.columbia.edu
AF: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964 United States
AB: In spring 2001, a massive series of East Asian dust storms deposited over 50 teragrams of "yellow dust" throughout the Asian mainland. The dust storms impacted agriculture, disrupted transportation, and affected people's health and livelihoods throughout the region including major metropolitan areas such as Beijing. Four major dust storms occurred during this period, originating in the arid and semi-arid regions of Mongolia and northern China and move west and south by high velocity cold fronts. Over sixty moderate to heavy dust storms have occurred over the last forty years with 58% of storms occurring in April. Dust storms develop when high velocity winds in northern arid regions stir up dust particles before seasonal vegetation adequately develops. Dried lake beds, migrating dunes, loess deposits, and agricultural regions are key sources for dust emission, while seasonal and thermally generated wind velocities and anthropogenic influence from agriculture and urbanization are sources for dust storm intensity. Remote sensing satellite imagery provides valuable tools for analyzing land-cover dynamics in order to understand the multi-faceted relationship to spatiotemporal patterns of dust sources. This study uses AVHRR data, which provides 8 km surface resolution from 1981 to 2003. Thermal Brightness measurements determine average surface temperature and bimonthly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values are used to estimate vegetation density and aridity in the region extending from Beijing to the Alashan region (96-116°E, 37-42°N). In addition to AVHRR images, higher resolution data such MODIS (coverage from 2001-2005) helps to more closely define surface characteristics through an NDVI calculation and land surface temperature product. The joint analysis of the spatial and temporal dynamics of this region provides important insight into the correlation between dust storms and land use changes. Between 20-50% of observed dust emissions globally result from anthropogenic disturbances of soil surfaces. Given the rapid population growth and development in China, agricultural, urbanization, and economic data provides important tools to analyze patterns of land cover change. Analysis of spatiotemporal remote sensing data will be an important tool for calculating the relative vulnerability of communities to extreme dust storms in Beijing and the Alashan region. Consequently, coupling the remote sensing imagery with demographic and agricultural data will serve as important proxies for future determination of dust sources.
DE: 0468 Natural hazards
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 6015 Dust
SC: Geodesy [G]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005