HR: 1340h
AN: A13B-0112    [Abstracts]
TI: Elucidating the Linkage Between Changes in Land Use, Atmospheric Mineral Dust Loading, and Precipitation in Central Asia During the Past 50-years
AU: * Sokolik, I N
EM: isokolik@eas.gatech.edu
AF: School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Dr, Atlanta, GA 30332 United States
AU: Tatarskii, V V
EM: vvt@eas.gatech.edu
AF: School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Dr, Atlanta, GA 30332 United States
AU: Razuvaev, V N
EM: razuvaev@meteo.ru
AF: Research Institute for Hydrometeorological Information (RIHMI), 6 Korolev Street, Obninsk, 249035 Russian Federation
AU: Knight, R W
EM: rwknight@charter.net
AF: National Climatic Data Center, 151 Patton Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801 United States
AU: Enloe, J G
EM: Jesse.Enloe@noaa.gov
AF: National Climatic Data Center, 151 Patton Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801 United States
AB: It is believed that both land-use/land cover changes and atmospheric mineral dust are among the main factors controlling the precipitation and hydrological cycle. Over the past 50-years Central Asia has been undergoing major human-induced land-use changes that altered the geographical area and intensity of dust sources. Desiccation of the Aral Sea and conversion of the steppe in Kazakhstan to the agriculture fields are just a few examples of occurred land-use changes. Interactions of precipitation with land use changes and atmospheric dust can occur at a variety of scales through a poorly understood series of feedback mechanisms. This study addresses this issue by performing a detailed analysis of empirical data at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. The 50-year daily precipitation observations reported from ground-based stations in Central Asia were analyzed to 1) determine the changes in the precipitation distribution and trends and 2) elucidate the potential linkages between precipitation trends and land use and dust loading changes. Utilizing several statistical techniques, we analyzed the precipitation time series for the individual stations as well as for a subset of the stations considering different time-averaging. Several criteria were used to group the stations to separate those affected by dust transport and/or by same types of land-use changes. The consistency between observed precipitation trends and those predicted by the models will be discussed.
DE: 3332 Mesospheric dynamics
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting