HR: 16:30h
AN: B44B-03 [Abstracts]
TI: Dust and the Dust Bowl: Connections between 1930's drought and dust
AU: * O'Brien, T A
EM: tobrien@ucsc.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Cruz -- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, 1156
High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060, United States
AU: Sloan, L C
EM: lcsloan@pmc.ucsc.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Cruz -- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, 1156
High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060, United States
AU: Solmon, F
EM: solf@aero.obs-mip.fr
AF: Laboratoire d'Aérologie, Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, O.M.P. 14 avenue Edouard Belin,
Tolouse, 31400, France
AU: Snyder, M A
EM: msnyder@pmc.ucsc.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Cruz -- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, 1156
High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95060, United States
AB:
There have been a number of investigations into the causes and physical mechanisms of the 1930's Dust Bowl,
and together they provide a reasonable explanation of the drought in terms of its length and severity. However no
published investigations have considered the possible climatic effects caused by the considerable amount of
airborne dust that was generated as a consequence of poor land use management in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries. In order to investigate the effects of airborne dust on North American climate during the 1930's, we
have performed a climate model sensitivity study that isolates the effects of dust on climate in a regional climate
model. The results of the study show that an essentially permanent dust cloud existed over North America
through the duration of the drought. The dust cloud, which we show was quite thick over its center in the Midwest,
blocked enough solar radiation to reduce surface temperatures by about 1 K. In addition, we show that a complex
feedback between dust and drought caused a spatial redistribution of precipitation, in which various regions
gained or lost an average of about 1 mm/day of precipitation.
DE: 1631 Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1843, 3322)
DE: 1632 Land cover change
DE: 1637 Regional climate change
DE: 1809 Desertification
DE: 1812 Drought
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting