The Northern Path of Asian Dust Transport from the Gobi Desert to North America

The aerosol index (AI) of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) satellite data (1979-2001) was analyzed to reveal the climatological long-distance path of dust transport from Asia to North America. The AI in the west coast of the United States is highly correlated with that in the Gobi desert. Additionally, from the TOMS satellite images, it can be seen that very strong plumes advect from Asia to the west coast of North America in typical dust storm cases. When applying the source-receptor relationship to detect the northern dust transport path between the Gobi source region and the west coast of the United States receptor region, it is evident that the dust plume can be transported northward beyond 60 degrees N from its source region and that it takes 5 to 6 days to reach the west coast of the United States. The cross correlation technique shown in this work is a useful tool that can be applied in other regions to give useful insights into relationships between major dust sources and downwind receptor locations by using remotely sensed dust observations.