A Method for Identifying Source Regions of Asian Dust Using the Long-range Transport Model and Satellite Images

A method for identifying the released region and time of Asian dust using the long-range inverse transport model that traces the wind field in the backward direction from positions where Asian dust was observed is described. Initial conditions for the inverse transport simulation were obtained from the time variation of the density distribution of the suspended particulate matter (SPM) in the air measured at various places in Japan. Based on a concentration of trajectories of the air mass computed by the inverse transport model, the source region of Asian dust clouds observed at meteorological stations in Japan on March 17 to 18, 2002 was estimated. As a result, it was found that dust particles were released at about 6h on March 15 in the neighborhood of Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region.